One of the biggest decisions a lot of poker players have to make is whether or not to go “professional.” Online and live poker players contemplate the decision of whether they should devote their time to playing poker, and not to a typical job or to going to school. A lot of my friends have made this decision to stick to poker for the time being and concentrate on that. But what about the rest of us who don’t necessarily choose one option, but instead combine the two? I myself have always been pretty good at poker, but never considered making a jump to being a full time player. I had always wanted to go to college and get my degree, hoping while there I would continue to be successful at poker. For the last 4 years I have been successfully going to college and playing poker.

A lot of poker players do it; go to school while playing poker. The difficulty with balancing the two is time. You have to decide when to devote your attention to poker, and when to devote it school. I cannot count the number of times there was a big online tournament or my friends were going to an out of town tournament and I couldn’t play because of a big exam or a paper I had due. The opposite situation has come up as well where I decided to play poker instead of studying for an exam, and you can guess how that exam turned out. When going to school, you generally aren’t able to play as many sessions or as long of sessions as you would like to. Also if you want to be able to play poker, you may have to give up some time you would normally spend studying. These are just some sacrifices you will have to make.

Another difficulty in going to school and playing poker is keeping the emotions of the two separate. Playing poker while in a bad mood can put the best player on tilt. If you have a bad exam or horrible day of classes, the last thing you probably want to do is sit down at a table in a bad mood before any cards are dealt. Vice versa, if you have a horrible day at the tables, you’ll sit there in class going over bad beats and money lost in your head; instead of taking notes. Separating the two in your life is a key to doing well in both.

Missing tournaments or class, stressing over poker and school, and not having a lot of free time for things other than school or poker, those would be the majority of the negatives that come out of your situation. But don’t worry; there are plenty of positives that come along with it.

The best thing about playing poker while going to school for me has been the connection I can make between the two of them. Let me be clear, earlier I talked about keeping the emotions of the two separate, however here, I am talking more about the knowledge and material of the two. I remember sitting in a statistics class, nearly falling asleep because the professor was teaching us probability. He used the example of drawing a random card from a full deck. “What’s the probability of drawing a red card?” I kind of laughed as I thought back to the night before having a long session and wondering how many times I just instinctively calculated the odds of hitting a flush or catching a straight. My point is that a lot of the things us poker players now find second nature can be very helpful in class… whether it be probabilities, odds or bankroll management.

Poker also keeps your mind very sharp. Most poker players can remember how someone at their table played their hand three hours ago, bet by bet. A lot of poker players are also really good at taking notes, in most cases it’s on if someone bets big when their weak, or can be re-popped at the right time. But poker players are typically good at using little pieces of information to remember things. That’s exactly what school is about, note-taking and memorization. You just have to learn to translate those skills from the poker table over to the classroom.

Being in school can also have positive effects on your poker game as well. Being in school makes you take a break from poker from time to time, which if you feel like you’re playing bad, or “running bad”, stepping away can be something hard for a lot of us to do. We continue playing bad because we want to make back recent losses, but if you have to be in class, you have to leave the tables. School can also help you with your patience and concentration. When you have to study for an exam, or write a paper, you have to sit there and think. You have to sit down and concentrate on something that is usually really boring and requires patience.

Of course there are the financial benefits of playing poker while you’re in school, assuming you are a winning player. Not having to “work” a normal job to pay for school can save you a lot of stress on your time. At least when it comes to poker over a job, you get to choose when you play, and not have someone assign you hours each week. You may also be lucky enough to not have to worry about getting or repaying student loans if you can make enough to cover tuition, and I would say that is a very good thing.

One word of advice, don’t jump to conclusions based on short term results. If you have a quick large score, it doesn’t mean that you can make it on poker long term. A lot of people try to play poker as their sole source of income, but cannot do it. At the same time, if during your first semester you find your grades slipping, it doesn’t mean you cannot balance school and poker, but possibly just that you need manage your time better and devote more of it to school.

To summarize, playing poker while being in school has both is pros and cons. One can help or hinder the other, depending on how you approach the situation. Balancing school and poker can be done, as proven by tons of current poker players. This means that you may not just have to choose whether you want to become a “professional” poker player, or give it up and go to school, you can do both. Poker players probably have some of the best minds around, and make some of the best students. The key to it is to manage your priorities, make time for both school and poker. You also have to make sure you don’t let one thing affect the other, keep the two as separate things in your life. Remember to use your poker skills along with school. If you can manage your bankroll, then you should be able to manage your time well enough to be a successful student and poker player. Good luck.

* Matt "Jr125" Mealy is a part-time mid stakes online tournament player and a member ofwww.ZonaCrew.net. His recent scores include two final table appearances in thePokerStars $25k Guaranteed for a combined total of $10,000. For more poker-related content from today's top online players, readers are encouraged to visit ourPoker Articles section here at PocketFives.