How much does it cost?

sixpack said:

If you want to do it. Do it.

Don't let other people's fear keep you from doing something you want to.

There are ways to do this on the cheap. I don't know where you live but iirc you used to live in Cali and then Washington state right? Sorry if I have you confused with someone else.

Immersion is the best. I drove around in my 1st get tundra (2001) with a topper on the back and a real twin mattress. I'd stay at national park campgrounds in between cities for $15-20/night - they have showers and restrooms. The real mattress is key. RV Mattresses/air mattresses/camping mattresses suck. I heard recently though that national parks may have raised their camping rates. In that case I would just stay at state park or BLM campgrounds.

Then spend money on a real hotel room when you are playing and need the sleep/shower etc...

Stay sober so you can drive after a night of playing. It's pretty cool to play until 2-2:30 in the am at some bar and have a pocket full of $5 bills and then just get in the truck and head out of town to the next camp spot, get there, watch the sun come up and then sleep for a few hours. Make sure you bring a fishing pole

You can probably buy a used pickup in good shape with 100K miles fairly cheap and sell it when you are done for minimum loss. It used to be that every tournament you went to had several RVs and trucks with campers in the parking lot because many players used to travel tournament to tournament this way.

In your situation it's completely doable. Areas like Phoenix and Denver have a lot of local weekly tournaments. It might make sense to go somewhere with good action and set up a second base of operations. Then when you're not in the field you can just live there and get in a second local pool scene. This will give you a lot of new players to compete with. Then travel to tournaments from whichever 'home' is closer to the event. If you book flights in advance you can fly anywhere in the country for less than $200.

If I were going to do this I would hit up the west coast swing events that are going on now, the Wyoming Open, the Junior Norris in Texas, The Dave Peonia in Concord, CA and the Rumrunner in Las Vegas for sure. If you can play in a BCA league and get qualified to play in the BCA regional events thats another venue to play in.

If you are a good player and play well for the weekend there are enough amateurs in these tournaments that you can cash if you get a decent draw.

Take the west coast swing events, for example, even though there are top pros there is almost always a tough amateur in the top 4-5 spots. This year Chris McDaniel from Denver is doing well in the West Coast Swing one pocket. A couple years ago local player Jason Williams got in the finals of the 10-ball.

The experience is priceless. It will help your pool game and you'll meet a lot of great pool players - pro and amateur both - that you will run into all over the country. It's a lot of fun to hang out at these tournaments too.

This is definitely a west coast centric post. If you're not in the west finding campgrounds and things might be much harder.

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jay helfert said:

I'd say that for the great majority (maybe 75-80%) of the pool players whose names you see playing in tournaments all over the country it's a losing proposition. They usually have sponsors or backers paying their expenses so they can follow these events. Or they have other sources of income (inheritance, family wealth) to support themselves while on the road. Otherwise it would be impossible for them to maintain this lifestyle.

There may be another 10-15% who manage to scrape by week to week by consistently making top ten finishes (someone like Warren K.). Then there are the elite 5-10% who are the consistent winners. These are the ones (like Shane and Dennis) who are grabbing the top prizes week after week. They are the only ones making a decent living from pro pool. They stake themselves in the smaller events and have backers for any big money endeavors.

All this said, my advice to you is this. If you have adequate resources (say 40-50K in spendable funds) to support yourself for a year on the road, then go for it! You will in all likelihood lose most of that money during the course of the year, but you will have the time of your life. You will become a better player and be able to terrorize your local tournaments afterward. If you actually do well, you may still have a bankroll (like 25K) at the end of the year. That would be a bonus.

If you don't have the necessary savings in disposable income then you best wait until you do. Otherwise you will not last long out there.

The bottom line to all this - ENJOY YOUR LIFE! It will be over before you know it and the opportunities for adventure will be long gone. I quit college (at 20) and an opportunity for a guaranteed future to play pool because I loved to play. I scuffled around for the next eight years gambling at pool on a daily basis. I lived on the cheap and I always had money in my pocket. I actually pumped up my meager bank account to over 10K in the late 1960's, more than most pro players could say. I knew by the time I was 25, that I wanted to own my own pool hall and I got my first place in Bakersfield at age 27! I never looked back after that, finding a way to make a living from pool for the next forty years and at the same time investing for the future.

I never made big money from owning poolrooms or working at tournaments, but thanks to timely investments and some good luck I've retired comfortably now. I can go to tournaments if I like (win or lose) and take vacations when the mood strikes me. I have little to no debt and enough income to support myself and my wife (and dog) for the rest of my life.

I like to say that the poolroom education I got in those early years has benefited me my entire life. I'm a pretty good judge of character and can spot a con man a mile away. Like all of us I have some regrets about the choices I made, but I wouldn't change anything even if I could. I've enjoyed an interesting life so far and managed to help a few people out along the way. That's about all any of us can do. So good luck to you!

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