If a pool player is fortunate enough to collect $120,000 in prize monies from shooting pool competitively, you can be sure that almost half of that -- YES, I said HALF -- goes to expenses. And let's not forget about taxes.
When you add in hotel, travel expense, entry fees, food, et cetera, it eats up at least half of what anybody earns. And this holds true especially today when you take into consideration that pool players must travel the international globe to keep up with today's tournament trail. It's not just in the States anymore if you want to be a so-called "professional."
Furthermore, if you have a spouse and family, they must be prepared for the fact that you will be on the road, sometimes more often than you are at home. The income source, if only pool, will not be secure. The spouse may have to not only keep the homefront afloat by paying bills, buying food, paying other house-related expenses, but they may have to be the sole breadwinner by getting a job outside of the home. Professional pool today is a rich man's high.
For a single gentleman or lady, if you have no family responsibilities, then it might be fun to live out of a suitcase, with no permanent home to pay for. Traveling around the world could be exciting.
In order to break even on expenses, however, you must come in first, second, or third place in the majority of pool events that you compete in. If you have good credit, you could support yourself for about 5 years on $100,000 charged to your credit line. You will eventually have to pay it back, however, which could result in you having to give up pool permanently and get -- gasp! -- a job. You can live high off the hog for about 5 years on your credit line.
The majority of people today that are able to turn a profit in pool are industry members with product for sale, industry members and/or print media folks who have their expenses paid by another source so they can travel the globe for free, and tournament directors who get paid a fee for their services. Pool players are on the bottom of the totem pole and are merely dancing monkeys who perform for any crumbs that are left over.
Pool players will most likely die broke and alone if they pursue a career in pool for a lifetime. While they are on top of the world and hitting them strong, they are the print media and industry members' darlings. When the pool players can't shoot anymore due to age, they will be discarded and forgotten, oftentimes ridiculed for their choice in life to become a so-called "professional pool player." They end up pariahs. Today's pool culture in these United States is most definitely cruel to its own and deems pool players as no-talent homeless bums that are the scum of the earth.
I hope that helps clarify what it's like to be an American professional pool player in the year 2011.
