Let me start off with some info about me, I am 22 without kids, a girlfriend, house payment or car payment, and have always been able to live below my means no matter how many hours I work (to an extent) meaning the whole atypical broke billiards player wouldn't be an obstacle for me. So without allot of typical bills I'm able to put my focus less on work and more on perfecting my pool game, my aim to is to practice 20 hours a week (I work about the same) to become the runout player I need to be to compete at top levels. I am just a local player with a vision and dedication and what appears to be a great opportunity to do something I would love doing for a living. That has actually prompted me to focus more on the living/professional aspect of most of the "professionals". I see that the 2nd (Fargorate) player in the world (SVB) has this year alone accumulate something like 38k, obviously I cant compete anywhere near that level yet, nor make that amount of money, but thats what my training and competition exposure are for, to prepare me for that competitive pressure. My first thoughts are that I've noticed through watching online tournaments like CSI BCAPL, CSI invitational, or any the US Open tournaments have what appear to be several tournament formats, some only open to members of that affiliation (pay dues, whatever) to compete, whereas others seem to be first come first serve, while yet even other tournaments are invitational only based on skill. How do I determine where tournaments are, and info about them. Ive read several forum posts about what constitutes a professional player, but I seem to be missing allot of info from going from a local player with a part time job to a professional who is able to manage their expenses and winnings from travel. I understand as a billiards player you need to sometimes act as the ref., your own coordinator, recruiter, the player, and everything in between. Which begs the question, what about sponsors, in most other sports you get chosen to be part of that team by a talent recruiter, but without that team aspect it leaves everything to the player, but where to start? To recap, I'm putting in serious training at a local bar, but im not sure how you go from a bar room player (whether the best or worst) to the professional status player who can win (in SVBs' case 140+k). As an example you don't see too many people that pop up from their basement literally from no-where to win championships, So is it (after loads of training) just firing the 50$ after 50$ into a tournament in hopes of your talent carrying you to the win or are there other options like tutoring Ive just not been able to find thus far. To be fair I certainly don't feel like im ready for tournaments esp. anything major, I would just like to understand the process that a professional pool player ( who makes a living doing it) goes through to find new tournaments to play in to possibly win money from, do they each have a little black book with Tournament names, dates, fees and checkboxes if they qualify? I'm serious about playing professionally, much more so, I feel, than most anyone at the local pool room even if I am not the best there. Im looking for a direction to head towards, a goal to try to reach.. anyone with ideas, pointers, or even a response from someone who was able to make that transition from local league play to USBT 9 ball championships for eg.
