did u just have a big trny score babY?

If I say yes, does my opinion no longer count??? :/

What are your goal guys?
Probably I'm a big weirdo, but I think we are one of few people that can escape the claws of society and capitalism. Just try out a lot of stuff and do that whatever makes you the happiest. In my situation I would never do a job, because it's only paying good money, then I rather stay being a poker player and play a couple of hours per week.

I take issue with including capitalism in this statement, because capitalism makes this lifestyle even possible, but other than that I completely agree. Poker professionals are beholden to no one but themselves, which is something that very, very few people can say. We can work whatever hours we want, we can work from wherever we want, and we don't need to ask anyone for permission to do anything. We could wake up tomorrow and, on a whim, pack our bags and move across the country, or across the world.

This is something that certainly no employee can do, and as the son of a lifetime entrepreneur I can tell you that it's something no business owner can do either. And it's not something that money can buy. I would rather be making $15 an hour grinding 1/2 and know that I could take my meager bankroll on the road with me to wherever I want, than $80k a year chained to a desk in an investment firm somewhere. And I know that with hard work and dedication I can make more grinding live than at least 90% of the working population do working in an office or a factory or a warehouse or whatever.

idk if this is anywhere close to the point the guy who asked you was making, but i personally have always found it pretty tiresome when some idiot binks a wsop/ept or whatever and starts giving vomit-inducing interviews on how they, entirely coincidentally, recently started noticing how beautiful trees are, how they're profoundly at peace with nature and the meaning of life, and how they're excited to work on a bunch of new projects for personal growth etc.

(point being, almost no one ever says, or does, any of this except when they've just enjoyed recent success that reduces or eliminates the immediate necessity to grind and earn. ive never seen an interviewer ask a guy 200k in makeup for life balance tips, but id be willing to bet they wouldnt go on about training for triathlons. fast foward six mths and that guy binks 800k at an ept, im sure he'll be signing up for cookery classes and yoga like theres no tomorrow).

Exactly.

Money equals comfort. Money equals survival. Neither is a necessarily a prerequisite to be happy, but when you lack both, the pressing need for them makes happiness very difficult.

THISSSSSSS

SO LOL

Actually I was pointing out that I have the same thoughts about quitting and doing something purposeful with my life because poker has always felt like a means to an end. I am unhealthy, out of shape, addicted to Monster, haven't eaten a vegetable in months, have done 0 things for my life and community in years, and I am in the same boat as the OP. But yeah I won some extra lucky money. Yay. I wasn't giving advice, I was sharing my similar bleak experience.

I still hate nature and think trees are ugly. I have been doing this for a decade so I have seen the lowest of lows. I have always considered quitting and tried in 2011. But the luxuries and freedoms of being a poker player are way too high. So I have always returned. I am still horrible with my time and do nothing productive. I was just pointing a self criticism I have always had about the things I "could" be doing even if I didn't quit poker. The problem js that I never do.

So, you tend to blame your life choices on the career path you've taken which is the result of another choice of yours? It seems to me poker has little to do with your problems.

Can't speak for live but it's def easier for online pros to fix this than it is for people in random jobs.

Yeah. That's what I did. Blamed poker on my problems.

I said poker gives free time and I don't use it for anything productive. So I think I am blaming myself. But I am not claiming to be a super expert on logic who loves to do yoga and plant trees. So I'm not sure.

great post

your set of "most people" isn't representative of someone who is able to make 400-500k/yr from online poker. If you were to compare the poker set to a theoretical set of people who have the equivalent talents to top poker players it might be more interesting. Especially when you consider intangible rewards - poker presents fast money when you're young and then burnout/boredom whereas jobs can give continuous progression and fulfillment right up until retirement. I agree with those ludicrous numbers, poker SHOULD strongly compensate you for giving up the chance to start earlier on longer term personal/career development in order to grind and make the money now

Read some but not all of thread. I quit poker ~1.5yrs ago at age 27 exactly because I didn't want to "leave it too late" to do something else. I don't know if that's a rational fear but I did feel the same worry as op that later can start to be too late. I went back to uni, just completed my first undergrad year (econ) and a 12wk summer finance related internship.

When you're used to the highstakes poker lifestyle, with the really easy money and recognition it is indeed not something everyone can do to start at the very bottom at a later age than your new 'peers', and work much harder than you were in poker for zero immediate payoff for the first few years. Takes a large ego adjustment and probably becomes more difficult with age. If you make the leap you have to make peace with the fact your poker days are fully behind and you will be at the bottom in anything you go on to for a long time. You can't jump to the same level in something new that you had in poker - don't forget how long just getting to hs took you in poker from the very beginning when you were learning the rules.

I found the best way to deal with this is to make the leap, leave ur ego behind and see everything ur doing as an extremely long-term investment that will build and compound over your whole lifetime, and see the option of continuing to play poker as immediate money now at the opportunity cost of starting to invest in your future. Ofcourse if you did well at poker and saved enough money so that you don't have to worry about future finances and can exist without income for a while, this helps immensely. I was lucky enough to walk away with 7figs.

gl and let us know what you're doing and how it goes in future

I worked this kind of stuff out when I quit poker and am careful with not spending my exit money at too high a rate - but what I found is it's actually bloody easy to 'adjust' from a lavish lifestyle to a frugal one because none of that balling **** i could do before was what made me truly happy (not that i did a great deal of balling relative to many poker players, but like you said, it adds up fast)

Probably food industry for me. Sub or pizza shop. Maybe a food truck. Always wanted to open up a bbq and donut shop in one.

Bbq ribs and donuts. Id name it Butt Holes.

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I'm graduating from Industrial Management University of Applied Sciences in a year, I have always felt that I'm not gonna play poker for living for too long. Studying that and playing poker at the same time is also kinda easy.

Allthough now that the graduation is getting closer I feel like I'm not ready to jump to the regular working world and wanna stay as pokerprofessional, because this is so awesome sometimes.