I quit my job one year ago to become a professional poker player.

I was making $89k/year as a computer programmer. And I only had to spend about 5% of my time at work actually working. The rest of the time, I did drugs and goofed off, worked on writing a novel and making music. Pretty sweet gig.

In terms of dollars per hour (pre-tax, ignoring benefits), I make slightly more playing poker, but it's about a million times more stressful and depressing. I don't really think I have a good personality for poker. The downswings really crush me, even though they're still pretty small compared to my bankroll (I have about $120k saved up, mostly from my job).

And the worst thing is, even after logging 1355 hours at this game, I still just don't know if I'm actually any good. The variance at live poker is ridiculously high, and my supposed "win-rate" jumps around like mad. Even after 1355 hours, the 95% confidence interval for my win-rate is still extremely wide.

I thought I'd enjoy the freedom of not being tied down to one particular place, but now I think it's the opposite. I've been wandering randomly about the country for a year and I really don't see the appeal.

Almost immediately upon quitting my job, I began to seriously consider killing myself. Before quitting, I had never seriously thought about suicide ever in my life. I think the two are related.

I've also had a whole lot of trouble getting laid since quitting. I think girls like guys with stable careers. I dunno. I actually used to get laid a pretty decent amount by random girls from okcupid, but I haven't laid a single okcupid girl since I quit.

If I could go back in time and give myself advice, I would tell myself not to quit my job. Even though my coworkers were idiots and we spent all of our time doing ridiculous meaningless things (it was government work), I feel like the social structure was actually a pretty important ingredient contributing towards my mental health. People needed me (or at least they'd notice if I didn't show up). Now that's gone, I feel like I'm falling apart pretty fast.

My wife is 100% on board with me playing poker as well. It's just really unlikely that you will make good money and enjoy being in a casino more than work.

Wait, so you're not THAT crazy.

BoredAtheist should be the posterboy for me saying its not a good idea to go "pro"

You limp-rr A9s from EP. You're not any good. I'm actually interested in what your regular game is because it must be incredibly soft. I'm 99% positive you couldn't beat the 2-3 game at my local card room, and it's pretty damn soft.

This post makes me want to shoot myself.

um maybe you should get another job and get your **** together

Yeah atheist you are not any good

Were you referring to mine? I honestly am not even sure what Std dev is. Anyone care to enlighten me?


In b4 search function gtfo

wikipedia is even better

bolt, from the sounds of your posts I'd say it's very likely that you could make a decent crust out of 2/5 (relative to the potential earn from 2/5 anyway).

I would guess it's equally likely that you will become disenchanted with the scene in quick time. Poker is certainly a beautiful bringing together of maths and psychology. However, for someone who is clearly switched on and ambitious about leading a fulfilling life, the novelty of playing the world's best strategy game day-in-day-out will likely wear thin pretty fast. My hunch is that the only way you'll ever find poker genuinely satisfying as a 'career' is if you make it in high stakes, because settling for taking money off idiots at 2/5 really is not a very inspired way to lead your life.

^^^ +1 michaelson

I was playing for "a living" for like 6 months solely on poker and another 2 years having it as 75% of my income, and as funny as this sounds, I couldnt be happier having an internship in the corporate world of finance

It's funny how pokahblows and boredatheist constantly talk about how smart/good they are, but when anyone calls them out they disappear for awhile, then come back and start posting again, all the while trying to ignore their detractors and pretend they didn't see the posts calling them out on their bull****.

I'l lay 5-1 boredatheist doesn't reply to any of the posts where he was quoted.

Can you pass on the contact? I want be a corporate minion, too.

lol... internship is temp., its just really nice having a ritual and working hard for something I have been working for in school. Not for everyone though and I'm sure I will hate parts of corporate work soon

look at his graph and $/ hour.

how good is he? better than you. gtfo 2011

I spent all of yesterday going through your site. Holy mother of ****...

What the hell is wrong with you? Your chat logs were really ****ed up. Why did any of those girls every agree to sleep with you? You're ugly, needy, overly persistent and just generally ****ed up.

Seriously, quit poker and join a group discussion group or something.

I think we need to be a little easier on pokah though. sure I think his posts are pretty lazy and ignorant but he's not trolling and he's legitimiately trying to get better.

Pokah is one of my favorite posters. You just have to learn to not take in everything he posts.

oh, are you in for a surprise!

srsly. When talking about how soulcrushing poker can be I don't think corporate finance is a good example of better alternatives

thats why many people hate finance. I like numbers/black and white/ analytical stuff, and obv money =)

Enough bashing each other geez. It's 2012 and everyone's solid

2/5 in unbeatable due to rake/tips/players whatever excuses people come up with.

Who intimated that?

I've been reading and posting on 2+2 since 2005. GTFO 2009

Seriously that is the best you can come up with? Bash on people because of their reg date, lol. You must be really, really clever.