I feel u on this. Am in similar situation.That 40k WILL NOT last forever. Don't get complacent. Subject urself to rejection, until u dont have to anymore.

Hey guys.

Here is my story... I finished Uni last July and before this final year I worked for a year in my chosen industry as a placement student, I'm sure you know the thing. I learnt to play at uni and always enjoyed it. I had always won and over this placement year where I was paid (barely but enough) I was able to build a bankroll from about $1k to $10k, while being very lucky by getting lessons from a high stakes poker pro which helped my game loads.

Over this year I mostly hated my job and was loving poker more and more and reckoned I could make a living from it. I kept playing in my final year and was cashing out enough for some extra cash. In the last few months before and a couple after my exams (which i passed) I saved for travelling as I have always wanted to go and booked my round the world ticket. In September I went travelling on my own for what ended up being 10 months. This is probably the most important piece of info I want to share. That for me living in England costs way more than travelling (obviously not staying in 5 star hotels) so was able to support myself not playing too many hands a month. This was the best time of my life, I especially recommend going on your own, and helped me think a lot about my life, what I want, etc.

So if you are finding that you are sick of poker for a living but you still have the skills to make some money at the lower stakes then I seriously suggest going travelling for a while. Especially in Asia you can live really well on $1k a month. Almost all hotels/hostels have wifi which is usually free and as you are on your own you can play as little or as much as you want.

Anyways I digress... I came back from travelling around 4 months ago and decided I wanted to keep playing pro professionally. I have been cashing out $2k a month and so havent really ever been able to build a roll that big, and was always around the $25-30k line. However over the last 1-2 months I have had a serious downswing. I am down to below $12k and, same as you guys i'm sure, hate playing lower levels where the amounts of money make it seem so much more boring. Plus the 'donk' play seems to catch me out more as its so different.

I guess I'm not really looking for advice per-say but I feel it has helped me a lot reading about people who have played for 1/2 years + professionally as I am still in that stage where I could just quit now and just tell employees that I have been travelling a year and not have that big gap which I know (and my parents keep telling me) will make me less appealing to employees.

Actually thinking about it I will ask for advice. To all you guys who posted here and Dave, If you had a time machine and went back to that part in your life when you decided to play poker professionally, would you still do it?... Or would you have got a 'normal' job... HONESTLY!

Sorry for the long post... Feel I'm at a bit of a cross-roads atm and could do with some advice.

Good reads in this thread. +1 to OP and other contributors. Good luck.

Given my current predicament, my answer would be no, I wouldn't have quit my job to play professionally. I would have kept my job and played poker part time. When I first went "pro" I was basically playing part time anyways, due to the softness of the games at the time I never had to put in a lot of hours to make decent money.

But more than that, I never realized when I quit my job how fast I'd burn out and how emotional I'd get over poker. I have always been sort of a happy-go-lucky guy but the first half of this year when I was playing breakeven poker for the first time in my life (technically losing poker, I was only break evenish because of rakeback) the amount of rage/frustration I experienced was like nothing I've ever experienced before in my life. That frustration really permeated all aspects of my life and my friends always commented how I was so moody all the time. Since freeing myself mentally from the idea of playing poker full time I'm slowly getting better.........

Anyways, if anyone cares, I've been interning/training at a green energy startup for a few weeks (almost a month) now. We basically consult other companies on how to incorporate green technologies into their own company. Theres 21 interns/trainees and eventually 15 permanent spots but I think I'm in pretty good position to get one of the 15 spots (my boss has basically stated as much). Currently the pay sucks and theres a lot of studying, but I like the company and theres definitely growth potential in this field so I'm hoping I get the job.

As far as poker, I've played very little online poker since getting my internship but I've played quite a bit more live. Live low-limit poker (3/6-6/12 limit) is so LOL bad it's like printing money. So even though the internship pays peanuts, between what that pays and live poker I'm making enough so that at least I'm not dipping into my savings or poker bankroll to pay bills. So my situation isn't too terrible at the moment.

Hope everyone is doing ok and GL to all!

most ive ever made in a 2-5 limit was $650 profit in 7 hours...

I am an IT contractor and deal with my frequent poker gaps by putting my company on my resume spanning years of contracting on and off. I mention the longest engagements during those years and the gaps seldom come up in interviews because I am always talking up experiences and leading their questioning. I have been voluntarily unemployed, part time employed, and full time employed in equal doses the last 6 years of playing seriously.

This x 1000 !!!!

good post.

good reads itt.

I would rather buy a gun than go back to 925, even if it's just to kill myself ;-)
Currently struggling online but live you can play like 10 times higher and have the same edge. Hard to understand why traveling for 25 minutes to get to the casino is such an obstactle for me. Guess it's easier now that I'm completely off illegal drugs =)

If playing poker drags you down mentally you need to work on your mental toughness and make sure you have a life.

Thanks for the reply Dave. I think after talking to friends and family and looking at other threads as well as this I am gonna take a look at some part time work in my field.

Even if this doesnt turn into anything I think it will be good just to let me realise that there are other options out there. I think my problem is that my placement job was so crappy (rubbish pay being the tea boy, part time receptionist, etc) and that was the time was when I had lessons off a pro and started building my bankroll and everything was new and exciting. Then I finished uni and couldnt wait to start playing full-time and expected to be rich in no time.

I think this downswing has really opened my eyes to the kind of lifestyle I will be committing myself to and that its not just an easy way of getting rich quick.

However, I still love poker and dont want to stop playing it, I wish there were more hours in the day lol. I will keep you guys updated on how I get on. Ideally finding some part time job I love that I can count on to pay the rent, basic living costs, etc. While giving me enough time to still play poker, improve my skills, mental toughness, etc.

(think I use etc. too much!)

Same situation as well. 31 years old, 7 year career playing poker, about 0 work experience, ~50k in savings. Having to watch spending like a hawk and have no idea how I will get a real job. How about studying for IT certifications?

Killself may be the best option.

I'd like to see this thread open up again. I know there was a where are they now thread, but I think that died down a while ago. I would be interested to hear other people's stories about playing professionally for a significant period and then transitioning into a job (I have not yet found one). As for me:

25 years old. Played professionally for 3 years. Around 50k in savings and >80k in student debt. Have bull**** degree from high ranking school (I understand this is worst investment I've ever made). Minimal work experience. I had planned on leaving the country (US) to pursue poker but decided to look for job instead about 3 months ago. I'd say I'm burnt out from poker but that has a lot to do with the state of online poker in the country.

Ha, you're still a young chap at least. Thank god I have no debt but 80k isn't too bad honestly. It's only a couple hundred of month, right? Consider that most ppl spend 1-3k on rent.

I did leave the country and bummed around the world for a good 5 years. made well over 6 figure most years but blew it on riotous living. My degree is in biochem from a top school but I don't remember a thing about it. Have a friend in IT who says that's a good path but I could never get govt clearance (important in IT) now with my 5 year jaunt.

Anyway, it's my own fault for sure. I knew it would end eventually but had some addiction and motivational problems.

Do you have the link to the "where are they now" thread? It'd sure be interesting.

its very very mysterius how so many IT related ppl posted in this thread (im a coder also).

all i have to say is that ill be taking edx (google it) classes from september and the future will look brighter

Grunch but how old are you and what kind of job are you trying to get? If you're young I think explaining the gap along the lines of "travelling, odd job here or there to get by, played some poker, enjoyed my youth" can sometimes be better than saying you're a failed poker player. It depends on what other qualities/background you have and what you're going for though.

Also, the schedule thing really shouldn't be that hard. It's part of growing up. I still play poker as primary source of income but certainly live on a schedule. You'd have probably had to go more that direction eventually even if you stayed in poker. Just do it/develop the habits, keep making goals, try to enjoy the small things, and all that good stuff.

eta - oh, it's like two years old, my bad.