Hey,
Not an experienced user here, so this might be the complete wrong forum, if so please tell me where this should be posted.

I am looking to get in contact with people who started playing poker in the beginning of the "boom", and who had success (at least made 100k $ a year) and are willing to share/discuss some of their thoughts and stories about how this affected their lives.

A little background about me.
I started playing internet poker around 2004-2005 and pretty fast found out that I had a decent talent and understanding for the game, and pretty fast started to make a decent amount of money. I started playing in my last year of high school, and by the time I graduated, going to college obviously wasn't an option since I at that time was 19 and making 10k a month just by grinding a bit, which I loved. The grinding continued and at around 20-21 I was making around 300-400k/year. At this time I was financially in heaven, but started to lose track of myself and life in general. And it didn't get better. At 22-23, around the time, that if it wasn't for poker, I would've graduated from college, I was starting to get depressed and really didn't know what to do with my life. My friends were finishing their educations, having great experiences on a more "real" level, and had a lot of things going for them, while I just had money. It felt terrible. I lost my passion and kind of gave up poker, but didn't really replace it with anything. Today I'm 28 and haven't done anything productive in many years (not even playing poker so just living of the money I've made, and money flies away pretty fast when you've established a certain standard...). Poker has given me a lot, but killed/changed a lot regrading how my life were "supposed" to be. (I know there is no such thing, but I think you get the point.)

Not gonna write too much about myself, I'm more than happy to discuss it with people who have similar experiences (and others as well ofc), but my point is that I'm interested in getting in touch with people who've had a similar experience, and to hear how it has affected you and your lives.

I am doing a research paper, because I find this very interesting. What happened to all of us who started playing poker and made money and now are around 30?
I think there are a lot of us (everywhere), that were very talented in different ways (I always was a math wizard), and then ran into poker, which took our lives in a certain direction, for good or bad is up to everybody to decide, but I rather would've been sitting here today with an education and a job, instead of nothing but some money (which is starting to run out anyhow..), and of course all the experiences poker has given me (us), something that obv can't be denied.

So if you are one of those people, or know some of these people I would love to get in touch with you, doesn't matter if your a billionaire and have everything sorted out, went back to school, having a crisis, or working at the local grocery store today. I know the stories are many, and I want a nuanced picture of what happened to "us". Because as mentioned I think this is an interesting story to tell, for everybody, people who are starting poker, people who don't know and have prejudged images of poker, for people in general.
So if you are one of this people (or have some input on the subject) please don't hesitate to contact me by PM.

Thanks for your time and all input is appreciated!

there are none

Please state the intended use of the research paper and who you are producing it for.

In the beginning there was only 7-Card Stud.

Tbh there are no specific intended use with the paper. I just find this an interesting subject, and want to see if it's possible to gather more insight. Then, obv together with the people who might participate, it can be discussed what to do (or if to do anything) with it. Depending on the response it'll be different options IMO, a vision is that it could end up as a documentary. But everything is obv depending on the response and interest.

And why did PL 7-card stud disappear?? Terrible.

I was too young to experience the poker boom, only being 13 when it started, so I cant really help you out much but I think your paper would be interesting. Do you regret any of the decisions that you made? If you could go back, would you have taken a more conventional path (school, job etc..) instead? I know a lot of people that are on the opposite side of the fence, they regret not having taken greater advantage of the poker boom while it was around.

You make it sound like you can't go to college. People can start college in late 20's, 30's, etc.

Poker didn't kill any opportunities for you. Your mindset is doing that....

This.

I got out of the Army in 1998. I would go to Commerce Daily and Stud was a huge game and there might be 1 NLH game going intermittently. There were a lot of other limit games and several games that are now basically dead. LH was a big game but the Stud player base was comparable.

I was easily one of the youngest people in the whole building (by decades it seemed). Only a few years later tons of young people were playing and I felt old all of a sudden but when I started out it seemed like a Sea of white hair when I walked in that place...


Poker boom changed a lot, for the worse imo, if you like a variation of games. The upside is it brought a ton of young gamblers on board and I no longer felt like a total degen spending my days with the elderly.

True that. I'm not trying to say that poker killed these kind of opportunities, it definitely didn't. It's different for every person, but for me it created some kind of alienation, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one feeling like this (also sure that a lot of people don't see this as a problem/issue). I actually enrolled to college a few years ago, but everybody was 5-6 years younger than me, and it was hard for me to identify and enjoy the "college life" with these people when I already had experienced so much of these kind of times. We were just on so different paths.

But you're right, its a mindset thing. But mindsets aren't that easy to conquer, especially not for certain people, we're all different and see different struggles/problems in every task.

im 28 OP, been playing professional since 18 or 19. pretty much exact same. Binked huge a few years but still playing to this day. Studying and learning more than ever but unfortunately so is everyone else. i dont know that i will ever profit 100k a year again, i hope to, i dont know that im working quite hard enough though. got a fam now to, so my grinding hours are no where near what they once were. pokers is still fun, hard to imagin what things would be like if i werent in the USA. there is still a lot of money on USA sites but the sites tend to butt**** us pretty good and there aint much we can do about it. feels good

I started in line with the poker boom. Dropped out of college in 2003-2004 to go full time. 2004 was my first $100K+ year (best year $430K back in the pp NL1K days).

I too sort of had poker take me on a dramatically different line then my parents/I/anyone around me thought I'd be on.

I'd be interested in sharing if you think I'm a good enough fit. Hit me up on skype (RikaKazak) or pm works too.

edited to add: I'm 30 now if that matters.

Thanks for the response. I'll hit you up on Skype.

What happened to us? Took the skills I learned from poker and implemented them in business around 08-09. Took the money I made and bought a house, wedding, and Harley. Still play for recreation and daydream about playing professionally again.

Oh, and like other posters, I really miss stud.

you're*

Should've invested or kept working on your game like most

Well done my friend. Indeed. I took another path. Let me know if you're interested in some sharing/discussion about the whole story.

Your PM's not active yet.

A few points:
1. You're probably not really aware what a research paper is.
2. Whatever you do in life you will always miss out on certain things, you can lament about that or just accept it.
3. If you're 30 (and ideally you did not spend all the money) you can pretty much still pursue whatever you wanna do

Im not who you're looking for, although I started playing at that time it was just for playmoney and then lol amounts for a long time, and later I never gave up my career for that although I was doing well. Although I certainly couldve done better financially had I gone pro, I dont regret that.

i think this would be kind of interesting. i think someone should do something like this where they document the history of it all and more importantly who came up with what. like who was the first to implement different strategies. maybe go threw old threads, probably a couple books worth of info on here.

I like this thread idea, its obviously kind of pointless but I often wonder about the path poker took me on. And even more what might have happened if I had of discovered the game earlier than 2006. Which I really should have considering I already loved poker/5 card draw from 1985 and spent most of 2000-2006 at work often bored in front of a computer.

TYPE "poker" INTO ASK JEEVES.COM ONE TIME FFS

So instead i wound up finding it in 2006, within six months had rather stupidly quit a very good job "to turn pro". Luckily for me party sitngoes were so comically easy i could do well 2-4 tabling the $109s. Def wish I hadnt done it though.

I'll stop there cos my story isnt that interesting, but Im sure there are plenty of good ones. A lot of us made a career choice drunk on "poker" and not everyones decision turned out well. Im sure theres a heap of guys who suffered from bad decisions bought on by early run hot and descended into general degeneracy/busto/disaster

OP, I'm not the person you're looking to interview (got into poker recreationally in 2005) but I would enjoy reading whatever you come up with for his paper. It already sounds like it could be interesting.

I've been chasing the poker dream since 2003. I'm 28 now. College drop out. Just recently got a job at the local grocery store after 7 years of not working.

I think it was 2001, maybe 2002 that I deposited to online poker. You can PM me here and I'd be happy to give you the rundown on my experience as a longtime online grinder, know a few others who would talk as well..

There were all sorts of ways to make money in the early days, with playing being one of them. I organized a team of casino and poker bonus whores and we definitely had a few fun years. The story differs a lot from the standard poker tales because the actual play at teh tables was relatively minor in terms of the results at the time.

All of the people I included were professionals that had established jobs and careers so this became a good second income for them while it lasted.

I can certainly see how many who did it by playing were lured in by teh easy riches, but the key to those situations is being aware that they simply cannot last forever, and they usually end quicker than many realize.

A thread which tells some general stories of that era can be found here

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...d-days-676038/

Noticed that as well. Will PM you as soon as it starts to work.
Anybody have any idea how fast that goes?