Sounds like a keeper. Not many women can back up their significant other no matter what they choose to do financially.

Yeah I was mainly referring to this link and also post #170

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/26...k-post-952069/

FWIW I was a US MSNL online pro for years and during that time had a stable relationship with a girl that I truely loved and fully supported for about two years, and she would always try to be how your girlfriend was. She didn't really know how to play but over the years she slowly learned what variance was and how the highs and lows of the game work on a daily basis, and was always supportive. She's even horrible at math but can still pick this stuff up intuitively lol. However after Black Friday I instantly went busto hardcore to the point I wasn't even rolled for live 1/2 (had almost all of my savings on FT). It put ridiculous strain on our relationship and eventually we broke up. Since then I've been grinding out 1/2 at local casinos, just moved up to 2/5 after a few months and have almost paid off my car (just put $5000 on it and only have $3300 to go ), and my ex and I are on better terms and have talked about getting back together in the future with both of our lives being less stressful than they were a year ago.

There's a grain of truth to both sides of these stories and everyone needs chill out and try to line up the shades of gray when it comes to being a "pro" poker player. It's not that hard if you're reasonably hard working and intelligent, and the risks are fairly small if you have good BRM/are actually good at the game, but **** happens and things can spiral out of control in the blink of an eye. I'm a pretty cautious guy, always played with 100+ BI and never thought I could go busto, but then you wake up one day and boom. If it happened to me it could happen to anyone.

Combine this with a health savings account to pay for the routine expenses(pre-tax dollars).

This statement is rendered ridiculous the instant you take a second to acknowledge that the majority of posters ITF arent able to make a living at these stakes. The statement is so far from accurate that the only explanation I can come up with for you posting it is that it is something you personally have to believe in order to get up in the morning. And I totally get that.

Umm, I dont think I will.

As far as i can see, ITT there are basically two different camps. I'll call them the Wide-Eyeds, and the Been Around the Blocks.

The WEs have convinced themselves that being a poker pro is easy. Theyve probably played a decent amount of hands, but not a ton; to this point in their "careers" they have probably run significantly better than they realize; and they might be a tad bit younger age-wise than the BABs.

The BABs have likely played hundreds of thousnds of hands online, and several thousand hrs live, and came out the other side in the black. Theyve likely at some point relied on poker to provide income that they needed to live, and have done so for a sigificant period of time. They are also likely to have had relationships with people who have depended on them financially to some degree, and have had to maintain these relationships while still managing to play winning poker.

The BABs go: "Been there dude, it aint easy."

The WEs go: "I aint tryin to hear u bro, I need to believe its easy."

Its pretty obvious what camp Im in. If it seems like all i do is spew negatives, its is because I feel the need to offset the often under-experienced, sometimes delusional, always overly-optimistic viewpoint of the WEs.

And the reason I feel the need to do this is because I used to be a WE! Pretty much all BABs used to be WEs. And I wish when I was first starting out there was someone who had already walked the path I was about to embark on to tell me what some of the obsticles were. Despite the fact that I went it alone, I was able to learn, adapt, and pay my rent for two years with nothing except poker profit. In the end, I found a job that made me happier than poker did. It wasnt a fail, it was a conscious choice, and a good one for me.

Regardless, dont get the wrong idea, Im not trying be to the bearer of bad news. I love poker. If I didnt I wouldnt be here. But I do feel obligated to voice some of the hard-to-hear realities that some players who may have fallen into a false sense of security might think theyll never ever have to face. Believe me, if you play long enough, you will have to face them. And then youll have been around the block and will know better.

Nothing in life is easy. You don't have to voice the negative because you thought life was easy.

I try to stay positive in life. I can sit on here all day and bring up the negatives of poker. But I choose not too because its plenty of struggling low stakes grinders like myself. Who probably won't ever have 6 figure bankrolls. But their is light for us "pros" its called getting the hell out of low stakes. I know plenty of no name guys at the 5/10 level who make a good living. Something most jobs can't achieve. Financial freedom and the money to invest.

If all this is true u are the exception not the rule. Emphasis on "if", "true", and "exception"

FWIW, my (soon to be ex) wife never took an issue with any of my losses, even when the swings amounted to a couple of K in a handful of hours playing 6Max 200 NL online. The money was completely separate from our normal accounts and this wasn't hard for her to grasp at all. Of course, she watched me grind $50 up to about $8K over a long period of time (as I learned the game and moved up in stakes) without investing a dime after the first $50, so that probably gave her confidence in the process.

I did cash out money every once in a while to buy stuff just for her, so maybe that helped too

Does your imaginary gf have an imaginary sister?

First off, epic bump ^^

I didn't catch this thread the first time round, but just read up to the following...

...no one has ever given me better advice.

Did you bump a thread that's almost a year old just to write that?

More like epic 1 year mod close bump. Amirite??? Wait you cant respond to that... But you know what I mean.