I am 29 and I am from Slovakia. For those who do not know, it is a nice little country in Central Europe, which is this year celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism. Bratislava is the capital city and my home town. I am happily married to a girl who I met and started dating when we were both 18.

I used to be a lawyer. After graduation in 2004, I spent three years working in an attorney’s office and in November 2007 I became an attorney, practising in a middle-sized law office with solid international clientele. I was pretty successful, and as my first boss (Canadian lawyer) said, I had a “bright career” ahead of me.

I hated my work EVERY day, from the moment I woke up till I went sleep. I was doing either boring or very stressful work, for people I disliked, answering to their silly needs. I was paid well, but was never happy.

I June 2007 I discovered poker. I knew from the very first moment that this was actually something. I remember that three months later, I had a very tough discussion with my wife, trying to explain that losing 200 euros in small live games and $100 on the internet meant nothing, and that I would soon start making a profit, and that wouldn’t mean I’d be getting addicted and leave her every second day to go to play all night long with weird people.

Things have changed quickly. Very soon I took down my first live MTT with a 100 euro buyin, and started winning in online SNGs. In January 2008 I moved from Ongame to PokerStars. After having a solid ROI for 1k $6.5s, I moved up to the $16s, adding a few tables now and then. I didn’t have a week without thinking at least once how it might be possible to make a living from playing poker, what ROI at what stake playing how many tables I’d need to make a good living. It seemed impossible at that time, as I could not handle more than six tables.

In April I met a guy who changed my life (I knew him before but this was our first real meeting). He was a very good 2/4 limit grinder, a big winner if he wasn’t too lazy to play, maybe one of five people in Slovakia who were actually able to make a living from poker in 2008. He explained to me a lot about being a poker pro, but above all, he was living proof that you can actually make a living from poker. That day changed my life; I felt that I had already made a decision about quitting that hated life and starting something new. It wasn’t easy. I remember all those days when I came home after a tough day at work and played for two more hours just to get some volume, to make sure I was getting better and COULD make that big change.

In August 2008 or so I was already playing 27s and enough tables to be pretty “sure” that I could handle it. In November I told my boss that I was leaving, and in early February I closed the door to my office for the last time. No money in the world could pay for that feeling.

Before I went pro, I had several discussions with my friends and read several good threads here in 2+2 on how tough it is. My friend always said that playing poker for a living is like jumping into o pool with no water. I kinda agree with him. Only somebody who has been through the same things could say how tough it is sometimes to cope with a seven-day-a-week neverending story of beats, how tough is to deal with 2k BE stretches, how angry I sometimes am (neighbors can confirm), how easy is to become totally depressed and unconfident about every single move. I assume you all know what I am talking about.

I knew all of this and that is why I was prepared. I’ve never second-guessed my decision, not for a single moment. I have no boss, no working time, almost no stress. I have no problems with socializing, I always have time for lunch with some of my friends, I play mainly in the daytime, so no problems with my routine. It is obviously not perfect yet, I still need to adjust some things: start working out, do more sport, move to a new house (happening this November hopefully) and buy a better computer to get better working conditions, but overall, it can’t even be compared to my life before.

My family supports me. My wife lives with me, so she knew best how I felt about my job and supports me in every single way. It was obviously tough for my parents, the transition from being a successful lawyer to a “gambler” was something they never expected, but they also knew that I had a history of making good decisions and that I wouldn’t do such a decision without complete knowledge of all relevant facts, so they finally accepted it. My friends at first had a tough time believing that I would actually do this, but they have no problem with that and I think they are kinda impressed that I was able to try it and are rooting for me.

I already know I’ll never be the best. I study a lot and I am still probably just an average 7% guy while 18-tabling low stakes. I know it sucks. I already know that there are probably some limits in my mind that will never allow me to play with the best, but it does not bother me that much. I know that I leak from multitabling, so I hope I’ll get better when I move up and lower the number of tables. From various reasons at various times I haven’t up so far, although I’ve often wanted to. I plan to do that pretty quickly, once I settle some cash flow issues, so I won’t need to cash out for at least two months and can focus on getting better without chasing money. If I fail (as many before me), I won’t get crazy. Grinding 16s might be boring for somebody, but for me, it is like heaven in all its aspects. I obviously hope that I’ll beat higher levels some time, or move to cash or MTTs, or hit something big live, or whatever, but if I don’t, I can live with that.

I’d like to thank couple of guys here. It is not easy to mention only a few of you, but I’ll have to try it and hope that others don’t feel insulted. Voodduu/clownklauen. No need to say anything, he knows best. NJD/Deurdy/Nicktheone/TwistedEcho for lots of good advice and hand history reviews in my toughest times. Little John, for coming down from high stakes to share his knowledge. Sippin, for his oneliners full of wisdom that can’t be beaten. All other mainly 16s regs who made me better by sharing their thoughts at this forum. And obviously drzen for making this post readable in English. Thank you!

And one thing at the end. I know it might sound silly, but I want to thank PokerStars. I can’t imagine playing anywhere else, I think that they are doing an awesome job in just about everything. I needed their support at maybe 20 different times and I got a quick/positive/professional reply 95% of the time. They just rock. They helped me to live my dreams, so I am thankful for that.

i was looking forward to your 1.5kth post, after reading the first paragraph it looks like this is gonna be a nice read.

congratz and GL in the future.

Ship it castle! That's awesome, solid read.

Very nice.

I knew you were a solid player from your posts and I've checked your stats before. However, I just looked at your graph again. I wanted to see what sort of swings you may have experienced. Considering you are 18 tabling you have done a great job of not tilting and swonging very much at all.

That said, do you forge through tough times or do you take a break? Also, what VIP level are you at Stars? Does the points system make much of an impact on your bottom line at the end of the month?

congrats man on the 1.5k
your very brave imo, having the courage to take the plunge and go pro when you already have a established carreer
Also I think u r to modest about your skillz and i expect you to be solid at the higher levels

That's a great post Vlado! I really admire you for taking that career step and becoming more happy with circumstances. I am definitely rooting for you to get better and crush the higher buyins. Somehow I always hope your allins hold up when you're in my sessions (even if it's just for the fact that I want to take you down personally..)
You're a great guy, but you really should stay the hell away from my sessions..

congrats on the success so far man, you're clearly a nice/likeable guy so GL in the future.
over/under on how many days till caslte posts again ruining the 1.5k?

good one.

Move up up up -)) Dont be scared -))

vlad, i you

well have a beer when im back to austria or at least closer than now.
thank you very much for being you, you know it best.

oh and you suck at whining imo, at least you didnt come to me yet.go ahead, would like to pay back some, or have some sadistic laugh at least.
and dont ever worry about higher stakes and your roi so much.i confirm this publicly, there are really a lot of very ******ed braindead regulars in all limits- just fear the doowmswitch button!
stay away from sippin and keep chasing me and youll be fine.

cheers

edit:and if you wanna know how those shiny flashy 5 red stars look like, i can activate em for you next time we meet

7 ur the man. Great post and I wish u continued success (just not in my sets lol).

And how much does the american $ buy you over there may I ask? In the uk it gets you half a loaf of bread.

Nice 16% at the $6's btw.

Sick story and I can relate to the beginning of it very much. Best of luck.

Thanks for the post.. What is the cost of living in Bratislava? Am I safe in saying that making $40k/yr USD would lead to a very nice lifestyle?

It will certainly get you a lot of Pivo's..

Awesome post, castle!

I wish you the best for the future, in poker and in your life.

I know what grinding besides of a full time job can be. Playing tired, browsing 2p2 instead of sleeping, working on your game instead of watching tv shows...

hahaha nice to read your story man, esp. es it reminds me a lot of myself.

I'm 27 and I'm maried with a beautiful girl I started dating when I was 15 (she was like a bracelet in those times....everybody wanted to win her heart...but there could be just 1 winner obv. ). I've studied economics and have a very well payed job in a well respected concern, which I don't really like.

I started playing poker almost 3 years ago and now I'm easily beating the $16's at roughly 9% while 25 tabling. I think I'm good enough AND mentally strong enough to handle the rough life of a pro BUT there are some things that prevent me:

1. No chance to convince my wife (her father was a (bad) gambler and lost lots of money when she was a child)

2. The $/EURO exchange rate is soooooo f*cking terrible right now.

I wish you the best of luck man...and stay out of my tables (even if you don#t know my PS ID )

I'm also interested in what's like an average salary in Slovakia, or what you were earning when you were earning well as a lawyer, if you don't mind telling that

Always thought you were like 18 or 19ish years old, as you seem like a really competitive guy to me, and that's more a young gun thing from my experience.
I've not been bluffraised(in a good spot!) in earlygame by a lot of other regs, really.

Best of luck in the future,
Berend

p.s. it's probably a good idea to learn at least one other form of poker to be able to switch when you're really exhausted or games are really bad, but that again is just a thought of someone who's happy if he gets in 30h/month.

Thanks everybody!

Yeah I think this is one of my strenghts, I don't think I tilt at all, at least not in that standard "**** you donk you can't have it everytime I'll call your shove with my 2nd pair". Problem is that there are 10-15 standard spots where I tend to make very same mistake again and again, no matter how hard I try to avoid them. But it is also getting better. I think my graph looks nice overall (seen much better players with much bigger swings) but if you look closer you can find some 2k BE stretches.

Nope, I don't take a break. Like a said I don't tilt, if its really bad, like if I get busted from 10 tables within 5 mins b/c of extreme suckouts/setups/bad range estimations I might start swearing loudly for couple of minutes but then I steam off and continue playing my A- game.

I've played like 14.5k 16s so far this year, so I am still Platinum Star with ~73k VPP. I'll expect to hit SN by the end of November (I'll mix 27s and 38s pretty soon). I make maybe $400 in RB each month, and hope it becomes $1000 soon.

i came

Thanks m8. I will, don't worry. And I'll pay our next lunch from the money won at 38s

Haha please dont let me starve too long HAHA

You bet we'll have, we should've done that already. Just let me know when you come to Vienna.

Haha never, we are not going to switch our roles. You're the one whining, I am the one watching ROIs everyday

Word. I'll let you drive my Porsche after reaching SNE in 2011.

Castle congrats and well done.

WP sir, GL as you go along.