pwned

One of the best posts I've read on here

OP obviously quit posting his screen name and graphs when he "quit" poker.

OP^^^

Very true. This is logical even from a poker point of view.

Dont put your eggs all in one income basket (i.e. if poker fails you have no other income and are unemployable).

It is kinda the same prinicple as not grinding a level as a pro till you have 75bi minimum.

And when a job becomes boring you can move on and get another job.

If you play poker for 3 years and then decide you want to move on you cant. Basically you will have reduced your employability to such a level that it will be hard to move on.

Also, when your job is sucking you still get that pay check every month. And what of poker? when poker is sucking you are probably losing 5% your net worth over that peroid.

True, but the points stake monster raised show why it is VERY VERY difficult to do this within poker.

The best way to play poker is probably semi pro with a 1-3 day a week regular job. Then you can get a bit of extra pocket money but you arent screwing your resume by just being a proffesional gambler for 4 years and getting no references or experience.

I did quit in April - hardly played since. Not played at all last 4 months. Maybe done 50k hands since the quit. I just came back here to report quitting was a great thing to do.

Another completely pointless thread because it disregards that people aren't all the same.

We all have different ideas about the perfect job. Me, I want a job where I meet a lot of people; I couldn't stand having a job in an office where I meet the same 20 people 9 hours a day, every day, every week, every year.

But others might have no problem with that, and again others might even consider being all alone in front of the computer for 9 hours a nice job.

Of course there are some people who have no social life anymore because after grinding for hours at the computer, they are too lazy to go out and meet with friends.
But others do just that, and for them online poker is a good job.

Have you played poker for a living for over 2 years?

My post says explicitly that playing poker for a living would be a horrible job for me, so guess what - the answer is 'no'.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may...aders-20100516

Incredible post. 100% real.

With all the money you have left from poker you can always get into day trading. Oh, Wait...

Very good posts by browser, GreenMonster and the detective (sorry brah forgot your sn)
who busted OP.

OP -> "If you play poker for 3 years and then decide you want to move on you cant. Basically you will have reduced your employability to such a level that it will be hard to move on"

This means you don't know how to put poker on your resume in a good light. Try the BFI forums, there's a lot of talk about this, and if you've been quite successful in poker (esp if you've made 100k+), this gets a lot of interest, especially in financial institutions, where risk management is strongly appreciated.

No it's not.

It could make your whole post irrelevant. Because most people would understand if you quit playing poker after making let's say 60k/year. Nobody understands somebody leaving poker while consistently making 20k/month.

It also makes you less credible/believeable. If you really left the poker world behind. Why would you even bother disclosing your sn/graph? If you can not be completely open. What is the rest of your story worth? (Not much.)

All in all it may turn your whole thread from a real experience into a theoretical discussion. ("Well if I were Phil Ivey then bla bla bla ... ")

Fwiw

If you play poker only because of the money. You'll end up hating the grind at some point. That's inevitable. But that will happen to you in ANY job. Poker ist not different.

FWIW, I've known of OP for 2 or 3 years, played with him a bit a while back.

99% sure he has made $500k or there abouts, dunno why it is so difficult for people to believe him. Sick work ethic when he gets grinding but as people have said this is probably his downfall as well because it means that he dosen't balance other areas of his life. Just IMO, don't know him that well, using my own experiences here as well.

It is ****ing tough. I wouldn't want to be doing this for the rest of my life.

Being a professional poker player is simply making the same choice as millions of others have, which is to decide to go into business for yourself rather than decide to work for someone else. The risks are greater, and so are the potential rewards. All the downsides of being a poker pro that have been mentioned in other posts are true and real, but are no different than thousands of other businesses that people start.

Below is a little fictional interview I made up to illustrate the issues involved. But I used professional tennis player instead of professional poker player. This helps look at the issue without the bias many have about poker. So just read the interview, and then substitute "poker" for "tennis".


So you've been a professional tennis player for 3 years now. That's an unusual field. How did you get into it?

---Well, I played tennis in college and was very good at it and enjoyed it, and thought I would try and make a living out of playing tennis.

How did it go?

---pretty well. I haven't won any big tournaments yet, but I've placed highly regularly and make what could be considered very good money for someone in their early 20's.

What did your parents think about you becoming a tennis pro?

---they didn't like it much. they said "what if you don't make enough money?" and "why don't you get a steady job that will pay you a regular salary? What if you get hurt, what will you do?" "You could still play tennis on the weekends." "It just all seems so risky."

Those seem like good points. So why did you do it?

---I just really enjoyed it, thought I was good at it and wanted to give it a try. I know that thousands of recreational tennis players dream about doing it for a living, but I really thought I had the skill and work ethic to make it. I know there were risks involved, but everything involves risks. But you can't succeed as a pro part time. You have to commit to putting in the long hours it takes to succeed against the other pro players. So I knew I would have to "take the plunge" and go for it.

That didn't scare you?

---Sure it did. But ask any wealthy entrepreneur about foregoing a "safe" job to start their own business and follow their passion and you'll probably get the same answer. Some people want the security of a regular 9-5 job, and are willing to accept that they will probably never become wealthy from it or may not have a particular passion for it. That's fine, and their choice. Of course, security is relative, as if the business they work for starts to lose money, their job will go away too. Others like the feeling of having their professional life in their own hands, and believe that their own skill and hard work will lead them to succeed and reap the rewards. It's just a choice people make. I made the choice to play tennis.

So has it turned out like you thought?

---well, the lifestyle is very difficult. It may look glamorous on TV, but you don't really make good friends with other tennis players because you are always trying to beat them and win the money. Plus, there isn't much time for socializing because to win, you have to train and practice constantly. It's strange in a way because you are always around people, yet it can be a very lonely lifestyle. It seems my whole life revolves around the tennis court. To be honest, there are many days when the last thing I want to do is drag my butt onto the tennis court, or into the weight room. But if you want to succeed, you do it anyway. It's very hard work, but I enjoy it tremendously. And while the money is good when you are playing good, sometimes you go through periods where you don't get very far in the tournament and so you don't make any money. Sure the very biggest stars make endorsement money, but for the rest of us it's a weekly grind. This takes its toll mentally. So it's been even more difficult than I thought, but I must admit I love it and am very glad with my choice.

Have you thought about what you would do if you couldn't play tennis anymore?

---well everyone knows that most tennis players have a relatively short career. And I guess "professional tennis player" wouldn't seem like much on a resume. What skills would an employer think you have besides hitting a little yellow ball back and forth. But I feel like the discipline, work ethic and mental toughness I developed to succeed on tour will serve me well in the future. Think of how many professional athletes play for a few years and then go into successful careers in completely unrelated fields. It's because if you are smart, work hard and apply yourself you can succeed in many areas. That's just the way life works. No one hands you anything just because you walk in the door. You still have to make things happen. Besides, no one really knows what they'll be doing in 5, 10 or 20 years from now.

OK then. I think most people would be surprised to learn how hard it is to be a successful tennis player, but you certainly seem to enjoy it. Best of luck.

----thanks.

Except for the resume part.

Most jobs are a grind, especially office jobs, and OP is making stuff up.

tl;dr. Was there a graph? If not, then thread sucks.

So you quit in April of 2010 correct? If that's the case then the profits you claim to have made are off. In this post made in April 2010, you said "This isnt a results dependent decision as i made $250k last year (tax free where i live) and even made $28k in the last month." You made 250k in 2009 and 28k in March 2010. Your OP in this thread states "I quit after making $500k in 2.5 years playing cash games for a living."

If you quit back in April 2010, then how did you make $500k in the past 2.5 years? You're off by a swell $222k. You also seem to allude that you haven't been employed since you quit here and here. But you have been employed (most likely full time) since you quit however.

You're mental. Post a graph and your screen name and I'll stfu.

simple: 2.5 years =/= last 2.5 years. Maybe OP is full of ****, but you need to learn to read.

Maths fail here.

Make $50k start of 2010
Make $250k 2009
Make $200k 2008

These are rough estimates

This is 2.5 yrs. Congrats on the epic maths fail.

god i hope i keep my teeth!