LOL, 2p2 detective work in full swing. Its like people on this forum gather momenteum from each others posts, and before too long it is confirmed that I am 100% lying about my results.

Reflects badly on all of you tbh. O well, haters gonna hate.

It's proven that purpose is a much bigger motivator than money.

You can lend credence to your argument, and end the controversy in one fell swoop. Post your screen name(s).

Given that you don't intend to play anymore, I'd think you'd be inclined to do so?

Great, now in 80% of jobs your main "purpose" is to enrich stock holders/ownership you never meet.

GL with that motivation./

+1

LOL at people who think that starting their own business means they have gotten rid of the "answering to someone else" issue. If you own your own business, you need customers to provide your business with income. Therefore you have to answer to your customers, which, in many cases are worse than bosses. It might give you more freedom (short term) to schedule your free time, what little there might be.


I often wonder if this has something to do with why most businesses fail within the first couple years. The realization sets in that you still have "bosses".


How does this relate to "turning pro" in poker? I can't, for the life of me, figure out who the poker pro has to answer to, other than himself. I wish I could play poker well enough to give it a shot, but OTOH, I don't have any issues with who I have to answer to at the current time.

In a way the fish is your customer (you play mostly only if there's a fish). Having that said, there's so many fishes at every time and every stake that you're basically not answering to anyone. Also, all the fish asks you to do is play.

The won2free4five thing made me laugh, a lot.

wp

that's because most people are ******ed. Besides setting up your own limited company and being able to call yourself a director is the perfect cover for poker on CVs as people assume you'd be doing it full-time.

Your comments on won2free4five's PTR profile made me laugh. In the comments you state:

lmao. If I didn't have to pay taxes I would be in the top 10% of income earners...

You know his s/n... why don't you reveal it? It seems Bob is a little hesitant.

Lol that was a joke but had some truth to it at a time. If you knew anything about either of the two players you would have got why it was funny.

I know a couple of sn's but you wouldn't be able to do much with them, don't think it's a big deal but he obv dont want to say.

I think I'm happy to concede that I'll never be a full-time poker player... it'll never take up >10-20 hours of my week.

I'm making like $100k+ IRL this year, so I don't see how I could make that playing poker (unless I bum-hunted live poker all year).

I think anyone who could make $100k+/yr playing online pokerz could be making 500k+/yr trading the stockmarket. Someone should just invent a stock-trading platform that is game-like and has high-score boards and stuff, all the kids would be hardcore into grinding stocks for a living in no time.

why is this thread in the gossip forum? - shouldn't it be in the psych forum?... just wonderin...

Trading the financial markets is a lot harder than grinding poker.
Having that said, I do believe that some good poker players could do very well in those markets. But no way everyone who makes 100k/year at poker could even be profitable in the financial markets.
If you take a sample of 1000 poker players and 1000 random dudes, I'm pretty convinced the poker players would outperform the random dude anytime in the markets, but most of them would still loose money imo.

What do you mean, G.C.?

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

D.C.

1) College is not anywhere close to being as demanding as an actual job. You can be EXTREMELY lazy in college and still get a very solid GPA. Do you not see how it's a little bit hypocritical to equate the demands of college to the demands of an actual job whilst posting in a thread on the side of 'playing professionally is so much better than any other job'?

2) Nowhere in my post did I ever mention being sad or depressed or anything. I have a good life now and I've had a good life since going pro. However, I do not feel a great sense of accomplishment for my efforts over the past two years; it's just money. It comes down to a question of 'was the money I made worth the things I gave up to pursue this lifestyle?' and the answer for me is "No". I am not sad or depressed, and while the freedom and experiences I've had as a result of my skill are great, I want more for myself than poker can offer.

I do not want to play cards for the rest of my life, and I think most people who have put a substantial amount of time and felt the pressures of playing for a living can relate. One does not have to be sad/depressed in order to want out of the game.

3) The college student vs 27-28yr old is a bad comparison because there are other things that happen which effect their health/eating habits/fitness. For one, 27-28yr olds are far more likely to be in committed relationships rather than college students who are going out and trying to **** a different sorority girl every weekend. It is really easy to get complacent when you are not working to impress somebody/get laid, etc (and let's face it...that's what college is all about).

I just got out of a 3 year relationship (my lack of an actual career was the ONLY thing that divided us). I am in better physical shape 2 months after the break up than I was throughout the past 3 years. The motivations of the average 27-28 year old is vastly different than the motivations of a college student. A job most certainly can have an effect on our eating/fitness habits, but just like poker, it doesn't have to.

When I had a job, I ate super healthy. I prepared my meals the night before, I had 30 minutes for lunch compared to your 1hr, and I rarely ever needed to go to a restaurant. There were lots of people in my office who ordered and picked up food, and we ate together even though I brought mine. Networking and socializing was not an issue, and for those times when I needed to go out to lunch to make a good impression, I did. Most the time I ate very healthy.

I think if you were to take a look at the average professional poker player, you'd see that they are not exactly the paragons of health either. You might look at them and think, "Wow that's pathetic. If I were in their position, life would be so much easier/better and I would make so much out of my time." The problem with the freedom to make your money whenever you want is that you will ultimately deviate from your schedule, and it is very very easy to procrastinate and suddenly realize that you have an "I'll do it later" mentality towards a lot of things that only used to fit into specific time slots when you had more structure/obligations. There is a reason why most poker players are viewed as lazy. It's because it's true. I think the luxury of being allowed to be lazy ultimately breeds laziness in the majority of people.

No chance.

Trading you have to compete vs professional traders that have a lot of ressources that you'll probably never have. Software, internal infos etc. including huge groups of analysts digesting the unreal amounts of information for you.

Skillset is different too. Reading and understanding business news, balance sheets ets.

Tri Nguyen spoke about it in one of the podcasts interviews with Bart Hanson. He tried it for a year and stopped.

Oh ... and still no sn?

Great post!

Is this supposed to be a rebuttal of my post...bc on 2 points our posts are mirroring each other.....lolz.

Sometimes I wonder if people even read longer posts before quoting them.

yep

I didn't read the thread yet. As someone that has worked a regular job for 10 years I think everyone needs to know there a lot of jobs that depress people, poker just happens to be one of them. Maybe poker is just not for you. Cleaning toilets can be depressing, but I'm sure some people are truly happy to do that for a living. I don't play for a living, but I'm sure it's no different that any job or business. One person will find it depressing and another will be one of the happiest people on Earth.

this.

Interesting thread. Thanks all for sharing your life experiences.

I think this may be one of the best threads around, simply because its highlighted everyone's life process with poker. For myself, poker has been an opportunity to put money aside and buy things that i need (car, bills etc). Having graduated last May from college, i got a 40k salary this summer (i'm writing from work now). It's the typical desk job, requiring i complete specific financial assignments in a timely manner. In doing so, i'm basically left alone all day. I couldn't agree more with a majority of the posts that describe these desk jobs as boring and monotaneous. I have always been an active person, but this winter i've been sitting on my ass more than ever. All i do is think about poker and what it may bring to me in the future. Poker has given me an opportunity to quit this job and take a shot at making decent money for long-term purposes. However, i'm truly afraid of failing and giving up what many people would die to have.
This winter has allowed me to excel my game exponentially, winning my first MTT on Christmas eve and having a killer 120 days. However, i have very poor BRM and have spewed a lot of my winnings on cash HU. Many days i do very well and just this week i was sitting on top of a 3k profit grinding 1/2 6 max. However, just yesterday i had the worst day of my career. After a few hours i realized i was down 2k, just reloading without notice. By that time i started tilting and played a sicko in 2/4 HU. With a series of run bads and unneeded agression, he took an extra 2k from me. The stress that poker brings is unmatched than any other situation i've been in. I now have to dedicate endless hours just to recoupe my losses.
I couldn't imagine if i was a pro right now. Maybe i would play different knowing that this was my immediate source of income, idk. The reality of quick money is very hard for some people and can be a serious life problem. That's why i agree with OP and his stance on quitting. I don't think i could do it yet, as i have many goals for myself. However, whether he is telling the truth or not, OP is making the most rational choice for himself. Don't they say the best gambler is the one who knows when to quit? If anything, i admire you for taking that step and pursuing other interests. I hate poker right now because i dislike the way things change so fast, emotionally and situationally.
One day you can be feeling so good and thinking about what you could do with all the money you just won. Then tomorrow comes and your a little tired or whatever and all of a sudden that money you foresaw using has now vanished. This "false reality" can be detrimental for some people. The security of a job, social interaction, benefits, advancement is unmatched imo.
GL to all that pursue their poker goals, it can immensly awarding. But always be cautious that things can change very fast. The hardest part isn't actually playing the game, but to beat the game you need to be self aware of the vulnerability it can bring. If you can control swings with patience and dedication, then congrats, you've won.