This thread really lost some steam in mid april for some reason.

Or he's legit and getting attacked by trolls. I think his points are valid; poker does tend to influence lifestyle more than people realize. It's different for each person obviously, but as for the independent/lazy-prone people, poker unfortunately can reinforce negative lifestyle and stop people from getting out and doing new things...

And he's absolutely right about money. I, for one, am sick and tired of reading brags about how much money people claim to make. The bragging really stigmatizes those who don't make as much while at the same time perpetuating this limited view that money-making is so important when in reality it really isn't.

Mom, that’s BobBlank. He’s in my class. I heard he’s ******ed or something.

QFT.

As I've said before, the story on BobBlank is a true one.

Read 10 pages and guy never anwser question regarding the 500K

Did he ever post a graph, or give his screen name or is he some GA loser?

he said he plays live.

Is it possible to quit poker for a living?

How many times a day do you need to quit, and how do you get paid?

Does it really matter whether he made money or not? Jesus, his points are valid at least for discussion. Obv if someone is putting up 5k+ prop that he is legitimate he is, or that guy is running a sick bluff.

The main idea here is the title, and these fckn but how much did he make omg he didnt make money yes he did b.s. is so ******ed.

making min wage serving plastic burgers to fat people is rewarding,
but making 250k a year playing a game with so much freedom isn't?

gtfo

good questions

notice how they never post jpgs of bank deposit slips. i've always believed most of those people were lying.

I started a thread in 2008 asking advice on whether to go pro or not, most (probably correctly, given all they knew about me) advised me not to do it.

Well I did (not straight away though), and so far it feels like the best decision I ever made. It's a lot different than I thought it would be, obviously the swings are harder to deal with than I imagined and it was initially much much harder to live an active lifestyle than I anticipated. I guess I pictured myself just doing whatever the **** I wanted whenever I wanted, but I quickly realised that would lead to me spending all my time smoking weed or in my room and I'd become pretty depressed.

Still, every time I accidentally wake up before 8am I think about how sick it would be to have to get up and I fall asleep a very, very happy man. I've also managed to find a few hobbies and social circles that I can access almost anytime so if I'm ever sick of poker I don't stay sad long because I just do other things that I really enjoy.

I'm sure there will be problems down the road - my current friends (mostly university students) will become less accessible to me, job security might go down (black friday effects etc) and so on. Given that poker is tax free and I can realistically expect to clear 200k+ in the bank each year (after spending, at least in the current poker climate) I'm perfectly happy with my situation though. Probably very naive but I figure if **** gets real bad I'll just become an entrepreneur with the money I've saved up

I mean basically it just depends on the person. Some people need forced structure, others don't. There are many many other factors. For me the money (much more than I could make after graduation), freedom and the fact that I'm enjoying life without a job/structure make it a no-brainer. I've only been playing professionally for around 1.5 years though, so I guess we'll see how I feel in a few more years

I wasn't gonna include any figures (as vague as that figure may have been) and I hope that didn't come across as a brag, just felt kinda necessary to convey my situation. Just wanted to give the perspective of somebody who is very happy with poker as a profession.

That is the nuts...glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed that. I didn't turn my alarm for classes off when I took a semster off just to make sure I would wake up.

You can still sign up for a class(es) at university, preferably afternoon, to fill time with something productive and more social coupled with hanging out at least every weekend.

I think the problem is finding a true balance. Most people underestimate how much of a compromise between free time and poker this is.

Haha yeah man I actually did that for a while too, also used to set my alarm early with a 30min snooze and snooze for 2 hours

I think you're dead right about true balance being the problem. My balance probably isn't great (frequently go on poker or drinking benders, sometimes my normal waking up time is 1pm etc) but I think I balance with enough non-poker activities that its not that unhealthy. I live in a house with mainly students too so I guess that contributes to the inconsistent lifestyle.

Also agree about signing up for classes at uni, I haven't done that yet but it's something Ive considered a lot. ATM I'm in a squash club, chess club and I'm taking french classes so I'm definitely happy with my 'co-curricular' activities right now.

As I said I'm living it up atm, most of my potential problems are a few years down the track. Def def def worth it though

Poker is for dudes with heart. Only panzies come on a dedicated poker site to tell dedicated poker players how happy they are not playing. Dumbest **** i ever read on all levels. Take your whining to gambling anonymous meetings.

Also this x 1000.

Can't believe nobody pointed out how stupid this post is, and how blatantly he misinterpreted what kaby was trying to say.

+ 2 billion op

Anybody can pull numbers like this out of their ass...
So you can prove you're in the Top 0.5%?

And what is your annual variance on the 200K?

Yeah obviously anyone could pull these numbers out of their ass, if thats the top 0.5% (I'd assume its an even smaller %) then yeah I can prove I'm in it lol.

I don't know what my annual variance is, or how to calculate it. Last year I played around 500k hands which I assume is enough to iron out variance quite a bit. Still, I don't really care about variance that much, I ran a variance simulator and even if I ran horrendous for the entire year I'd still probably make more than I could in any other job atm (provided I could play well through the tilt)

It's not really the point though, anything 100k+ I'd probably be comfortable playing professionally. My post was more about the actual lifestyle of playing professionally.

Much easier to talk about being a pro from a tax free non-US country. I never liked being a professional from the US since it was quite hard to get paid and I always had the thought of getting ****ed over the gov't in the back of my mind (and it happened). I made a lot of money and I'm in a much better financial situation than I would have been and I can't complain about life. I just never viewed poker as the long-term solution and my doubts were confirmed by April 15, 2011. If I felt like the current profitability of online poker would have been sustainable for 10+yrs for US players I would have snap called and said, "**** school/the real world." Now, I feel like I'm being forced to start over in a sense.

If you are good at poker (and by "good" I mean able to make 6 figures annually) then I don't see how it could possibly be worse than a 9-5 job. The benefits seem to far outweigh the drawbacks, even during the toughest of times (Black Friday, etc.). But that's just my opinion, and I'm not a good player.

If you wish you were good at poker, though, and you simply aren't, then I can easily see why quitting would be a great decision. Since the majority of poker players fit into this category (myself included), it makes sense that there are a lot of "happy quitters" floating around out there, feeling the need to spread the word. Their lives are much better now that they've quit. The thing is, the players who are actually working hard, treating poker like their dream job, and reaping the rewards already are happy and for the most part balanced; that's how they got good to begin with. Quitting makes no sense if you're an awesome player.

Barely anyone leads a "balanced life." It would do us all some good if we developed healthier habits, but doing so has no more to do with poker than any other activity. Poker is just a job. Nothing more, nothing less.

+1

If you're truly a pro player, you're out of the country playing on Stars and EU networks making just as much as you were before.

If not, BF could be the best thing that's ever happened to you in terms of wake up call.
Only thing that really sucks is for people who have a family to support through poker and can't afford to move everyone out of the country.

And lol @ the cliche of the fat Cheetos-eating online player. I workout 2 hours a day including 1 hour of cardio and go for a long walk every single day to make sure I don't spend it in front of the computer.
While playing poker isn't inherently conducive to leading a healthy lifestyle, it doesn't make it anywhere close to impossible. Plenty of fatties in 9 to 5 corporate soulcruhers, it just comes down to your priorities and willpower.

Total BS! NO ONE ever quits when they're running good! The truth is that you ran good for a while and then starting going off and couldn't take the heat. I've seen a million like you, lots of fun when you're on top and desperate when things begin to go bad. You blame the game, the people, the environment, ANYTHING but yourself. You made the choice to be a poker player and now you think it sucks because you're running bad. Save your speeches for your mom and dad. They might be buying it.

I made a lot of money on the internet poker and I am not moving out of the country.