You still have to pay your taxes, so you really don't have that money until you pass through that barrier. If you are not careful, you can end up in jail.

OP, if you don't enjoy what you do, you shouldn't be doing it. Therefore good for you for quitting. However, there are plenty of people who do enjoy the lifestyle and aspire to be great poker players and those are the ones who are really in it for the long run. Some people just aren't cut out for that life.

ps: tl;dr the last few pages

this post in inspiring, and im sure its not a troll, cause im just like him. ive been trying to be a pro for a while, but could never see myself doing it for life. always wanted to quit by 25, and i was making similar money to oop.

lived in vegas, thailand, bsas. only played like 4 hrs/week last year, won a bunch, and still didn't like it. for some people waking up and knowing they can do whatever they want in the world with a essentially bottomless supply of money isnt a good thing...

even why you try not to think about poker, you still think about bankroll swings, investing, how good the euro sites really are, etc.

obviously it's been real fun, but i'm excited to get back to habitat for humanity soon =).

in before "correction: quitting poker was worst decision ive ever made"

I quit poker after 18 months playing for a living and I am very happy with my decision, was thinking about making a post to see about other peoples experiences but the smug and condescending nature of this post was not was I was hoping for.

Saying there are more important things than money and then listing your earning as a sign of status is laughable.

TBH I really don't enjoy playing live poker anymore because of who I am forced to socialize with and I only continue to do so for the money. I hate being around such scumbag degenerates. They smell, are horrible to talk to, and often you even get people that have no teeth. I'm not saying poker professionals are the scum of the earth but a lot of the people we have to interact with on a daily basis are if you are playing anything smaller than 5/10NL or 30/60L (you still get it in the bigger games but it's just not as prevalent.) I have no intentions of quitting poker but it's an aspect of the job I reallllllly hate.

+1

awful level. shoulda said you'd been playing for 3.5 years. would have been more believable.

care to elaborate ?

When you played poker for living,was it 24tabling for 8 hours a day?

fyp

no one in their right mind quits anything after making 500k in 2.5 years. this is ****ing ******ed

I graduated in 09 with a 3.25 gpa and was involved in extracurriculars. I had a job before I graduated, but it's a highly stressful job in a treatment facility working with psychotic violent teenage males.... I get paid about 30k a year + benefits. Since I started following bankroll management I make better money playing poker (which really isn't hard).

Im highly considering quitting and playing full time while devoting a large amount of time to studying to try and get into med school. Only problems I see are no insurance and my job right now is perfect for my med school app.

I'm not some lifelong professional player b/c I've always had other jobs I liked as well, but in my 9+ years of everyday playing, my experience has been that the only thing that sucks about poker are those never ending, math defying, mind numbing downswings (ie losing).
Cannot wrap my head around how clearing 165k a year for 3 years playing cards could be so terrible. Since you won so much (and thats really the most anyone could expect from the game), I'd be interested in hearing what could possibly have sucked so bad.

Have fun dedicating 50 hours a week (commute) to a job that gives you $1020 take home pay every 2 weeks.

LOL @ thread

I have played for a living over the past two years as well and I am trying desperately to get out. I have not made nearly as much as you, but I made more than enough to live the lifestyle I wanted and accumulate a bit of savings. I worked about 1,100 hours total in the past two years and I cannot wait to turn poker back into a hobby.

It is not surprising that most the negative replies in this thread are coming from people who have no experience playing for a living. For them there is no obligation to play; poker exists as a hobby. It is fun. It takes a rare individual in deed to play full time for several years and still find the game enjoyable.

It is not until you experience the realization that the ONLY reason you play is because you have to in order to survive, are you in a position to comment on the validity of OP's viewpoints. As a recreational player, the appeal to poker is the hopes and dreams of the immense wealth that getting good enough can provide. When you go pro (assuming you do so responsibly) you need to have a more realistic approach to the game and it turns into a job.

The freedom is great if you use it wisely, but it can also be a curse. For those of you who lead a life structured around your 9-5, you probably have no experience in maintaining a healthy lifestyle without that structure. It's really ****ing hard to do. Without knowing how you will respond in an unstructured environment, you are not really in a position to comment on his decision.

I held two really ****ty jobs for a year after graduating from college before going pro. I have some perspective on the workforce and how big of a grind it is. That being said, I am looking forward to rejoining it simply because of how much poker has taken from me as a person. Perhaps that is my fault for letting it happen, but I can confidently say that it will happen to most players who successfully play internet poker for a living. I would argue that it takes FAR more discipline to live a healthy and productive lifestyle as a poker pro than it does to actually be good enough to go pro in the first place. Most people commenting probably do not have the discipline to play cards on a professional level. If you don't have the discipline to play professionally, you probably wouldn't be able to take good care of yourself without the structure that a 9-5 brings, and poker would negatively impact your life as well.

Congrats, OP. Best of luck.

No you didn't. With all that money and free time, you couldn't find fun things to do to relieve stress? Making $500k in two and a half years in your underwear is one of the EASY jobs, not one of the hard ones.

I wonder why those ******s cares if that 500k is real or not. Truly idiotic. Probably cuz they're busto nl25 donks

_______

Anyway, I've always been kinda misanthropic + I don't beleive in the concept of ''satisfaction from a job'' so poker fit great for me.

But I can EASILY imagine somebody having depression cuz of it since I catch one sometimes.

Super post grats

one of the best post I've ever read in NVG

good 4 u man

I'm a 36 year-old married father of two and I love this lifestyle. I get to drive my kids to and from school. I play mostly when they are at school and after they're in bed. I've worked in the public sector, the private sector, and spent more years in grad school then anyone should. Disliked them all to various degrees and for various reasons. It's probably a personality thing - I'm basically a "l'enfer, c'est les autres" kinda guy.

I'm glad you enjoy what you do, and not trying to encourage anyone to drop out and turn pro, just providing an alternate POV.

you get out of life what you put into it.

why not play for a while longer and be set for life?

or maybe you weren't doing as well as you are telling us/yourself..

GINNN's post owned this thread.

Maintaining balance is not impossible as a poker player. I can think of a kazillion things to do with big money - plenty of balance to be found if you have interests of any kind. (Sure, another aspect of balance is not allowing your moods to be dictated by how well you did at the tables but this too is feasible).