Just wondered whatever happened to the poster DoGGz who was a regular poster in mtt community for many years?

He left poker went back to school doing some kind of coding/programming and now works in silicon valley I think. Done decently for himself I believe.

Still occasionally in contact with him on Skype, don't think he plays much poker these days.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Cool thanks for that

this sounds very good

Well hello there!

Buffyslayer has the overview right. I retired in Summer 2016 so I could start doing something more meaningful with my life. I played poker (mostly) professionally for 12 years, and it was time to move on.

Poker showed me the future of AI and computers solving problems, so I decided to dive in. I moved to San Francisco that fall and enrolled in a coding school called Holberton. The first six months were super crazy and reminded me a lot of the early days of online poker: A lot of people who don't know **** trying to figure stuff out. There are a ton of people trying to make it and what seems like an endless stream of job opportunities.

By the spring I was at least good enough to interview at major tech companies and ended up landing a job at LinkedIn. So yea, I've been down in Silicon Valley for just over a year working as a Software Engineer.

The team that hired me does a lot of statistical work and I think poker on my resume may have been an asset. Interestingly, I occasionally get contacted by recruiters asking specifically about my poker background. I was always afraid it would be a liability, but it seems like it could be an asset for my career, at least within fields that are computation heavy.

Feel free to fire any questions.

Also huge shout out to Daryl Jace (aaaaaaaa) who was my long-time coach. We'd talked about moving on from poker for awhile, but it was his assurance that led me to taking the leap. It was by no means clear in 2016 that I would be able to quickly transition to a new career, but in hindsight it was the most obvious decision ever.

His council definitely changed my life. Thanks bro.

Grats. Glad you're doing well. And best of luck in the valley

How much poker either live or online have you played since you retired?
How have you found the change from poker to working fulltime?

How much studying time do you say should be mandatory in a day/a week to get things going in coding/software creation, when you are just starting out? thx

I went to the WSOP last summer, fired an event, and played some cash. I had more fun meeting up with friends than playing. That's basically my total playtime.

Working fulltime is less flexible but with more opportunity. What I mean by this is that you are directly competing with other people in the labor market for the highest wages and best jobs, but my peers don't act like it. Most people I know in the industry show up at 9-10am, leave at 4-5pm, and never do anything 'educational' related on their own. Contrast that with poker where people invest heavily in their own skills and abilities.

As much time as possible. Think of it like poker: The better you are, the more money you make. If you put in more time than everyone else in the job market, you are going to come out of interviews looking like a great candidate. Long term there is also a big incentive to be good enough to 'be a thought leader' and give talks at conferences. Companies pay huge salaries ($300k+) for people of that caliber. I feel like the ceiling is sky high so there's always more room to be better (in software engineering)

Probably takes half your time for a full year to be good enough to pass an interview with a Bay area tech company. That's assuming you already were a good poker player

How old are you? Could you share your LinkedIn page?

Thanks!

Doggz always enjoyed you buddy! Care to enlighten us what kindve schooling you took prior to getting your first tech job?

I'm 32 now. I'm sure you can find me if you search on LinkedIn

I moved to SF and attended Holberton school, an intensive 9mo+ program on software engineering. It's a non-degree program focusing exclusively on getting students into jobs. Thankfully, tech in general is open to hiring non-degree candidates for high paying jobs as long as they have the skills.

I had a little bit of background in programming, learned from my time creating auto-hotkey scripts for playing poker, (e.g. auto registering tournaments, arraigning tables in a specific pattern) so I didn't come in completely clueless.

Much like poker, it's easier to learn with peers and with people pushing you to be better.

Very glad that things are working out for you.
In hindsight when do you think you should have quit poker for this industry? Or did u leave at the right time?

Hey Doggz,

Glad to hear things worked out well for you and you are happy, well deserved man!

Quick question, I'm applying for a new job shortly and if you have the time was wondering what kind of bullet points or statements you put under your professional poker player part of your resume (i've been advised it's better then to make up some bs job)

If you feel like pm'ing thats cool man, any advice would be appreciated, fwiw, I have had 2 actual jobs lasting approx 1 year each in the last few years but there was a 3 year gap between my uni degree in commerce and my first job (where i was primarily playing poker, albeit microstakes)

Cheers mate

Congrats on your success outside poker dude. Also randomly a huge shout to Darryl, i quit poker (mostly) and started a podcast among other things, he's coached me in podcasting and question asking. Didn't realize how extensively he helped people outside of the game. Awesome to see

used to ask myself the threadtitle the last time i browsed the computer thread aswell, glad ure crushing RL now, all the best <3

Hindsight is always 20/20. If we're talking about purely poker: I would have quit in 2007 when one of my friends wanted me to start building iPhone apps with him (turns out that was pretttty lucrative), or I could have quit around 2011 when other friends of mine were heavily into sports then DFS then bitcoin (whoops again).

But realistically, I don't have regrets for continuing. I don't think the opportunities I got in 2017 would have existed in 2012 or in 2007. Perhaps I wouldn't have been ready for them even if they existed. Considering the actual outcome it seems like I left at the perfect time.

Don't make up a BS job. Own what you did with your time. You'll stand out, and that's what you want when you are applying for jobs. Sure, some people might see it negatively, but other will see it positively. I thought I was going into my job with no experience, but my manager saw my resume as 11+ years of analytic experience.

You should prefer to make your resume as high variance at possible. There is no cumulative score, no cost to enter. You just want to take the highest outlier possible (the best offer) across all the jobs you are going to apply for. Ultimately only one team/manager has to say yes.

would you recommend holberton to other retiring poker players?

Sure, as long as you are willing to put in the effort and work with other people. It's not a free lunch, but it's a good environment for success. I know of at least one other former pro who attended a few classes after me.

Thanks for the reply doggz,

I know lying on your resume is probably the worst thing you can do. Plus putting poker there can create an interesting point of chat with your employer. If they don't get that it's got elements of skill its probably not worth working for them anyways.

Cheers mate, and keep crushing. I'll let you know how i go.. xxx