Two Plus Two Older Archives - Quitting Poker (LONG)

Not many of you know me on the forums because I have not posted enough or contributed enough information for anyone to really remember me but I have spent countless hours on the 2+2 forum brushing up my game. For this story to really be of any significance I think I should give you insight into my life about 1.5 years ago, right when I started to play.

I was 16 years old at the time and I had just broken my foot dirtbikng. The injury wasn't that bad, just wrap it in a cast, and don't put too much pressure on it for 6 weeks and everything would be all right. That would have been true if not for incompetent doctors. What the doctors didn’t notice was the 2 extra bones that were broken in my foot. Them ignoring these bones caused them to heal wrong. Only until the cast was removed and I complained of pain did they realize their mistakes. From this I went to a different doctor outside of my insurance. All in all I ended up with 3 screws in my foot and 2 joints in my foot that were permanently fused into place. I had a hard time recovering from the pretty major surgery. Missed quite a bit of school and was left in a wheelchair for 2.5 months followed by another 2 months on crutches and 1 month of rehab. My foot would never be the same. I can no longer bend my ankle side to side for the rest of my life and I have limited movement out of the ankle. My interest in running was ruined and I was hesitant to start riding my dirtbike again. By the time this was all over it was January. I was originally injured in July.

From that you could probably tell that I had a little free time on my hand. I was used to being fairly active. I would either be running cross country, track, or riding my dirtbike. Right after my surgery was when I got involved in poker. My dad would play every so once in a while and I would sit down and play a Sit n Go on party with him. This happened about once a week. Soon he started to let me play by myself under his name. He had taught me a few things and I am a fast learner so I picked up the game fairly quickly. I wasn’t someone that could kill the game but I was somewhere to a breakeven to a slightly winning player. I had made 100 to 200 bucks under my dads account and he agreed to let me set up my own account and transfer me 50 dollars. I kept on reading on 2+2 and steadily progressed in my play. My roll slowly started to grow and I never really came close to busting out. I was fortunate at the start to not bust with a limited roll but after that it was clear sailings.

By the summer I had accumulated around 3k and hit a real dry point in my play. I wasn’t profiting much but I was putting in a ton of hours. I was withdrawing a little money here and there to pay for things I wanted. My winnings did not really pick up until I concentrated on SitnGos. Around the fall I moved up to the 50+5 level and played a lot of the tourneys. I ended up putting in around 500 with a 21% ROI thus getting a healthy bankroll. I tried my hand at 8 tabling 5 10. Also I put $250 into the step 1s trying to qualify for a step 5 and ended up making the climb up the ladder and taking a second in the step 5 for a $2500 payday. I was ecstatic with how much I had progressed. I had turned a mere $50 deposit into 12k+ in 1 year almost exactly.

As any 17 year old would react with being able to make probably a minimum of 1k a month I was encompassed by poker. My grades were slipping and I was becoming pretty anti social. I was in my senior year and I wanted to do something with my life instead of playing poker. I was tired with going home after school and 4 tabling for 4 hours straight while my friends were hanging out with girls or having a good time. And I was tired of struggling in school and risking not being let into the colleges I was accepted to because my drop in grades. I was overwhelmed with all the indecisions I had in my life so I decided that it would be in my best interest to give up poker to focus more on school, and my social life. I was in no need of an extra 10k, it would be nice to have but it was not a necessity for me to have. I believe that if I had not chosen to give up poker for the time being that my grades would have slipped even farther and I would not be admitted into Chico or Cal Poly. I did not want to give up my social life or future to play some card game that I was decent at. I wish you all good luck at the tables but I must remind everyone that there is stuff more important in life than an extra bb or two especially if you are young like myself. It is too hard for a teenager or young 20 something to keep life into perspective when they have the ability to rake in more than any one there age should be able to.

I will probably start playing again in moderation during the summer when I turn 18 and I have more time in my life to play poker and have a social life at the same time.