I am just curious as to when people started playing poker and how it affected their decisions.

I see that a lot of people here are in university or started at that time - I think that is a great time to start, as long as you are responsible in your time and money management.

My situation is that I am 32, married with no kids (yet!) and a house with a small mortgage. I have a well paying job that I enjoy and my wife is currently working as well.

I am just making my first online deposit - and it is going to be for a whopping $100USD. I am going to start at the .10/.20 tables for now and move up as my bankroll allows.

For me to take a larger portion of my income for poker at this point would be irresponsible and unfair to my spouse. I also recognize that poker is a marathon, not a sprint. Even if it takes me 10 years to move up to limits where I can reasonably supplement my income in any meaningful way with poker, that should still give me many years of enjoying the fruits of my labour.

I would be interested to hear how other people handled this situation and how they looked at it when they got started.