Three years without a regular job, two years of Online play

[dogmeat]

A recap on playing as a pro, with my very biased opinions.

The last "regular" job I had working for a company was in Sept. of 2002 - so three years, and since then I have had some investment income, and also secondary income, but the bulk of my income has come from live and online play.

During the past two years, 90% of my "poker" income has been via the internet, and after starting at .50/$1 I have played as high as $30/$60 but regularly play $5/$10 and some $10/$20. My income spiked at $74 an hour, but overall for this period is $33 an hour (It's tough raising your hourly when you have hundreds of hours at a micro-limit).

I'm being honest here, for those interested (expecially those that are new to online play), there is some nice money to be made, but I am starting to reach a point where it isn't much fun. If I was making $250K, it might be different, but I am looking at a job offer in Greece because its over 100K plus housing, and that's more than I will make this year.

I played as a pro in the 1980's (I'm 46) and quit college to do so, but have been back in college since April of '04, and will get a degree in about a year. I wish I had just finished when I was younger. High school and college should be a major highlight in your life, and losing that to poker is a mistake. The more I see poker "taking off," the more I think it will be around way past your graduation. My opinion is enjoy your schooling, play poker on the side, and get your degree.

I had my first six-figure down swing, then took a week in San Diego with the family, and am back home - I've had a great time playing poker in my life, but I need a break/vacation about every two months now, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

I'm hoping to see a great deal from the "O'Doyle" group that can get me to 3-4 major tournaments next year, and that will probably be enough to keep me playing, but without that, I may give it a rest.

If I had to sum up my life, and poker, I would use one word:
EGO

Before you play poker, you should leave your ego at the door. I've done way too many foolish things due to my ego, instead of not worrying what other people might think of me or my situation. Don't let that happen to you. Do what's right for you - after giving all avenues an honest look. We get in certain games because of our ego, we chase down a player who "drew-out" on us because of ego, we often don't see the truth because our ego does not want to see it. Hell, I post here because of ego - and it's probably time to rethink that too.

Good luck everybody.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[PLOlover]

[ QUOTE ]
I had my first six-figure down swing,

[/ QUOTE ]

I gotta ask, maybe you miscalculated here or something. You mean >10k ?

[Recliner]

I was thinking that he meant his first 5 figure downswing???

[Toro]

Get an interesting job and play poker recreationally for profit. Well it seems that's what you are going to do. Good luck.

[Lost Wages]

You had a six-figure downswing?

Lost Wages

[boose_bagina]

good post

[jrz1972]

[ QUOTE ]
I had my first six-figure down swing,

[/ QUOTE ]

This makes me want to vomit. Or shoot myself in the head. Or vomit and then shoot myself in the head.

Kudos to you for riding that out.

Edit: I mean, damn.

[Uglyowl]

[ QUOTE ]
You had a six-figure downswing?

Lost Wages

[/ QUOTE ]

Does that include cents?

In all seriousness, great post! I am in between jobs by choice and have just started looking again. All in all, I have had a great summer and if I could have looked into the future, I would have done it again in a heartbeat.

Some things that caught me off guard:

1. I could not 8-table for as long as I thought I could at a successful level. Maybe I will learn to, things are going great right now, but I have not been able to put in the hours I have thought I could.

2. When things are going bad, it is worse than I thought. Since it is what you do, it sucks [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I had one big downswing this summer (not huge by the average guys standards), but something you have to learn.

3. The crap you take from others is much more than I thought. It is very hard to understand that poker can be profitable is beyond the scope of most people's understanding.

In closing my life style now is much more healtheir than my prior job, but people say "Sitting at a computer" is not healthy. Well what do you think I did at my "real" job [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] (on top of sitting in a car commuting 75 hours/month)

Good post.

Back to the job hunt for something I will enjoy and is close!

[Newt_Buggs]

Thanks for the confirmation. I've had tremendous success online for the past 6 months and used to absolutely love the game but I've been getting a little burned out lately. I still really enjoy the game, but I'm realizing how playing a lot regularly can become a grind.

Interesting, but there's something about you being 46 and not having a college degree yet and then getting a job offer of 100k+ that doesn't add up.

I do agree with your belief that college is important though.