Playing poker for a living (my experience so far) HELP!

[catlover]

I pretty much agree that if you don't like it, in the long run you need to find something else.

That said, in the short run you have your head screwed on straight. The fact that you had the good sense to move back down when 100/200 proved to be difficult speaks volumes.

[elmo]

fwiw, he did lose 150 bets before he moved down.

[Eric P]

Poker is most people's hobby away from work. It's your job, so either find a different varient of poker for a hobby ( that you can combine into your work) or find a hobby that you really like. You can work from anywhere in the world thanks to the internet, take a vacation.

[oreogod]

I think playing poker for a living (if u know what u are doing and understand the inner workings of variance) is far better than any 40 hour job Ive ever had (office, retail, server...etc)...the only thing I would trade it for is getting back into working within the movie industry (by far the best jobs ever)...but for someone as lazy as I am, i can play 10 hours a week if need be and most of the time make far more than I could within a 40 hour week elsewhere.

But I also love the game. Sure it can be a bitch, but I like it for the competetiveness and money.

[Peter_rus]

I'm playing for a living.

If i'm tired from playing - i'm simply quit playing. Meeting friends, find new chick, make some business not concerned with poker, crushing some loose-aggressives in "Doom" etc..

If you playing 30/60 - it's easy to be lazy ass logging 100 hours in a month (as i do last 3 months) and having 30K for a fun living.

Hey ggbman,

Thanks for the tip. I've never played full time poker like this before. I use to go to commerce when I lived in LA 2 or 3 times a month to play the 40/80 games a few years ago.

After my company closed a few months ago, I decided to give playing poker a shot. As I won a $7k playing at Pokerstars back in March for the first time.

I just didn't realize how playing everyday would be so "tough" emotionaly and mentaly.

I tried 100/200 in september. Lost 20k, won it back plus more in 30/60 and 50/100. Tried 100/200 again in oct, lost $30k. Stupid me was chasing my loss, and everything I did came up empty. I've stayed away from the 50/100 and higher for the past two weeks and everything seems to be on the upswing again. I think i've learned my lesson and just stick to 30/60.

I just need to find something else to occupy my time. I don't have really high daily goals. Winning avg $1k is enough for me to stop playing for the day. Regardless if its 1 session or 3 or 4 sessions in a day. But I always want play. And I guess that is where the real problem is.

Hey subfallen,

Well, I played live poker casually at 40/80 at the commerce a few years ago. Going 2 or 3 times a month. Not very good, won some, lost some. Just never took it very seriously. If I went to vegas, I would play the table games, never the poker games.

But I tasted online poker the first time with pokerstars back in march. in a week I won $7k at 30/60. Then my company closed in April, and I decided to give full time poker a shot. Never did I imagine how tough it would be playing everyday.

Stupid me for taking shots at 100/200. I lost in sept playing that level, but the other levels still put me on the plus side. So i decided to give it another shot at the beginning of this month. Lost again. and it really turned my game upside down. I was still chasing that huge lost when I went back to 50/100, and that didn't work at all.

So the past two weeks, I've stayed only at the 30/60 and slowing digging myself out of the lost I created by playing at a level I was not financial or mentally prepared for.

Very stupid of me.

Hi Obi,

thanks for the tip. It's weird writing to you, since there's been many times I wanted to slap you when I played the 50/100 and 100/200 earlier this month.

You play all the time. Do you really love playing the game? Doesn't the winnings and losing sessions ever mess with your head? Or do you feel the same whether you had a losing or winning day.

I need to find filler time between my sessions, so I don't always want to play. At least when I played live, I would have to drive there. Think about traffic, go home etc. With online, its just a click of a button. I don't even have to get dressed. just wake up, brush my teeth, and i'm playing in all of 15 minutes.

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That it is incredibly hard playing poker every day. I don't know how anyone could do this for years. Its boring.

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This is not unique to poker. The large majority of jobs in this world are things that are pretty boring to do everyday for years.

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You're absolutely right. It's just that I've never played poker every day before. The highs and lows of winnings was something I did not really prepare for. Any suggestions on minimizing the downside of playing everyday?

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I pretty much agree that if you don't like it, in the long run you need to find something else.

That said, in the short run you have your head screwed on straight. The fact that you had the good sense to move back down when 100/200 proved to be difficult speaks volumes.

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I'm haven't really decided if I can handle playing everyday for the long run.

With regards to playing the 100/200. It was stupid. I tried it in sept, I lost $20k. but I won at the other levels to make it a great month for me. So I tried it again in oct. And the lost was even greater than the first time.

It threw me off my game for almost two weeks. So much that I couldn't even play the 50/100 like I was able to in Sept. as I kept seeing the same players who beat me in the 100/200.

So for the last two weeks, I've only played the 30/60 and have gotten some of my confidence back.

I don't think I'm going back to that game for a long long long time. I would have been in a great position if I never played that game. A tough and very expensive lesson to experience, in my opinion.