life of a poker player, dream or nightmare?

For the past 4 months, I have been playing poker everyday. Occasionally I’ll take a day off or two but these are rare. After blowing my live bankroll I’ve come to realise how much time I have spent on poker. Every night just going to the casino grinding the cash games there and come back only to have myself playing more online… it kinda sucks really. The first 2 months were great. I was earning way above I would normally do playing poker as oppose to finding a real job like all the other varsity students. I would eat out all the time, having dinner at various high class restaurants without even thinking of how the money could be better spent somewhere else. I was living like a king and a bum at the same time. I think over the period of 4 months I have gained like 10 pounds. All the eating out and not exercising at all. At one stage I felt real burned out and I believe that that must have been because of my mental and physical state that I was in. Not good. LOL

I’ve got a profit of approximately 17k over summer playing live cash games and loss of 12k at the table games (blackjack/roulette). Not many people can make a living off poker and fortunately enough I’m one of them who can. Its not easy to be a pro (I’m not one), i mean, after 2 months and I was already burned out from all the grinding. Imagine the professionals who do this everyday for 20 years. I know a pro from the local casino who has been living off the casino for 4 years now. He told me that it would not be hard to make 100k a year playing 2/5, especially with all the new fishes these days. But he also told me that if I wanted to go pro, be prepared to give up alot of things in life. You’ll never see the sunrise again and only wake up to the sunset.

I am done really. Poker has giving me so much and at the same time taken away alot of what makes life enjoyable. I have never regretted playing poker and will continue to play on, but only with moderation. I’ve decided to stop playing live games and set a couple of new goals which I hope to accomplish before May.

1) start eating healthy

2) exercise regularly

3) build a community poker forum for New Zealanders

Oh btw, I’m starting uni again doing 2nd year architecture. So…. wish me luck

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