Is anyone reconsidering decision to play poker professionally?

[bestcellar]

I wasn't good enough to ever go pro, and I have not been playing very much poker recently, but this decision really hit me hard today. At first I was a little angry. Now, I am just really bummed out.

I've been fortunate to be able to do a lot of things in my life, but I have done very few things with as much dedication as I did with the game of poker. It is one of the only things that I really enjoyed learning about and doing, deep down in my soul. I really strove deep down to try to improve my game, and be the best player I possibly could, especially recently.

This year, I had the most success I've ever had playing poker, and for the first time I thought I was actually getting somewhere with my game. I was proud of myself and some of the accomplishments I had acheived. It was a nice to play something competitively at a relatively high level with people from all over the world. Of course, beyond the day-to-day frustrations, it was also nice to be able to supplement my modest income with a little extra money from playing cards.

Now, I feel marginalized. I feel cheated. I feel hurt. And most importantly, I feel helpless. I feel like people who are serving special interests and looking to get their palms greased are playing politics at the expense of me and my way of life, which is hurting absolutely no one.

I don't know what I'm going to do over the next few days.

I do know I will be drinking tonight.