a lot to talk about

[samoleus]

lapoker,

thanks very much for the honest and insightful response. I am 33 years old, so although I am not one of the young college kids - I certainly can't "coast in" either. The inherent difference between you and me might be that I do not obtain a tremendous amount of pleasure from my professional career. It is a job that is at times interesting, at times rewarding, at times frustrating, but never one that gets me excited. I do not think that great success at poker will make me feel great about myself.

However, I do expect that the time and flexibility that playing poker full time will provide me will enable me to take an active role in raising my children, spend more time with my wife, and perhaps later in life take on a less profitable but more rewarding side job - like coaching high school soccer (I used to be a professional soccer player before an injury cut short my career after only 1.5 years).

So while I agree with you wholeheartedly that poker will not be a means of fulfillment for me, I think that if I am able to deal with the issues of health insurance, ongoing legality, continued success, etc, - it will provide me with the time and flexibility to fulfill myself through other means that I might not have the time or inclination for if I kept my current professional status.

[lapoker17]

take a year off and play, then start your own business doing something you love, and play poker. see, that was easy.

[KingNeo]

Sam,

Although you stated that this was not meant to be a brag post that is obviously what it morphed into. With $6 mil in earnings over the past 2 years you are a moron to keep your job. That is brutally honest, but if you really made $6 mil then you are a moron to still be working.

If you really have $6 mil then health insurance should be the least of your worries. You should be worrying about how you can pay the least amount of taxes. If you ever really needed health insurance then you could either: 1) Go with your wife's plan. 2) Go get a simple stupid job for a couple months to get health insurance and then get whatever procedure you need done. Then QUIT the job.

It boggles my mind that you could be smart enough to be an engineer and make $6 mil in 2 years but you are not smart enough to figure out what to do about health insurance???

From what I played with you, you are a good player but easily exploitable. It is a good thing there are alot of donators.

Are you aware of how much you could get accomplished in 40 hrs per week if you quit your job?

The fact that you are still working is almost a joke to me. I have not even made 1/6 th of what you made and it is abundantly obvious that I either need to:

1) Start playing more poker
2) Start a business (which I did)

This has become a brag post. COngrats on your wins, they are impressive.