[TimM]

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I'm actually quite disappointed with how I came out of playing poker - which is not to say that I didn't come out okay. (Cliff notes at bottom of post.)

Cliff notes: I've done okay playing poker, but due to laziness, occasional poor bankroll management, and untimely streaks of running bad, I didn't come out the other end with much to show

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I feel the same way. Maybe these stories should go in another thread, but...

I started playing in December 2003 after reading HEPFAP, and was immediately beating the low limit games. I had a decent paying but boring as [censored] tech job with a small start-up at the time. I played part time and moved up steadily throughout 2004. I made about 14K at poker that year, and it helped me because I paid off a lot of debt.

The job went sour in January 2005, and management wanted us all to take across the board pay cuts of about one third. I was the first to leave, figuring I could easily make the same at poker. For 2005, that was true, I made almost exactly the same as I did in 2004, but of course I only worked 20 hours a week instead of 40. Perhaps you could call it laziness, but grinding poker was just to mind numbing for me to put in many more hours than that.

2006 sucked though. I made less than half of what I did in 2005. I paid about 20K in 2005 and 2006 estimated taxes, and that basically wiped my savings, and forced me to drain my bankroll for living expenses. I moved down through the limits, from a peak of 20/40 in March, to 2/4 in the fall, and I don't even feel like a winner there sometimes. I really just don't have the bankroll to support myself with poker any more.

I've concluded that limit hold'em sucks, and I've switched to SNGs for now, since I had dabbled in them in the past and did well at the lower limits. But I'm starting over and have a lot to learn, and still need to rebuild a bankroll if I'm to make decent money. I've started looking for jobs again, but my tech skills are stale and I have a two year gap to explain. I'm not even sure I want to go back into it, the idea of working at another job like the one I had makes me sick. I'm a bit older than most 2+2ers (turned 40 in September), so the idea of starting over in an entry level job situation is not very appealing either.

Oh well, I hate to make such a negative post in a thread that was meant for positive stuff, but that's my situation.