Turned in My Badge (Long Farewell)

[QTip]

Today, I’m accepting a job offer. This ends my “full time poker” life. This also will put an end to my posting much (though I've not posted much the last month or so anyway). In light of this, I've also turned in my badge and gun as a mod.

Much of my poker adventure revolves around the fact that my wife and I built a large house on 35 acres while we both were working and just had one child. She quickly become pregnant again (still trying to learn how this happens), and then we had the second child. At this point, she really wanted to stay home with the kids. I told her I would see what I could do with my job and part time poker.

Here's that part and my initial story for those interested.

So, for 6 months, I would get up at about 5 am, play for a few hours, then go to work for 9 hours, come home and spend time with my family and then play cards for a few more hours at night.

Then, around June of 2005, I realized that I really could make a lot of money playing cards. My full time job income was a joke compared to what we needed to make, so in this respect, staying there was a waste of my time.

These thoughts got me thinking about playing for a living. For anyone considering that, I would recommend that you read all the very insightful input in that thread. I, obviously, decided to give this a shot. BTW, I did take the advice in that thread and started a business. I did one or two jobs a month and managed to make about $5k doing that. Not much, but an experience.

I started pro July 3rd of 2005. The plan was basically to play 8 hours of 8 tables of 2/4 full. I played anywhere from 70k - 85k hands a month. Things were going pretty well, outside of my January and February, which I've posted about (in which I did make money, but not close to what I need).

Why is it ending?

There are a handful of reasons I've decided to change gears. After the 2nd child, my wife quickly became pregant again (please...clue me in), and we had our 3rd child 2 months ago. I've finally come to the realization that this house and 3 kids is just too much for me to keep up with. It would be for just about any family with one income. I do believe I could make it, but, to do so is a TON of preasure and I'm just treading water, making up no ground. So, with all this, we've put our house up for sale. With this, comes the desire for the security of being able to easily get a loan, and some sort of certain income. Also, I underestimated the impact of taxes on gambling income.

There have also been the changes in the poker world that have just been a hassle and put me at unrest. Rakeback hassles, 6m into 2/4, games getting worse, "upgrades" making game selection more difficult, the idea of poker under attack by the US Gov't, etc. These are just added stress in an already stressful environment.

So, I've got a new job now that's will bring in about 45% more than what I made at my previous job, and we're doing some serious downsizing that is seriously decreasing our expenses. So, things will get better.

Some things I've learned about the pro adventure.

1. BANKROLL, BANKROLL, BANKROLL. It can't be stressed enough. If you don't stress it, it will stress you. I've been underrolled the entire time, imo, with several thousand BBs and 2 months expenses.

2. Getting in a lot of hands is much more difficult than most would think and does require a lot of discipline, and I'm a glutton for punishment.

3. Even for being an online player, knowing more than one game is cool. I can't be described as a professional gambler, but a professional limit holdem player.

4. Despite the increasing social acceptance and interest in poker, their still is a social factor to overcome. It also gets quite annoying trying to explain +EV gambling to people. I've never been one to thrive on social acceptance; however, there were times when the fact that I played cards for a living made for uncomfortable situations. Take, for example, I'm selling my house and getting a job. What does this look like to the people who knew what I was doing? Oh, he lost everything gambling and has to pick up the peices. When, in reality, I made more in 7 months of SS poker, than they made all last year. I've got nothing to prove, but still this looms in conversations.

5. Pro poker for the single man. Yeah, I think this is probably best. The preasure of a terrible run is rather amazing when you're the sole provider for a family. This could just be a rule imo.

6. Poker friends are huge. I stressed this in another post before, but just having people who understand your world and can discuss it with interest and intelligence is so valuable. This really is another form of the social impact of playing pro. So much of what I have to talk about revolves around the poker world, and this just isn't interesting to many other people.

7. Know that uncle Sam will tear into you. Backup your databases, keep good records, and take out for your taxes regularly.

I'm sure there are other things I'm missing at the moment.

I'm not sure where poker is in my future. I'm sure I'll play some here and there, but not much for a while I'm sure as my hours now will be longer, and the majority of my non-working time will now be spent with my wife and three kids. Time will tell I guess. I hope someone has learned something from my telling of this experience. Since I signed up at 2+2, I've played 800k hands of poker (this includes micros and sngs as well). I was really looking forward to hitting 1 milllllion hands and changing my avator to a McDs sign, but...alas, I didn't make it. The most impacting thing I've learned about the game through this time though, is how long the long run really is and the drastic impact that game selection really has.

Mostly, I want to say thanks to everyone in this forum for helping me learn the game and always being supportive. IMO, there are some of the finest people I've ever been aquainted with in these forums.

Mostly, I've been a taker in these forums or simply started a thread which sparked someone cool into saying something valuable. However, there are a handful of posts that I made that I thought were worthy of someone reading. Here's my small collection.

To The New, Aspiring Player

It Really is Just a Game

The 4000 post Milestone (in this is a link to my pooh bah and carpal tunnel posts which had a cool collection of posts for someone learning the game).

That's about all on my mind at this time. Again, thx to everyone that played a part in my poker life. I hope to stop by and say hi every now and then where people can say "You suck, easy fold." As always, I'm happy to try to answer questions someone may have about this experience.

Thx again,

QTip

[brettbrettr]

You should teach a course in class.

[xGoreDudex]

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You should teach a course in class.

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second that

[habsfanca11]

QTip. Thank you for all you have contributed. While I'm sorry to see that you will need to pull back from the forum, I'm really glad that you're getting things worked out. Best of luck and I wish you much success.

[soma_]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[sean c]

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You should teach a course in class.

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This couldn't be more true. Good luck Q. BTW i have #4 on the way the oldest is six. Let me know if you figure out what causes this.

[QTip]

Happy Birthday Brett!

[sharpie]

Another thought provoking post, makes me think twice about considering doing this for a living. Hope you stop by when you can and get back to playing casually after a break.

Wish you the best in your future endeavors.

[Buck_65]

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After the 2nd child, my wife quickly became pregant again (please...clue me in)

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Glad to see I'm not the only one who God is pointing and laughing at.

It is good to hear you're re-entering the "real" workforce. It will take so much stress out of your life, and your family will feel more secure whether or not that's what they tell you. I'm sure they were all incredibly supportive during the full time poker days, but your updated situation makes me feel happy for you so I'm sure the feeling is only magnified within your family.

The quality of your posts and the work you've done here on 2+2 are reflections of your character. You'll succeed and be well liked at your new job. Take care of yourself, QTip.

[Jake (The Snake)]

Thank you for all of your contributions here, Qtip. Your presence will be missed.

Best wishes to you and your family.