Patching holes in resume (for financial career)

[Isura]

I've recently become very interested in investing and the financial markets. I would like to pursue a career in the markets: trading, or long term investing (not sure which I like more). From what I understand it is hard to start a career in either field without a large amount of capital, so I guess my route would be to get an entry level position and move up. My problem is that I have no official financial training or experience.

I graduated 2 years ago with engineering and math degrees (gold medal in math). I then started a masters in pure math, but am currently on a leave of absence to play poker (I can go back anytime if necessary, 8 more months to finish the program). I would rather not go back to the math program since I didn't enjoy the theoretical studies that much. I was on a research/academia path during undergrad and the last year, so no work experience except for in research labs (I have decent programming skills). So I'm not really sure how to go about making my resume look good enough to attract at least interviews.

- Do I mention my grad school career, even though I kinda dropped out?
- Would applying for a masters in quantitative finance or economics/finance be a good approach? I've heard that is not too related to trading (trading is what I really want to do).
- Do I mention poker on the resume? What about in interviews?
- I do a lot reading, but its not formal training to so I get the feeling that my resume will just get passed over.

Any suggestions or experiences would be appreciated.