Quitting...

Good luck on your endeavors, but TL;DR.

do it while you still have time to fail and try other things. nothing sadder than being past your mid 30's with poker as your only experience. good luck

insightful read.

hey gl to you man. CFA lvl 1 is a great start. I'm doing lots of self study in finance myself. see you on the sell side

Sounds like a good plan. Play as a hobby and for fun when you feel like it. Leave the money to the real job

depressing read but glad you've found a new route. GL

Feel much the same about a lot what you have written, I feel I'm in my twilight poker years, good read and all the best.

hey, im doing my csc right now, and prob doing cfa sometime, (toying with the idea of flip flopping and starting the actuarial exams, actually..also ) i live in london and im pretty much in the same boat (i dont want to deal with the end consumer very much, prefer analyst or something) =]

Was gonna write 'sorry to see you go', but you're not really 'going', and there's absolutely no reason to be sorry.
Best of luck in finance!


I've been having many of the same thoughts. I remember looking at a full gaming floor in the lisboa last night (really noisy, lots of incoherent shouting and asian businessmen pounding tables) and thinking 'this is like a prison, but they sign up for it voluntarily'. And the end of that bill hicks routine about life and rollercoasters everyone likes quote, lol.

Iuno sometimes it feels like everyone (poker and non) is just trying to grind out a living and run good in life. And your happiness is always attached to how well you're running; you see the worst in people in poker because the observation intervals are so short (day trading too, I hear).

I guess what I'm struggling with now is, what else can I really do? I can see myself thinking the same thoughts about any other endeavor, whether it be a 'real' job or not. Say, for example, you 'make it' in finance. Is it possible you're not going to think similarly about finance, but only in 20-30 years, from the window of your corner office?

Anyway, just musing/semirambling. I'll try not to derail. Just similar shit on my mind.

Again, best wishes.
Cheers.

Enjoy your new direction. =].

Winners never quit and quitters never win. Change title to SNE in '11.

Goodluck! and let us know how things go~

Having already worked in a finance dept. of a major insurance company and I have to say that doing that has been signifficantly more stressfull than poker. And I worked in a BURF/Sarbanes Oxley unit, people like actuaries had it even worse than us. Maybe it was due to out integration we were undergoing after a high profile merger and the shity economic climate, but the 1.3 years have been the most stressfull in my life, and playing poker is a breeze in comparison (even though I am in VERY bad state poker wise right now). Yes, I did get stable income, but you get swarmed by regulation, reports and regulatory things and tons of forms that you need to fill before you can even focus on the core of your job. It was also a super busy period with major lay offs and people swapping places, and there were tons of projects going on and many of the 'non-vital' that would actually improve the way we do things and that you actually want to do went unfinished.

Even directors 8 levels above me (the eventual top of the ladder) had a fuckton of regulatory non-core bullshit on their table day in day out (I know, I was chasing them), I found out that this isn't what I want, I know that when I am at the top, I want to focus on what I am good at and what is fun for me, like you know, directing, and not having to spend 30+% of my time on non value adding bs 8-9.

With poker I can focus on doing what adds the most value 100% of the time, spend time with my girlfriend and doing things I like and I can put as much or as little focus into improving and working towards my goals as I want to. I am in peace with variance tilt issues and being broke (this especially. As long as I can sustain my gf/family and I am happy money is not a factor for me at all), and when I stand up I don't feel depressed even though I didn't win in ages. I couldn't see the same when I had a major personal initiative/project at work and it got killed in mundane day to day work.

So I do not see finance or any work when you work for 'standard' corporations with fixed work time as an option. Poker or Enterpreneurial focus are a way out for me. Maybe your experience will differ, I dunno, best of luck to you.

Oh and also the idea of progress - In poker or when with my business my goal is to be better every day, and this is easily achieveable because there are so many things to think about. Every session brings new variables, every hand is unique, and when you have your own business there are always ways to get better, new ways to improve and you have full control over them.

In Finance I found myself grinding day after day with things I didn't have to think about because I did them every month, every day, for other people and as I already mentioned these things often kill the innovative stuff I was trying to push. Also, there is a bellcurve with a personal BSC/performance appraisal, and some 80% of people fell into the 'good performer' average year in year out, and you feel that no matter how hard you try, you stagnate and you have to rely on other people to progress with your career within one company.

Good luck with everything in the future.

Iuno sometimes it feels like everyone (poker and non) is just trying to grind out a living and run good in life. And your happiness is always attached to how well you're running; you see the worst in people in poker because the observation intervals are so short (day trading too, I hear). I guess what I'm struggling with now is, what else can I really do? I can see myself thinking the same thoughts about any other endeavor, whether it be a 'real' job or not. Say, for example, you 'make it' in finance. Is it possible you're not going to think similarly about finance, but only in 20-30 years, from the window of your corner office?

Life really shouldn't be a grind though. If you enjoy what you are doing then it doesn't really have to be that way. And yeah sure its possible that I'll be having the same thoughts 20 or 30 years from now. But its something I enjoy and want to get into right now. I can't worry about having the same thoughts 20 or 30 years from because thats not important. This route will give me the security, stability and freedom I want. I'm not advocating this is the right decision for everyone, I just know its the right decision for me.

With poker I can focus on doing what adds the most value 100% of the time, spend time with my girlfriend and doing things I like and I can put as much or as little focus into improving and working towards my goals as I want to. I am in peace with variance tilt issues and being broke (this especially. As long as I can sustain my gf/family and I am happy money is not a factor for me at all), and when I stand up I don't feel depressed even though I didn't win in ages. I couldn't see the same when I had a major personal initiative/project at work and it got killed in mundane day to day work. So I do not see finance or any work when you work for 'standard' corporations with fixed work time as an option. Poker or Enterpreneurial focus are a way out for me. Maybe your experience will differ, I dunno, best of luck to you.

Yeah and I mean its gonna be different for everyone. I understand what you are saying that you can completely control what you do and only focus on value added activities which is great. The freedom aspect of just playing whenever you want and then doing your own thing whenever you want is a perk of playing poker. But I just see the negatives outweighing the positives for me.

Oh and also the idea of progress - In poker or when with my business my goal is to be better every day, and this is easily achieveable because there are so many things to think about. Every session brings new variables, every hand is unique, and when you have your own business there are always ways to get better, new ways to improve and you have full control over them. In Finance I found myself grinding day after day with things I didn't have to think about because I did them every month, every day, for other people and as I already mentioned these things often kill the innovative stuff I was trying to push. Also, there is a bellcurve with a personal BSC/performance appraisal, and some 80% of people fell into the 'good performer' average year in year out, and you feel that no matter how hard you try, you stagnate and you have to rely on other people to progress with your career within one company.

Yeah the personal growth aspects of poker aren't really as strong as they used to be for me. I did have a lot of fun moving up the limits challenging myself and I just no longer feel that. I've come to grips with the fact that I won't be able to reach the top in poker.

It kind of looks like you just hate routine and not being able to express your creative side. And yeah I agree connections do play a big role in moving up in your career. Its kind of the same for poker too though. Talking about hands with other players will help you improve faster than you could by yourself.

I don't think your decision is bad at all considering poker is very stressful and that's part of why I've only ever played casually (2 hours a week) but realistically whatever you do in life for work there will be aspects of it that are a total grind. I'd advise not fooling yourself into believing that every second of life can be rosy if you just pick the right options. The grass is not simply greener on the other side. Good luck finding a bit more happiness with what you're doing though for sure.

On February 27 2011 04:06 whamm! wrote: do it while you still have time to fail and try other things. nothing sadder than being past your mid 30's with poker as your only experience. good luck

so true. if i wasn't running good i wouldn't know what i'll be doing for money.

gl

... oh, and... you'll be back. i give it 4 - 6 months. losing players even get back to the game at less than 4 months.