If I were to pick one day in my life that has changed me the most, I would have to pick the day I discovered poker.

Before poker I was an aimless kid with few hopes and fewer options. My family did not have the money to pay for the groceries half the time, much less for a college education. My home situation was terrible, and often I would work my minimum wage job at Arby’s late into the night just to avoid going home. I knew sooner or later my mother, sister, and I were going to be evicted from our house, and I had no plan for what I was going to do after that. I was stuck in a rut, unbelievably stressed, and depressed constantly. <READMORE>

Now, a couple years later, my life has completely changed. I have my own apartment in Seattle, and I am going to a community college in the mornings to take classes. I have a serious girlfriend, money in the bank, and every stupid material possession I wanted as a kid but could never afford. I can help my kid sister with her own expenses and get some nicer things for her like an iPod or digital camera when she gets good grades. I could take the next year off and still be in a good financial position. I have freedom in my life now that was beyond my wildest dreams a couple years ago.

At the same time, while I love my life and wouldn’t trade it for anything, there are many negatives that come with being a professional online poker player that I did not anticipate when I quit my day job. I know I was not alone in my naiveté either. Daily, I read posts or get a letter from somebody discussing how they are ready to “take the plunge,” and when I read more about what they are expecting out of playing professionally, I cringe. Many guys my age seem to think playing poker is the key to never growing up and to having the easiest life there is, when in reality poker is probably one of the most brutal professions anyone could choose.

There is so much hard work and sacrifice you put into this game before you make anything that resembles a decent living, and most people do not understand that. What I am hoping to get across in this article is not that you shouldn’t go pro or give up on your aspirations, but that if you are thinking about playing full time, there are some things you should consider. I am hoping to give you a more realistic view of what it means to play professionally, as well as how you can expect it to affect you and your personal life.

For one thing, there are not as many successful poker players as you would think. Many people play as much as the pros or even call themselves professionals in conversation, but many of them are not earning enough to live off poker alone. On this site and others, we usually only pay special attention to a player when he or she is winning. We never look at them a year later and go “so how did you handle your big win?” Sure, we all know Bax and Annette_15 have been amazingly consistent, but usually the closest we ever get to viewing most players' long term is with the occasional “what ever happened to…” threads.

Look through the back log of Pocketfives.com articles and threads and see how many players have come and gone in just the years the site has been up. Better yet, go to some of the statistics-tracking websites they have out there now and look up some of the “star” players. Not to name names, but you’ll be amazed to find how many people who are supposed to be great players are not in the black, or if they are they are not by that much.

The ones who do earn enough to make a living do not make millions like so many people think. If you are going to become a tournament professional, you will spend thousands between your big scores. The stress of dealing with this is too much for many people to bear. Furthermore, if you can’t focus when you have been losing or have a tendency to play worse, you’re not going to cut it.

Many people do not take into account how poker is going to affect their personal lives either. The streaks of poker, until you are used to them, will change you emotionally. Many people act downtrodden and defeated when they are losing, as well as just generally depressed and unenthusiastic in their day-to-day affairs. If you read poker player blogs, you will read several accounts of guys holing up in their houses when they are losing. A few friends of mine have even gone so far as to say that it affects their sex lives negatively when they are on a down streak.

How much time you spend playing poker is also an issue. For many of the top tournament players, poker is not a professional endeavor, but rather a complete obsession. Take a look at a number of top players’ profiles and see what they put under hobbies. Often you’ll see variants of “lol” or “what are those” or something suggesting they do not do anything else besides poker. Cash game players are not committed to their game for a set amount of time, but many players worth their salt find it hard to leave when an ATM is at the table. Sadly, the reality is that if you want to become a real winning player, you have to log hundreds of thousands of hands, and the only way to do that is to be playing constantly.

When you’re playing poker that much, it’s hard to have other hobbies, and sometimes it’s hard to maintain a social life. I know of many players who had problems with depression when they were beginning to play professionally, just from the isolation of the whole process.

When I began playing professionally, I had some real problems with keeping myself emotionally stable. It is really hard to sit there and play every day when you’re starting out and don't have a large enough bankroll to take regular breaks. To get to where I am today, I spent several months where my life essentially consisted of waking up, playing poker, and sleeping. While I became a much better player, the process was incredibly lonely, and I had many times where I just did not want to go on.

A number of your friends and family will not understand your new occupation. You will often be working when others are not because the juiciest poker games occur when people are off work, so many times your schedule will not correspond with others. I tell my friends often to call me a day ahead of time if they want to hang out, but that is not in many people’s natures. You will not get to experience a lot of fun things that just spontaneously come together, such as parties. If you’re a young guy especially, you’re going to miss out a lot.

If you choose to forego college to pursue poker, you will be opting out of a really great experience. Poker is going to be around for a long time to come. It will not grow like it was growing a couple years back, but it's pretty safe to say it's here to stay. You will never be young again or have another chance at the true college experience.

Poker also will have a part in disturbing your dating life. A good deal of women or men cannot date a poker player seriously. Stability in your work is something many people look for in a partner, and you’re not going to have that. Many people are not willing to take a poker player home to Mom and Dad. Some people will just see you as a degenerate gambler and not give you the time of day. Others, if you get involved with them, will not be able to handle the fact you are “gambling with the rent money.” Wait until your partner tells you they're "in the mood," and you have to respond that you just started 10 SNGs or MTTs, and see how well they take that.

Playing online poker for a living also has detrimental effects on many players’ bodies. Playing professionally, you will not be doing anything that requires physical effort all day beyond clicking a mouse. Many people, myself included, become really skinny because of this. Others gain weight due to combining their eating habits with an inactive lifestyle. You can jog and work out daily, but as any aspiring dieter knows, being physically active while maintaining a full-time job can be difficult.

Again, I am not saying that you shouldn’t turn pro. If you have read every paragraph here and it only makes you want it more, you have my blessing. I would not wish to discourage anyone who truly loves this game and has good results from pursuing it if that is what they desire. I get a tremendous personal satisfaction every day from doing something I love, and I would not deny anyone the opportunity to pursue that. Just understand that there is a lot of hard work and sacrifice before you get to the point where things become easier and more stable, and that there is nothing wrong with being a serious part-time player if you feel the sacrifices are too much.

Good luck to you all.

-Alex
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