Brooms lean in vacant rooms

Sup. This is my favorite rapper,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rYyXk1CV_c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3hAplTqIjI

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Been grinding sng's as usual and hope to make supernova this year. With my 10 hour a week job and sngs I barely get by. This is the life most pro or semi-pro poker players live. It's reality. Saw the most disillusioned post on 2+2 the other day. The OP is lamenting about poker being a shitty way to make a living and how he's been grinding 6 years or so. Some idiot responds that if you have been playing winning poker for 5 years you should be set for the rest of your life. Then he went on to ridicule the OP for investing too much time into poker/ no social skill/ too much time on the internet/ don't you have friends- you know the standard shit people spew.

The fact is most poker professionals make in the neighboorhood of 25k-30k a year. Basically it's a profession with the average salary of a teacher or cab driver. Of course there are people who make millions a year, but it a very small percentage- the upper upper percentile. I guess the guy who made that ignorant post only hangs out with Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan. To be honest if it weren't for sponsorship deals these guys couldn't even make enough purely playing poker in 5 years to be set for life. I guess when someone thinks of a poker pro they think of the poker celebs on TV who win huge amounts in big tournies or mammoth pots on HSP. All poker pros are millionares!!! Everyone making less is a joke!!! Ok, whatever. The reality is much different. I plan on really stepping up in volume and play poker professionaly. I will not make over 100k. I will make enough to get by and be happy with it. Having the choice of making 60K in an office or 30K playing poker on my computer and being my own boss I will take the 50% pay cut in a heartbeat. And by putting in enough volume, like 2000sngs/ per month I can easily do that with bonuses and all.

I'm not a person used to making a lot of money. Never in my life have I made over 30K per year. I've had the shittiest jobs out there. The shit jobs I've had are endless. I just kind of drift from one horrid job to another. As far as a career goes or education, I have no ambition. None whatsoever. The whole idea of it. Getting a degree for the sole purpose of getting a high paying job. Climbing up the corporate ladder. fitting into a mold- the whole mess of it makes me sick to my stomach. If I can avoid all of this and make enough to pay my rent and feed myself and my cat by playing poker- well then thank God for poker. Some people need to be rich to enjoy their lives. Not me.

Let me tell you the story of my introduction to poker. I knew a friend of my older brother who played poker for a living in the late 90's to 2004 or so. Looking back on this story it is far from glamorous but it fascinated me nonetheless at my impressionable age that this guy made his living going to a casino everyday.

This guy lived in Atlantic City, but in reality he lived at a nearby casino. For 12 to 16 hours per day/ 6 days a week he would sit at a limit poker table and play like a rock. Strictly taking advantage of clueless tourist by playing standard ABC poker. He ate every meal at the casino with comp points. He had a studio apartment in a seedy part of AC where he jsut used for sleeping and spending his depressing empty Sundays with alcohol and his analog TV. His rent was $450/month and he was able to cover this with his poker winnings. But he had rats! I don't know how much he made a year but it wasn't much. I remember him never having money when he would visit my brother at our house. I was still fascinated by hime and his life as a gambling pro as I thought of it back then.

Now there are still poker professionals out there who live like this, but jsut as phil Ivey, durr, and PA, they are at a the micro low percentile of poker pro salary. I guess what I'm getting at here is that in most cases being a poker pro is not nearly as glamorous as it made out to be. Remember that we hear about the winners but not the losers. People losing money playing poker tend not to brag or blog about it. The majority of people are incapable of not losing money playing this game. If you are realistic about what you expect to earn, stay disciplined, have some card sense, and study to master the winning strategy of whatever stake or form of poker you play, you can make money at this game and perhaps make a living doing it. What holds most winning players back from becoming pro is lack of discipline on regards to putting in the hours. But by God don't listen to these idiots who think any poker pro making under $100K is a joke. Most poker pros make under that, well under. So if you want to play poker for a living, don't expect fame and fortune. In fact it is detrimental to your game if that's what you're after. You will most likely take too many shots and not play within you're bankroll. You will go busto a few times then quit out of frustration.

That's the mentality here,
That's the reality here,
That's why we don't call it Detroit,
We call it Amittyville.

PS. What happen to my brothers friend the poker pro?
After 6 years the games became too tough for his rocky ABC strategy to be profitable. He became a losing player and ended up jumping off the Mount Hope Bridge in Rhode Island and was successful in killing himself. Talk about a guy who refused to "make it in the real world." He was a cool guy and super nice with a good heart, but I could always tell he was doomed. He just wasn't comfortable in this world and it seemed like he wanted out with his apathetic grin and apologetic manner. So this is the guy who got me into poker. lol, no wonder I never set my expectations too high.