Lately I have been thinking of quitting poker. Saying quitting is way too strong because when I inevitably get the urge to play again, I will look like a liar the next time you see me on Full Tilt Poker.
However, I have decided that I need a dramatic change in my life. Ideally my new goal is to earn a consistent income promoting poker rooms. A lot of the income generated is residual since you earn money from the players you sign up forever, so ship the cash for doing nothing.
Hopefully I can get to a point where I am earning a decent living doing affiliating and then I can play poker when I want to without pressure. I think it will make me even tougher to play against, because I feel like I play a lot better when I am not playing everyday and there is pressure for me to perform day in day out for months on end.
After two years playing almost daily the toll it takes on your body is quite extreme. I am mentally drained and on the edge of mental breakdown. This was pretty much my own fault for being a product of my addictions, but I wanted to make a shitload of money and prove to my friends and opponents that I am excellent at poker.
Reflecting on that I feel I somewhat achieved both, but did not get anywhere close to my ultimate goals yet despite being in
the top 1% demographic of online poker success. I probably averaged between $10,000 per month over the last 18 months and had months as high as $22,000 to months as low as $4,000. Overall I made somewhere in the region of $150k playing NL200 and NL400 on multiple sites over this time frame.
But I feel like this lifestyle is not sustainable for me. Very stressful and the swings are obviously emotionally taxing. As many people have said before me, poker is the hardest way to make an easy living. So whats next? I am going to cut down on the volume I play, probably playing once a week most likely on Sundays and spend time playing less tables and higher limits. I am then going to dedicate the rest of my time to working on my new website.