I've grinded up from low to midstakes poker while working a full-time job and realized a very similar idea, although the realization came to me in a different mindset. Fundamentally, poker doesn't create value in society, it's a zero sum game. Someone has to lose for another person to win. When you build a business, you can create win-win scenarios instead. For me, I think that's part of why the poker grind felt soulless, you're only in it for yourself. I hope you're doing well in your business ventures, good luck with the journey!
Very true, yesterday I was up $350 and wanted to bluff for my final hand. Got called and lost $150. I was having a good time up until then and I was so mad that I walked away up $200 instead of $350. I cashed out went home and smoked a Jay and I realized how ugly and ungrateful I’m acting.
I see the opposite. All these stables making money from teaching the world how to play better has completely destroyed online poker at least. Out of pure greed. Twas a gold mine 15yrs ago
I think at the lower levels you could say that you are providing entertainment to the recreational players. But I completely understand the sentiment especially nowadays. I played in the golden era of very early 2000s to Black Friday. In the very beginning poker was super popular, especially home games, and the recreational players where having a lot of fun and always wanted to play. Now it is very difficult or almost next to impossible to find games like that.
Could say the same about working in a supermarket or a call centre. But yes I understand the sentiment too. Edit With poker, there is always possibility a fairly good player can score big in MTTs and take down regular scores in cash game's making a good hourly pay. With the capital you can invest and it buys freedom. Imagine a job where any cardroom in the world can be your office. From Macao to London. How could that be boring.
Interesting that the algorithm brings you to me now, as I've long watched and (less so) played poker for a while now. Sounds like you've thought this through, and I'm wishing you the best with your entrepreneurial goals. Best!
Everything has a cost. Take the same amount of time you've taken to play poker and apply that same amount of time to anything else (small business etc) and ask which has more value? (Value comes in many forms- happiness, relationships, goals etc) I've played poker for 25 years, but only for a month at WSOP. I spend the rest of my life building businesses, raising family, living in the mountains, speedriding, skiing, biking, hiking, hunting and flying airplanes. As I get older I'm very happy I've spent the majority of my life being physically active, and not spending it at a poker table. Year round poker seems like a miserable existence, and those who live it are allured by the "freedom" and "independence" it provides.........yet most of them are not happy. Like I first mentioned, everything has a cost, and as I get older happiness and health are more important than money. Build multiple income streams, and then do what makes you happy. MUCH better life EV. Play poker because you want to, not because you have to.
well in retrospect I have a clear answer but once I gathered solid knowledge in poker I always felt like it's stupid to move on and "leave the skill behind". I also start caring more about my physical and mental well-being. Maybe it's a natural developement I'm going through. And yes,. poker is a game, and I guess games should be played for fun...
@@TheMonetist I understand where you're coming from. You don't want to give up something you've worked hard at. Life is a journey and experiences teach us along the way which may alter our course. We all need variety, enjoy doing new things that offer new experiences!
@@TheMonetistnothing is like trying to figure out what your opponent has and if you win by putting money on it. I personally think poker is very fun in that aspect. As per the people around it. There are a lot of good people and a lot of scum.
@@jeffshackleford3152 I feel you. It was very fun in the beginning but the longer you play and the more you study, the more it becomes a job. Regarding people in the industry, yes poker attracts certain people but you can also control who you are engaging with. If people get scammed playing in some underground cardroom, it was still their decision to play there and they probably do it because it's more profitable.
I quit playing poker professionally in the early 2010s. You'll never get rich grinding. You need to develop ways to make money while you sleep. Now I play recreationally for some extra cash, and am having fun doing it.
Hey man, stumbled across this video having never seen your channel before and I must say it's kinda scary how much of a similar path we are currently on. I've traveled the world for the last 7/8 years playing cash games making good 6f. I now have plenty of funds for the medium term but no where near enough to hang it up. I also want to start transitioning into business. My current short term plans (1y) are to study alot of mtt strat to get back into that a bit (used to play full time before cash and I think live MTTs are where the money is still going to be, especially wsop and I think it'll be good for me to be able to hop in and out. Take a week to go play a series and then back home) and then secondly I'm also trying to consume as much information as I possibly can on starting a business. The problem is this seems so open ended. I have capital to start a business but no skills and therefore no real idea where to start! What is the name of your discord channel? I'd love to join along and discuss things we come across that are helpful to our journey
Hey mathew, sorry for late reply. That's strong numbers, congrats! I never played mtt's since it feels too much like a job having to play 55min with 5min breaks (online) but I think it's true that if you have a similar passion about cash and mtt's, mtt's make more ev. About business. I guess it really depends on what kind of business someone wants to start. My intention is quite clear regarding that. What are your plans? Discord link is in the channel description, would love to chat :)
Played from age 16 to age 33. Currently 35. I used to be able to sit down for 12 hours and time would fly at the tables. Now if I just sit for even 1 hour I just want to leave. It just feels like a waste of time.
I played 12 years professionally and moved on to buying and selling video games. I find it a lot less stressful. Fun and a lot of work and not as much profit (yet) but fairly risk-free routes to higher wealth. And honestly - after enjoying the luxuries poker provided it doesn't take much to make me happy so I don't need much income anyway. Food and rest and buying some board games and I'm a happy man. Good luck with the transition!
great to hear that. congrats on the transition! taking a financial hit in the beginning for a more enjoyable life in the longrun seems to be the right choice. easier said than done tho. How did you make it work?
@@TheMonetist To be honest it was a brutal transition in some ways. I was you a young prodigy and made a fortune at 20 years old. My specialities were Limit Hold'em and No Limit Hold'em. I absolutely crushed the competition and even at high stakes I was a beast. People were terrified of me. Eventually rakeback and bots and mass table grinders and scandals and GTO and training websites became prevalanet. It made my job a LOT harder and my ability to win consistently at high stakes much harder. Meanwhile I was now used to a lavish lifestyle of having anything I wanted. I had absolutely no comprehension of how to control my spending and I was by this point extremely stressed. My earnings went down so I had to play lower stakes and while I was still crushing the games there I was spending way too much. Eventually I developed RSI in both arms and had to choose between retiring from poker or moving away from my family (getting old) to play at casinos. Casinos are MUCH easier than online but I chose my family. I could have easily done great playing live but I decided it was not worth it. So for a while I just floundered and spent my money down with no clue what I was doing in life anymore. Playing video games and hurting my arms more. Then my friend introduced me to reselling and told me I could do well at it. I started with nothing. I sold things from around my apartment that I no longer used to raise funds and then invested into trading cards and video games and importing various goods from China and so on. Eventually I decided to specialize in video games. Now I am living a pretty good life. Not rich but comfortable. I eat mostly fast food and takeout and chuck things in the over and cook eggs etc. I spend my time working and playing board games and a little bit of video games. Lots of walking and hunting for my next video game buy to keep the machine that is my life functional. My earnings steadily increase and life gets easier. But it was a LOT of hard work to build up from zero and it took me nearly 5 years to reach this point.
@@p0ck3tp3ar thanks for sharing this. People say poker is hard these days but the hardest part was what you went through. Starting in the presolver area and having to compete against those who started using these tools from the getgo. It suddenly became hard work and just outsmarting opponents was not enough anymore. Would love to understand how you made selling games work!
@@TheMonetist Thank you. That indeed was tough. I remember laughing at the concept of GTO in the early days but that turned out to be very misguided! I own Pio Solver and Hold'em manager. My grasp of the game is still quite good but I would either need to play live or ideally get a backer to play online so I could play fewer tables to maximize my edge. The days of me 9-24 tabling are long gone. I physically can't do it anymore. Part of me thinks "How can I drop my best skill?" But it has been surprisingly good. No more obsessing about poker 24/7 and having every single day be a potential horrible one if the cards land wrong. It did grind on my mind over the years and suck a lot of the joy out of the game. But yes you are right. I started in about 2003 and the players were TERRIBLE. I too was terrible but dedicated. We had to learn everything ourselves as there were no good resources out there like there is today. You make a good point about how new players are sort of "born" into the solver era. I likely have some flawed aspects of my game that are deeply imbedded no matter how much theorizing and solving and research I do. As for the video games - basically I buy them for 10% to 70% of their market value. Then clean and test and refurbish as needed. After that I sell on Facebook Marketplace and auctions. About 30% local sales and 70% shipping. The key here is that the profit is more guaranteed than poker. If I have a $200 game I don't just lose it randomly.
I started playing 2003, lost some (very little) for about 2 years. Then I started studying poker and boom I won alot for many years. I was a "pro" between 2005-2012 when I realised playing poker for a living was boring. So I got a real job. And since 2013 I only play for fun with friends and about 1-2 times a month I visit the local casino. And every 3rd year I go to Las Vegas. That's enough for me. I still beat the lowest games both online and live. But it's just so boring grinding hours after hours. Subbed. Good luck. Greetings from Sweden
I’m very interested to hear that you have done this. I often wonder, and maybe you could give me your take on this. Do you think that most of the professionals could walk away, even if they wanted to? For instance, I just watched Daniel N (Ki Poker) say that he lost $2,224,000+ in 2023. Maybe he should taper off or quit, but could he? I always supposed that he was one of the best three or four guys in the world and if that is so then when you are playing with people who are more or less on your level, then dumb luck must be too important. Otherwise I don’t see how someone like Daniel could end up losing $2M+. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
@@jimnorris4600 -Kidpoker is not top 4 in the world any more. I doubt he is even top-100 nowdays. Online he is not even top-1000. His strength is at livepoker. The ability to read peoples faces and body langauage is his strength. He will never quit playing poker. I belive he still is a winning player in the long run. But maybe he should stop play in the highest buy-in tournaments? And I guess he sells alot of action on StakeKings for 20% markup, just because he is Daniel? I remember he said he thinks he played to much 2023? He wanted to play less. Sounds like he is chasing losses and then he is not playing his a-game when he plays to much and under pressuse? Good thing he understands this. Btw, he just won a tournament?
That’s true you have something very creative in your content not only animation but storytelling(I’m pro video editor/colorist) If you want some tips or software make a sign!
Good for you! I've also quit poker before (professional, making @150K per year) to go into other directions, mainly due to boredom, wanting to make deeper connections to the world and people around me, and an existential dilemma of not contributing to community. I gained a masters degree but started playing poker again on the weekends to supplement my income temporarily until the new ventures are sufficient monetarily. You can do it and can come back at a temporary basis if need presents itself.
Now adays I play purely for the joy of the game. If I make a little extra income for playing this great game that's awesome and I do appreciate the money. But I refuse to go look for the softest games you can find for no other reason than making some easy money. That's depressing to me. I love games but not only playing a game for the rest of my life. Just some of everything is the best. :) life balance and all that.
The dilemma of not contributing to society kicked in once I started to make money playing, I tried to "solve" it by coaching, helping others and the idea that I could use the money to support others in need, but I never reached a point where I was really proud of what I did. A soft transitioning by keeping to play temporarily to make sure the new venture doesn't get killed by lack of $ seems smart, hard to focus on 2 things at the same time tho
@@TheMonetist I did for me as well even though I was not making huge sums of money. I believe it comes down to feeling of lacking purpose and somewhere us poker players seem to have a belief that if I make all these money life will be easy and fun and I will even have time to make the world a better place. The thing is you don't need to do anything extraordinary to make the world a better place. But you need to be happy within. Because when you are you contribute to the world with positive energy automatically just by being around people. But if playing solely poker is not making you feel fulfilled then I would take a step back like you are doing and as I did to find that balance again. Because what I learned is that it's not poker that is the problem. It's doing something more than it benifits us mentally and emotionally and spiritually. Everything in moderation is fine. :)
It's funny that you uploaded this video when I stopped playing poker after 8-10 years. I decided not to try my luck in the scoop series, because this year I didn't win 1st place even though I played small field mtt. And nice bike:) cycling is one of the best things to forget all the downswings and move on.
Hey Karolis. Seems like I'm not the only one. I never played mtt's, the format of playing 55min + 5min breaks always felt too much like a job to me. thank you, spent my youth trying to become the next lance armstrong and failed, glad I didn't make it in retrospect tho
This was the precise video i was looking for. Thanks for this content. I quitted professional poker to get back to my business because i had similar thoughts, but for the last 8 months I can factually say that im a break even business owner, and its bringing me more problems than solution. Ive been thiking really seriously going back to professional poker. I will answer in this video 6 months from now. I also tried doing business and playing poker at the same time but it doesnt work out, my best results have comed when i play poker exclusively, but i got burn out and feel of trying something else
people (who don't play poker) keep telling me that I should just split poker and business, like business during the day, poker in the evening - it doesn't work. Few understand this.
I agree with what you saying ..but what id add is that u gotta love what u do man !not about the money .if u dont enjoy it anymore thats completey fine.but for many including myself it s a side hustle /hobby .
Yup. I'm 29, back when I was 18-21 I sacrificed every Friday and Saturday night playing poker. Walking into the casino and on the way seeing other people my age going to bars/clubs, forming friendships and relationships. My hourly over the years worked out to be $40ish dollars. I came to the conclusion that it was simply minus life EV. On the contrary, a guy the same age as me at the time in my poker social circle, is one of the highest earning tournament players of all time. The downsides far outweigh the upsides if you don't somehow snowball a tournament bankroll early on, cash games however are mind numbing and you'll essentially be earning a low class wage unless you shot take high stake games and get lucky early.
the most single sacrifice of playing poker is the loss of time - one day you’ll wake up and realize 15+ years have gone by and you haven’t accomplished much and if you’re lucky you made some money - you probably don’t have a retirement account, no real estate, no wife, no family and you’re pushing 40+ …nothing including money can substitute time, unfortunately I learnt this the hard way
This is what I'm realizing. Spent two years, played about 200 sessions. Had some great laughs and fun nights, won money but not nearly enough to live on. Just went on a 21 BI downswing and now feeling like "so what?". I could have mastered a language or found a girlfriend or something with all that 1000 hours.
I’ve been playing poker professionally it doesn’t matter how many pots you win or how big your wins are it’s seriously more stressful than working a 9-5 job and I’m not saying it’s stressful because you sit at a table (it still is) but working your money for rooms? Food, grinding an hour away tossing hand after hand then hoping the good hand you have actually sticks. Maybe it’s different because I have that mindset business but honestly I’m getting burnt out and mostly I hate the games my mind play when it comes down to a showdown and your wondering if your opponent is bluffing or beats your hand. The thing I hate the most are bad beats and everyone that’s played for more than 10 hours knows exactly what I’m talking about.
How much were you winning in the 200nl online pool in bb/100? Just curious because I’m currently playing and don’t have anything to compare my winrate to
Good on you, man. You had a gut feeling and you went with it., like hero calling on the river….jokes aside, good on you for making a big change and trusting yourself. Wishing you the best 👍
Enjoy your journey my friend, i will continue to play even though i am a losing player at moment. i will not quit until i get desire number. Pray you have a wonderful career.
Been playing poker for 8 years. Typically 1k buy in games live. I make a "considerable" amount playing but not nearly as much as my job. I just realized it's not what I'd prefer to do too make a living. The bigger you play the more money you can win. Now pokers a game that I play roughly 30 hours a week. Still a lot. But I prefer just having a job and poker on the side. Winnings not always guaranteed. And building a bankrolls a whole other thing. I make roughly on average. 20-25 hourly at the game. Would never cover my expenses.
not bad tho. sounds like I wouldn't want you to have on a table. I never played live really, but I'm considering it since I can't work on the same thing 16h/day while actually being productive, so spending some evenings in casinos to lower my burn rate feels like a good choice. Where do you play?
Building a successful business isn't easy either and everyone has feelings of burnout in their jobs and want to try something else. For example I'm a successful software engineer but a losing poker player and I want to get better at poker. I think the trick is to have balance between your main job but also have side hussles so you have multiple streams of income. Then eventually you can become an investor and make money doing that as well. Go for entrepreneurship though and fail but you just have to try again and eventually you will succeed. But I would also keep playing poker on the side as an additional income stream.
very difficult to succeed in 2 things at the same time for me, I tried. The problem with poker as a side hustle is that it requires a lot of focus to actually make a solid income, at leat for me. If I spend 8h a day working on my business I find it close to impossible to play the way I'm satisfied with afterwards. One solution might be to play low enough that my C game still works and less hours. Makes nearly insignificant money tho
It makes sense. If you sit down at a table and have one too many drinks or play kinda casually and stop paying attention to people, you get caught and it costs you bad. If you wanna be good at it, you have to treat it like a job, almost like a business analyst or something, which kinda takes the joy out of it. I'm gonna stick to playing it casually every once in a while. There's no need to go all in and make it the center of your life too. You can play it well by playing like once or twice a month with a certain amount you're willing to lose that won't make you depressed or crush you if you do. There are a lot of losers in poker, they just try to hide their losses or simply don't talk about it.
exactly. Any game played professionally means not treating it as a game - as something you do for fun, when you feel like it - but by trying to optimize everything, with the goal of maximizing income. And this is where it starts feeling dump to not spend this time and energy on something more meaningful.
@@TheMonetist old post but with live poker i disagree. the people who try and optimize every single decision in live cash games end up costing themselves money in the long run bc they tend to tank, be antisocial etc and bad players don't enjoy playing with them. giving up some short term ev is well worth it in the end. having a pool of bad players who keep coming back for more is worth a lot more than tanking for 3 minutes to make a sliver of extra ev on an individual hand. playing perfect in tough lineups getting 30 hands an hour live is worth so much less than playing decent in a fun social game, having a few drinks in soft lineups and way too many pros don't understand this. now in super tough online games, high rollers etc it's much different. then you need to optimize everything.
Doing an activity that most people do as a hobby as a professional activity is tough. Being successful at anything is hard. Do sthg you like and try to get better .
Life is a “click next” button. If you can start with the end in mind, keep clicking “next” till you get there…or choose to keep clicking and going further! Sounds simple and it is with vision, an open mind, and the right focused efforts. Best wishes!
i have been there, exactly the same place you are, i started a delivery restaurant, it started kinda well, at the beggining it was me and my wife doing things, then i started to try to put employees instead, then, it didnt work anymore, i was trying to play poker at the same time i would take care of the restaurant, didnt end up well, also, the second biggest problem was that i live in brazil ( but i saw you live in russia, so not much difference), and here the income is super low compared to the dolars we make at poker, anyway, i would need to open like 3~4 restaurants to make a really good income, but, this would request sooo much time as well.., i think there is no easy way, but i feel exactly like you, dont think poker is going to last too long, and dont like to grind hours and hours everyday, also, beating above micros is hard as fk, either you play more tables and lose, or play less and make little.
I live in austria actually, what made you think russia? :D People talked to me in russian in asia actually, I guess I look like it. Restaurant business is super hard imho, I have big respect for anyone having to please customers all day long. Poker can be hard too esp on downswings. What would you like to do?
@@TheMonetist i was thinking where you were from, and i watched a vídeo of you playing at GG, and the country was Rússia, só maybe you had an Rússia account or something, anyway, If you are from Áustria Its ALL good, Its actually a no brainer, tour country average saláry is about 5 times higher than Mine, the thing here is, even If you have a Very good business, you wont make much money, a Very rich person here makes 10k dollars, and like i Said, i would need to have like 5 restaurants (the way i was doing) tô make this much money, and this is soooooo much work, i dont think Its worth It, and for what i wanted to do, i would like to Go to a First world country and probably start making some money on Uber driver or something, and then maybe open a business after i understand How It Works there, also my wife hás a beauty business wich would also bê good If she were at a First world country .
Interesting I am a pro player and I'm exactly about to do the same thing as you did @@antihackerify. Open a food service with wife (girlfriend on my case, she has a lot of experience in that area, she leads a restaurant as a chef already but not own business). And more interesting I live in Brazil too. I have exactly the same vision, earn as much as I can do in poker would take me 4-5 good business running but at same time staying in poker (only) for too long seems risky.
Hey friend, you are on to something, thinking in levels. I've seen other poker channels where the creator is at the same place as you seem to be (unfulfilled, fatigued from stress, etc.) but they continue to obsess about winning or getting better at poker (only). I think you have it right; many tings in life that warrant our curiosity and even passion- aren't necessarily worth 100% of our life's energy. It's wise that you can see yourself- and your life's work- as adding up to more than a grind for poker cash. Yet you can still use the lessons and personal growth from poker in your life elsewhere, e.g. your business. I too am a business owner, and I've had MANY adjacent passions and interests that have helped me and my business grow by forcing me to learn and adapt. I'm just always careful to throttle the amount of attention I direct to the 'side quest' so it doesn't divert energy from my primary path in life. So continue to seek the next higher level, AND continue to play poker, and find the NEXT poker. Maybe try Jiu Jitsu ;)
Hey Keith. Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the nice words :) Poker def. helped me learning a lot about myself and improving many things I would have never even thought of given that my performance, focus, overall happiness correlated with my winrate, so it feels like a good, unorthodox way of fixing myself in retrospect to take on bigger, more meanigful challenges now. I see business, or youtube f.e. as the next poker. Like different games that require certain strategies to succeed - but with the potential of a more fulfilling outcome once succeeded. Never tried Jiu Jitsu, but I'm getting curious about it, many people recommend it, talk greatly about it. What business are you in?
Long time ago I set a min monthly earnings threshold = $ required for expenses + savings needed + career equity. Career equity is extremely discounted by most. Theres a huge opportunity cost to doing something so specialized over a long period of time. That said lots of valuable life lessons in poker just not directly applicable to a lot of things.
Its just a card game that i actually like, having money involved just adds honest preasure to the game which makes it feel realistic, i dont actually care about the money part but its a nice bonus, and sad that some people play above what they can afford.
The thing about poker is not the guaranteed sucess, it' the feeling and the passion. Like ballett in a way. People that don't do ballett can't understand why anyone would destroy their toes and buy 200 dollar shoes every 3 weeks while making min wage. To me personally, the most painful thing about giving up this dream is that i never really studied the analytical side of the game. Never read a pokerbook and the fact that in the 3 clips Pokerstars sent me for 1 place finishes, 35% of the hands shown were played based on hope.
I've been losing at poker for 13 years now. Still have the addiction. I fantasize about being able to constantly win at poker but even the one time i played low stakes and earned up to $3k in 6 days I almost felt bored from winning so often. Is that sick or what? I wish I had Adderall 😂 then i could be able to see clearly that gambling is an unhealthy obsession and I could build the empire I would rather leave to humanity. Blessings upon everyone 🎉❤
I only played semi professional. Part time for about 8 years. It was good money. But, once my son was born my time with him became more important than playing. Luckily I always maintained a day job.
That's another good reason to stop playing. I couldn't imagine raising my child while being dependent on poker income. Feels very stressful. Congrats 🙏
@@TheMonetist , I still play occasionally for fun. But, it’s pretty evident I’m a little behind and need to study more with solvers, and AI training tools. The games is always evolving, but I still do okay when I play. Just not as good as when I was playing more often.
Always more or less worked in a stabile job while spending 20 hours a week playing poker. I invested min. 50 % winnings, and built up and stock portfolio that after 8-9 years gave me what I really was looking for. Freedom------------to do what i like----
Monetizing what I love the most, and in the next 6-12months my goal is find out what that is by educating myself and creating content with my learnings
If i remember right, i think like 17% of all new business actually ends up not losing money, so making good money probably is a lot smaller. Also it depends what country you are in, the more corrupt a country is the worse it is for business.
sounds depressing if you put it like that, haha. I'm aware that I don't have a high chance of success, my argument for still trying is that the % of people making money in poker might be even lower.
@@TheMonetist true, but it's very interesting to see and u got my sub already. I'm a pro poker player for 15 years, but i have friends and family with businesses and i wouldn't trade places. Btw, the book Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure ( copy paste ) is pretty cool, i remember reading it 10 years ago and it should help out with how much to risk on a business. But will follow your journey for sure, good luck!
Hi Flo! Great news for you! When you don't have opportunity, you create it! I live abroad for 12 years, now in Japan. Playing poker in dead season(covid was long!!!). Failing is part of the process to success and to find your way. Follow your ethics, you're a Mench! Can't wait to see your new content
oh hey I remember you from the app challenge give away. Thanks for the nice comment :) Yes failure is learning, hard to see it that way while failing tbh but true in general. Will do my best to not disappoint :)
Poker should never be your only source or income. You should have good-stable source of income, which doesnt generate a lot of stress, and in your free time to try your LUCK to make an extra buck. If you are LUCKY you will win here and there, spending on vacation and so on.
Poker is just one of the millions other options. You can develope things faster and more stressfull or slower on the chill. You have to only find that way. I dont belive you wont play anymore XD
@@TheMonetist I am not a poker pro, i work a regular professional job which pays really good, I'm a millionaire but never gonna be billionaires, I start working on a side business after work trying to get higher, it's growing but not game changing, it gives me a chance at least, at worst I'm still a millionaire.
@@TheMonetist If you are going for money, switching to investment, stock or crypto trading is not a bad option, alot of similar skill set as poker, way more money and much less effort than any business. If you want to do something you like, pick something you like and you got advantage with, but business is really hard. If I were you, I will keep earning money in poker, maybe switch to live private games, one of my friends become millionaires playing with super rich asian newbies. I am not there yet, just some opinions
I was not a ft poker player but of 3/40 years. Only because i had to or technically. The game is fun. I like fun. I do not want to make this my life...the breaks i took has made it acceptable now years later to play for fun or make a few dollars on the side.
Are you over thinking the sutuation? If you are tired of your current job get some additional education in a field you are exciteded about and get a defferent job.
I think i know the answer before i even watch it. Its way too hard a game, in which you sacrifice way too much for what you get back. I know, Ive been there. I thought i was king shit when i won a bracelet in 2010. I realised im prob just avg.
To be profitable is pretty hard for me nowadays. Hard to be consistent Variance is a bitch. It is so insane, it is not fair at all. I can’t be that selective. At 36 i hate working as a chef again , i am pretty decent, but it is so hard too. Starting a business is the way to go. But i dont wanna sell trash.
I just started playing again after a long break and now I remember why I quit. It is mentally draining and actually tiring. I bet professional poker players regularly wish they had a regular job
I mean professional poker players always retain the option of getting a regular job if they really want it. However, working for someone else on set hours, for a low hourly, in something that you aren’t passionate about, isn’t that appealing to me. Then you also pay taxes on your income in your regular job (which you don’t in poker, at least where I’m from). Don’t get me wrong, there are some downsides to poker. It can be stressful and you can go on big downswings etc, but ultimately I think it’s still a more enjoyable job than most out there. There are downsides to every single job, so it’s about weighing up the pros and cons deciding what suits you best. For some it’s poker, for others it’s something else. I think I’ll transition away from poker within the next few years but I still love the game and really enjoy my job.
@@Demondoink1 not all jobs are low paying. This guy said he ran an ecommerce website. He could take those skills and look into becoming something like a system administrator that can pay well. A job in USA also means company provided health insurance and paid vacations. You also have to pay taxes in USA on poker winnings just like any income from a job. I think only a few make a career out of poker long term. For every 100 who try, probably 1 succeeds
I never wished to have a job since me being able to decide what I spend my energy on is one of my most important values. Sure, there are downswings or relatives who would value me more for working a prestigious job which sometimes gets to me but it always felt like a small enough drawback. That said, I always wished I would have taken a successful entrepreneurial path early in life.
@@TheMonetist My main game is cash games. I mostly play on Stars from 500nl-2k (though i'm trying my luck in donkaments this month for SCOOP haha). There is a decent chance we played against each other at zoom at some point :)
You're core belief that you need to make money is wrong. You need to survive and have a purpose in life. If you love playing flute for instance it doesn't matter where you live as long as you have enough to eat so you don't starve. In pretty much every western European country you are guaranteed not to starve to death. You could live anywhere and practice flute 10 hrs per day. People would feed you simply because they admire your work ethic and dedication. You could juggle or dance or whatever as long as you work way way harder than the average person and have no interest in money or fame people will admire your monastic lifestyle and feed you...
That’s like saying oxygen is the key to happiness. It doesn’t work without it but to be happy/profitable you need more than that. In poker it’s really about playing a better strategy than your opponent
Feel like 99% of this vid was fluff. Could’ve just said u we’re going to quit. All the other things u said were worthless in the grand scheme of the vid. The logic there was kinda lacking
why not play poker on the weekends irl where the pools are super soft and you make quite a lot of money and focus on the buisness in the week, you dont need to study bc ur not even looking to move up just keep on getting some amount of money like aroind 3k is ez per month while u work on ur buisnnes
it's the old ergonomic mouse from logitech. the mx master I had before was way better technically, while the ergo solved my shoulder pain issues so it was def. worth the switch for me personally
I played poker from 2003 to 2011. Black Friday was the end for me. Started a business and I'm better off than 99.5% of poker players. The skills you developed building a bankroll from ZERO will benefit you greatly in business.
great video but it's easy to talk once you've made a lot of money from poker and travelled the world, some of us still want to experience that before we move on to other things
I'm not saying playing poker is a terrible thing to do. Back then it felt like the solution and I also felt like I'm not capable of doing something "more meaningful" while seeking the lifestyle poker allows. poker is a stepping stone imho
1. Good for you. Serously. 2. I truly hope you use your obvious great intellect, self-examination, drive, and talent to create a business that actually does something good for society and creates better futures for others, in particular creating jobs and making your employees successful. And isn't just another hustle like selling an Amazon selling course. 3. Which brings me to this. Coming from someone who is either the youngest boomer or oldest Gen-X. I see the poker table as the biggest waste of human creative and intellectual capital on the planet. In partiular the millenials. All these people posting how they make mid-6 to 7 figures playing poker FAIRLY---I don't believe you. And even if you ARE, all you are doing is taking money from addicts who don't have the sophistication or ability to stop. People who don't have it. Unless you're playing with billionaires, you're not "providing entertainment" to recreational players. You're just a crack dealer with headphones. And that's not including the 20% or so made at the crack factory level (i.e. the casino). You all are.the smartest and most capable people out there and could be doing so much more than this. It is actually gross that people drop out of MIT to play poker. Please consider that you all have a gift, a gift that would be better to share with others than be wasted.
one could argue, that the lifestyle it creates makes it a positive sum game. the base of every business/job is a transation of money which is a 0 sum game as well, but it creates value in some ways. So I would argue poker is just more selfish than most other things someone can do
@@abstract1603 στην Ελλάδα με μέσο μισθό 950 ευρώ ή στην Αμερική με μεσο μισθό 4k+ δολάρια είναι πιο εύκολο? Αν ο Αμερικανός για να βγάλει αρκετά χρειάζεται να κερδίζει το .50-1 ο Έλληνας χρειάζεται να κερδίζει το .10-.25. Οπότε δεν καταλαβαίνω το σχόλιο σου
@@makisdimatos3427 πολύ έξω πέφτεις αδερφέ.. δεν υπάρχει αυτό που λες ..στην Ελλάδα αρχικά οι επιλογές σου για live poker είναι κάκιστες κ λίγες. Το online νόμιμο φορολογείται σε σημείο που γ σοβαρά stakes είναι unbeatable...τέλος αν βγάλεις 950ε απ το nl25 θα σ δώσω εγώ αλλά τόσα..μισό ένα όριο στην Αμερική δεν έχει νόημα να παίξεις.. Αμερική θ παίξεις 2/5 κ πάνω live ..το καλο ειναι ότι εκεί υπάρχουν άπειρα όρια κ games οπότε εάν θέλει ν ασχοληθει κάποιος σοβαρά με το πόκερ φυσικά κ είναι πολύ καλύτερο ν το κάνει στην Αμερική είτε σαν side είτε σαν main . Γενικά θεωρώ πουθενά δεν αξίζει να το κάνεις σαν full time πλέον
to beome a pro and make money in poker you have to make poker you god. and build your life around it. i believe poker is a form of gembling and basically selfish game witch feeds greed. but i play anyways. great way to waste time and probably make some extra cash. but game is very dangerous if you dont have very very strong fundamentals and discipline to not gemble.
So what content are you going to do now then? don't quit you-tube! sport is sport, business is business, obviously a business can be a big or as small as you want it to be, sport has a different kind of achievement but its like comparing apples and oranges, it's also a matter of perspective, capitalism is technically bad it essentially destroys the planet to an extent and communism doesn't work either, poker should be considered a sport, just like when you kick a football for a first time; most play for fun and those that want to achieve more can.
I dont care how good you are. You cant constantly win in poker. There is just too much variance. Starting a business is harder in beginning but worth it , if you can stick to it to grow
I never been a good poker player since playing 7-8 yrs ago and losing hundreds of dollars maybe thousands and until now I can’t move up in mid-stakes coz I know my skills sucks! And honestly I don’t use the poker software coz I don’t f@cking undrstand it! So quitting is the best option to save me some money and just focus on other things that I can enjoy and relieved stress through raising gamebirds/gamefowls.
poker is a fulltime job, at least it was for me, and in the beginning all I did was studying with the goal of understanding why we do certain thing and how to make better decision than my oponents. It's hard work, I would spend 6h trying to figure out why a certain betsizing makes sense some times. Some might make it through "talent", I had to outwork them and I wouldn't have made any money without that approach
That’s sounds a lot like me. I feel I outworked everyone in my games. I played since I was a teenager into my 40’s. I was probably one of the most consistent profitable players at the low mid stakes live games. But after time and when Covid hit something changed idk if it was boring to me but when I get into day trading it took away the interest. And now I think I’m starting to be happier than I’ve been in my life. I have more time and more money. Trading is easier then poker too. You can just wait for pocket aces in trading and there’s no one really there to stop you. Unlike poker id have to play it a certain line against my opponents. But don’t get me wrong it takes a great deal of work to become profitable. But at least now I don’t have to study nearly as much as I had to stay ahead of the game in poker. Gl to you on you next journey.
trading is great since if you "play higher" you are still playing the same "opponent" unlike poker, true exponential growth there. Never got really interested in it sadly.
I've grinded up from low to midstakes poker while working a full-time job and realized a very similar idea, although the realization came to me in a different mindset. Fundamentally, poker doesn't create value in society, it's a zero sum game. Someone has to lose for another person to win.
When you build a business, you can create win-win scenarios instead. For me, I think that's part of why the poker grind felt soulless, you're only in it for yourself. I hope you're doing well in your business ventures, good luck with the journey!
It's less than a zero sum game. Dealers, whether live or computers, have to be paid; there's that rake factor whether cash or tournaments.
Very true, yesterday I was up $350 and wanted to bluff for my final hand. Got called and lost $150. I was having a good time up until then and I was so mad that I walked away up $200 instead of $350. I cashed out went home and smoked a Jay and I realized how ugly and ungrateful I’m acting.
I see the opposite. All these stables making money from teaching the world how to play better has completely destroyed online poker at least. Out of pure greed. Twas a gold mine 15yrs ago
I think at the lower levels you could say that you are providing entertainment to the recreational players. But I completely understand the sentiment especially nowadays.
I played in the golden era of very early 2000s to Black Friday. In the very beginning poker was super popular, especially home games, and the recreational players where having a lot of fun and always wanted to play. Now it is very difficult or almost next to impossible to find games like that.
That's the whole point lol.
Spending 10hrs a day surrounded by 9 other dudes In a circle....there's better things to do
agree 😅
Yeah like working outside for 10hrs per day surrounded by unpredictable nature. You guys are all full of shit
Could say the same about working in a supermarket or a call centre. But yes I understand the sentiment too.
Edit
With poker, there is always possibility a fairly good player can score big in MTTs and take down regular scores in cash game's making a good hourly pay.
With the capital you can invest and it buys freedom. Imagine a job where any cardroom in the world can be your office.
From Macao to London. How could that be boring.
The dealer sometimes is a woman !!!
Depends . Its the circle that makes it interesting .
Interesting that the algorithm brings you to me now, as I've long watched and (less so) played poker for a while now. Sounds like you've thought this through, and I'm wishing you the best with your entrepreneurial goals. Best!
thank you eric!
Everything has a cost. Take the same amount of time you've taken to play poker and apply that same amount of time to anything else (small business etc) and ask which has more value? (Value comes in many forms- happiness, relationships, goals etc) I've played poker for 25 years, but only for a month at WSOP. I spend the rest of my life building businesses, raising family, living in the mountains, speedriding, skiing, biking, hiking, hunting and flying airplanes. As I get older I'm very happy I've spent the majority of my life being physically active, and not spending it at a poker table. Year round poker seems like a miserable existence, and those who live it are allured by the "freedom" and "independence" it provides.........yet most of them are not happy. Like I first mentioned, everything has a cost, and as I get older happiness and health are more important than money. Build multiple income streams, and then do what makes you happy. MUCH better life EV. Play poker because you want to, not because you have to.
well in retrospect I have a clear answer but once I gathered solid knowledge in poker I always felt like it's stupid to move on and "leave the skill behind". I also start caring more about my physical and mental well-being. Maybe it's a natural developement I'm going through. And yes,. poker is a game, and I guess games should be played for fun...
@@TheMonetist I understand where you're coming from. You don't want to give up something you've worked hard at. Life is a journey and experiences teach us along the way which may alter our course. We all need variety, enjoy doing new things that offer new experiences!
@@TheMonetistnothing is like trying to figure out what your opponent has and if you win by putting money on it.
I personally think poker is very fun in that aspect.
As per the people around it.
There are a lot of good people and a lot of scum.
@@jeffshackleford3152 I feel you. It was very fun in the beginning but the longer you play and the more you study, the more it becomes a job. Regarding people in the industry, yes poker attracts certain people but you can also control who you are engaging with. If people get scammed playing in some underground cardroom, it was still their decision to play there and they probably do it because it's more profitable.
I quit playing poker professionally in the early 2010s. You'll never get rich grinding. You need to develop ways to make money while you sleep. Now I play recreationally for some extra cash, and am having fun doing it.
Couldn’t agree more. I am in a similar situation.
Hey man, stumbled across this video having never seen your channel before and I must say it's kinda scary how much of a similar path we are currently on. I've traveled the world for the last 7/8 years playing cash games making good 6f. I now have plenty of funds for the medium term but no where near enough to hang it up. I also want to start transitioning into business. My current short term plans (1y) are to study alot of mtt strat to get back into that a bit (used to play full time before cash and I think live MTTs are where the money is still going to be, especially wsop and I think it'll be good for me to be able to hop in and out. Take a week to go play a series and then back home) and then secondly I'm also trying to consume as much information as I possibly can on starting a business. The problem is this seems so open ended. I have capital to start a business but no skills and therefore no real idea where to start! What is the name of your discord channel? I'd love to join along and discuss things we come across that are helpful to our journey
Hey mathew, sorry for late reply.
That's strong numbers, congrats! I never played mtt's since it feels too much like a job having to play 55min with 5min breaks (online) but I think it's true that if you have a similar passion about cash and mtt's, mtt's make more ev.
About business. I guess it really depends on what kind of business someone wants to start. My intention is quite clear regarding that. What are your plans?
Discord link is in the channel description, would love to chat :)
Played from age 16 to age 33. Currently 35. I used to be able to sit down for 12 hours and time would fly at the tables. Now if I just sit for even 1 hour I just want to leave. It just feels like a waste of time.
I played 12 years professionally and moved on to buying and selling video games. I find it a lot less stressful. Fun and a lot of work and not as much profit (yet) but fairly risk-free routes to higher wealth. And honestly - after enjoying the luxuries poker provided it doesn't take much to make me happy so I don't need much income anyway. Food and rest and buying some board games and I'm a happy man. Good luck with the transition!
great to hear that. congrats on the transition! taking a financial hit in the beginning for a more enjoyable life in the longrun seems to be the right choice. easier said than done tho. How did you make it work?
@@TheMonetist To be honest it was a brutal transition in some ways. I was you a young prodigy and made a fortune at 20 years old. My specialities were Limit Hold'em and No Limit Hold'em. I absolutely crushed the competition and even at high stakes I was a beast. People were terrified of me.
Eventually rakeback and bots and mass table grinders and scandals and GTO and training websites became prevalanet. It made my job a LOT harder and my ability to win consistently at high stakes much harder. Meanwhile I was now used to a lavish lifestyle of having anything I wanted. I had absolutely no comprehension of how to control my spending and I was by this point extremely stressed.
My earnings went down so I had to play lower stakes and while I was still crushing the games there I was spending way too much. Eventually I developed RSI in both arms and had to choose between retiring from poker or moving away from my family (getting old) to play at casinos. Casinos are MUCH easier than online but I chose my family. I could have easily done great playing live but I decided it was not worth it.
So for a while I just floundered and spent my money down with no clue what I was doing in life anymore. Playing video games and hurting my arms more. Then my friend introduced me to reselling and told me I could do well at it.
I started with nothing. I sold things from around my apartment that I no longer used to raise funds and then invested into trading cards and video games and importing various goods from China and so on. Eventually I decided to specialize in video games.
Now I am living a pretty good life. Not rich but comfortable. I eat mostly fast food and takeout and chuck things in the over and cook eggs etc. I spend my time working and playing board games and a little bit of video games. Lots of walking and hunting for my next video game buy to keep the machine that is my life functional. My earnings steadily increase and life gets easier. But it was a LOT of hard work to build up from zero and it took me nearly 5 years to reach this point.
@@p0ck3tp3ar thanks for sharing this. People say poker is hard these days but the hardest part was what you went through. Starting in the presolver area and having to compete against those who started using these tools from the getgo. It suddenly became hard work and just outsmarting opponents was not enough anymore. Would love to understand how you made selling games work!
@@TheMonetist Thank you. That indeed was tough. I remember laughing at the concept of GTO in the early days but that turned out to be very misguided!
I own Pio Solver and Hold'em manager. My grasp of the game is still quite good but I would either need to play live or ideally get a backer to play online so I could play fewer tables to maximize my edge. The days of me 9-24 tabling are long gone. I physically can't do it anymore.
Part of me thinks "How can I drop my best skill?" But it has been surprisingly good. No more obsessing about poker 24/7 and having every single day be a potential horrible one if the cards land wrong. It did grind on my mind over the years and suck a lot of the joy out of the game.
But yes you are right. I started in about 2003 and the players were TERRIBLE. I too was terrible but dedicated. We had to learn everything ourselves as there were no good resources out there like there is today. You make a good point about how new players are sort of "born" into the solver era. I likely have some flawed aspects of my game that are deeply imbedded no matter how much theorizing and solving and research I do.
As for the video games - basically I buy them for 10% to 70% of their market value. Then clean and test and refurbish as needed. After that I sell on Facebook Marketplace and auctions. About 30% local sales and 70% shipping. The key here is that the profit is more guaranteed than poker. If I have a $200 game I don't just lose it randomly.
@@p0ck3tp3ar this just sounds like some fantasy story to me
I started playing 2003, lost some (very little) for about 2 years. Then I started studying poker and boom I won alot for many years. I was a "pro" between 2005-2012 when I realised playing poker for a living was boring. So I got a real job. And since 2013 I only play for fun with friends and about 1-2 times a month I visit the local casino. And every 3rd year I go to Las Vegas. That's enough for me. I still beat the lowest games both online and live. But it's just so boring grinding hours after hours.
Subbed.
Good luck.
Greetings from Sweden
I’m very interested to hear that you have done this. I often wonder, and maybe you could give me your take on this. Do you think that most of the professionals could walk away, even if they wanted to? For instance, I just watched Daniel N (Ki Poker) say that he lost $2,224,000+ in 2023. Maybe he should taper off or quit, but could he? I always supposed that he was one of the best three or four guys in the world and if that is so then when you are playing with people who are more or less on your level, then dumb luck must be too important. Otherwise I don’t see how someone like Daniel could end up losing $2M+. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
@@jimnorris4600 -Kidpoker is not top 4 in the world any more. I doubt he is even top-100 nowdays. Online he is not even top-1000. His strength is at livepoker. The ability to read peoples faces and body langauage is his strength.
He will never quit playing poker. I belive he still is a winning player in the long run. But maybe he should stop play in the highest buy-in tournaments?
And I guess he sells alot of action on StakeKings for 20% markup, just because he is Daniel?
I remember he said he thinks he played to much 2023? He wanted to play less. Sounds like he is chasing losses and then he is not playing his a-game when he plays to much and under pressuse? Good thing he understands this.
Btw, he just won a tournament?
Brooo, as a 500+ ps player have a exactly same thoughts, doubts and feelings. Instant sub
what are you considering?
the editing, production value and story telling is incredible. Great stuff Flo!
thanks kevin :) spent way too much time on the animations :D
Let's have a call tomorrow on IG!
That’s true you have something very creative in your content not only animation but storytelling(I’m pro video editor/colorist)
If you want some tips or software make a sign!
@@soundseen thank you! let's get in touch. my coloring game is non existent at this point but im using resolve so will start diving into it soon.
Good for you! I've also quit poker before (professional, making @150K per year) to go into other directions, mainly due to boredom, wanting to make deeper connections to the world and people around me, and an existential dilemma of not contributing to community. I gained a masters degree but started playing poker again on the weekends to supplement my income temporarily until the new ventures are sufficient monetarily. You can do it and can come back at a temporary basis if need presents itself.
Now adays I play purely for the joy of the game. If I make a little extra income for playing this great game that's awesome and I do appreciate the money. But I refuse to go look for the softest games you can find for no other reason than making some easy money. That's depressing to me. I love games but not only playing a game for the rest of my life. Just some of everything is the best. :) life balance and all that.
The dilemma of not contributing to society kicked in once I started to make money playing, I tried to "solve" it by coaching, helping others and the idea that I could use the money to support others in need, but I never reached a point where I was really proud of what I did. A soft transitioning by keeping to play temporarily to make sure the new venture doesn't get killed by lack of $ seems smart, hard to focus on 2 things at the same time tho
If u can make money playing poker why would u ever stop. Poker winnings in Ireland are tax free.
@@TheMonetist I did for me as well even though I was not making huge sums of money. I believe it comes down to feeling of lacking purpose and somewhere us poker players seem to have a belief that if I make all these money life will be easy and fun and I will even have time to make the world a better place. The thing is you don't need to do anything extraordinary to make the world a better place. But you need to be happy within. Because when you are you contribute to the world with positive energy automatically just by being around people. But if playing solely poker is not making you feel fulfilled then I would take a step back like you are doing and as I did to find that balance again. Because what I learned is that it's not poker that is the problem. It's doing something more than it benifits us mentally and emotionally and spiritually. Everything in moderation is fine. :)
@@Kkkllkll I liked your thoughts I appreciate them can I get your instagram?
Good luck you and would like to know how its going a year since you made this video.
thanks, working on having time for YT videos again :)
It's funny that you uploaded this video when I stopped playing poker after 8-10 years. I decided not to try my luck in the scoop series, because this year I didn't win 1st place even though I played small field mtt. And nice bike:) cycling is one of the best things to forget all the downswings and move on.
Hey Karolis.
Seems like I'm not the only one. I never played mtt's, the format of playing 55min + 5min breaks always felt too much like a job to me.
thank you, spent my youth trying to become the next lance armstrong and failed, glad I didn't make it in retrospect tho
This was the precise video i was looking for. Thanks for this content. I quitted professional poker to get back to my business because i had similar thoughts, but for the last 8 months I can factually say that im a break even business owner, and its bringing me more problems than solution. Ive been thiking really seriously going back to professional poker. I will answer in this video 6 months from now. I also tried doing business and playing poker at the same time but it doesnt work out, my best results have comed when i play poker exclusively, but i got burn out and feel of trying something else
people (who don't play poker) keep telling me that I should just split poker and business, like business during the day, poker in the evening - it doesn't work. Few understand this.
Intro is so funny 😅. I am in the same (or similar) spot. Keep it up.
haha ty. Truth is the most funniest joke of all :D
I agree with what you saying ..but what id add is that u gotta love what u do man !not about the money .if u dont enjoy it anymore thats completey fine.but for many including myself it s a side hustle /hobby .
Very thought provoking video, looking forward to future videos
thank you, me too!
Yup. I'm 29, back when I was 18-21 I sacrificed every Friday and Saturday night playing poker. Walking into the casino and on the way seeing other people my age going to bars/clubs, forming friendships and relationships.
My hourly over the years worked out to be $40ish dollars.
I came to the conclusion that it was simply minus life EV. On the contrary, a guy the same age as me at the time in my poker social circle, is one of the highest earning tournament players of all time.
The downsides far outweigh the upsides if you don't somehow snowball a tournament bankroll early on, cash games however are mind numbing and you'll essentially be earning a low class wage unless you shot take high stake games and get lucky early.
the most single sacrifice of playing poker is the loss of time - one day you’ll wake up and realize 15+ years have gone by and you haven’t accomplished much and if you’re lucky you made some money - you probably don’t have a retirement account, no real estate, no wife, no family and you’re pushing 40+ …nothing including money can substitute time, unfortunately I learnt this the hard way
This is what I'm realizing. Spent two years, played about 200 sessions. Had some great laughs and fun nights, won money but not nearly enough to live on. Just went on a 21 BI downswing and now feeling like "so what?". I could have mastered a language or found a girlfriend or something with all that 1000 hours.
I’ve been playing poker professionally it doesn’t matter how many pots you win or how big your wins are it’s seriously more stressful than working a 9-5 job and I’m not saying it’s stressful because you sit at a table (it still is) but working your money for rooms? Food, grinding an hour away tossing hand after hand then hoping the good hand you have actually sticks. Maybe it’s different because I have that mindset business but honestly I’m getting burnt out and mostly I hate the games my mind play when it comes down to a showdown and your wondering if your opponent is bluffing or beats your hand. The thing I hate the most are bad beats and everyone that’s played for more than 10 hours knows exactly what I’m talking about.
How much were you winning in the 200nl online pool in bb/100? Just curious because I’m currently playing and don’t have anything to compare my winrate to
You described Nico Rosberg. Almost perfectly. Hope your new ventures are going well
I quit poker after playing for 15+ years, about 3-4 years of that I played full time it was a very stressful time.
It is indeed. It feels like the easiest and hardest thing depending on mood, variance and access to certain games
Good on you, man. You had a gut feeling and you went with it., like hero calling on the river….jokes aside, good on you for making a big change and trusting yourself. Wishing you the best 👍
GL on your new jouney! Great video
thank you chris :)
Good luck man Do the research,work hard and you can do anything. I don’t know you but I do know this. GG
100% thank you for the motivational words 💪🏻
Enjoy your journey my friend, i will continue to play even though i am a losing player at moment. i will not quit until i get desire number. Pray you have a wonderful career.
I feel you, important to reach goals, hard to know if they are set for the right reasons. thank you
Been playing poker for 8 years. Typically 1k buy in games live. I make a "considerable" amount playing but not nearly as much as my job. I just realized it's not what I'd prefer to do too make a living. The bigger you play the more money you can win. Now pokers a game that I play roughly 30 hours a week. Still a lot. But I prefer just having a job and poker on the side. Winnings not always guaranteed. And building a bankrolls a whole other thing. I make roughly on average. 20-25 hourly at the game. Would never cover my expenses.
not bad tho. sounds like I wouldn't want you to have on a table. I never played live really, but I'm considering it since I can't work on the same thing 16h/day while actually being productive, so spending some evenings in casinos to lower my burn rate feels like a good choice. Where do you play?
Great video bro. Good luck in your journey
thank you. great channel btw!
@@TheMonetist thanks 👊🏻
Building a successful business isn't easy either and everyone has feelings of burnout in their jobs and want to try something else. For example I'm a successful software engineer but a losing poker player and I want to get better at poker. I think the trick is to have balance between your main job but also have side hussles so you have multiple streams of income. Then eventually you can become an investor and make money doing that as well. Go for entrepreneurship though and fail but you just have to try again and eventually you will succeed. But I would also keep playing poker on the side as an additional income stream.
very difficult to succeed in 2 things at the same time for me, I tried. The problem with poker as a side hustle is that it requires a lot of focus to actually make a solid income, at leat for me. If I spend 8h a day working on my business I find it close to impossible to play the way I'm satisfied with afterwards. One solution might be to play low enough that my C game still works and less hours. Makes nearly insignificant money tho
Which kind of a software Developer? 🤗
@@yomismo5711 I do web development mostly.
It makes sense. If you sit down at a table and have one too many drinks or play kinda casually and stop paying attention to people, you get caught and it costs you bad.
If you wanna be good at it, you have to treat it like a job, almost like a business analyst or something, which kinda takes the joy out of it. I'm gonna stick to playing it casually every once in a while. There's no need to go all in and make it the center of your life too. You can play it well by playing like once or twice a month with a certain amount you're willing to lose that won't make you depressed or crush you if you do.
There are a lot of losers in poker, they just try to hide their losses or simply don't talk about it.
exactly. Any game played professionally means not treating it as a game - as something you do for fun, when you feel like it - but by trying to optimize everything, with the goal of maximizing income. And this is where it starts feeling dump to not spend this time and energy on something more meaningful.
@@TheMonetist old post but with live poker i disagree. the people who try and optimize every single decision in live cash games end up costing themselves money in the long run bc they tend to tank, be antisocial etc and bad players don't enjoy playing with them. giving up some short term ev is well worth it in the end. having a pool of bad players who keep coming back for more is worth a lot more than tanking for 3 minutes to make a sliver of extra ev on an individual hand. playing perfect in tough lineups getting 30 hands an hour live is worth so much less than playing decent in a fun social game, having a few drinks in soft lineups and way too many pros don't understand this.
now in super tough online games, high rollers etc it's much different. then you need to optimize everything.
All the best for your future endeavors 🙂.
thank you :)
Kids that are thinking of grinding for a living. DON'T BOTHER.
Gl man it's a brave move. A move I'm not willing to take yet.
thx chris. doing both might work. business Mo-Th, Poker Fr-Su (for me as well to lower my $ burnrate)
What are you playing?
AI is going to kill online poker, there's bots who already can't be beat long term, soon somebody gonna put them to work
Doing an activity that most people do as a hobby as a professional activity is tough. Being successful at anything is hard. Do sthg you like and try to get better .
Life is a “click next” button. If you can start with the end in mind, keep clicking “next” till you get there…or choose to keep clicking and going further! Sounds simple and it is with vision, an open mind, and the right focused efforts. Best wishes!
sounds hard actually :D How do you know the end without having reached it?
You need just a longer break. You can play passive in poker too.
You gonna create machine learning software to make decisions real time during your live online poker play?
i have been there, exactly the same place you are, i started a delivery restaurant, it started kinda well, at the beggining it was me and my wife doing things, then i started to try to put employees instead, then, it didnt work anymore, i was trying to play poker at the same time i would take care of the restaurant, didnt end up well, also, the second biggest problem was that i live in brazil ( but i saw you live in russia, so not much difference), and here the income is super low compared to the dolars we make at poker, anyway, i would need to open like 3~4 restaurants to make a really good income, but, this would request sooo much time as well.., i think there is no easy way, but i feel exactly like you, dont think poker is going to last too long, and dont like to grind hours and hours everyday, also, beating above micros is hard as fk, either you play more tables and lose, or play less and make little.
I live in austria actually, what made you think russia? :D People talked to me in russian in asia actually, I guess I look like it.
Restaurant business is super hard imho, I have big respect for anyone having to please customers all day long. Poker can be hard too esp on downswings. What would you like to do?
@@TheMonetist i was thinking where you were from, and i watched a vídeo of you playing at GG, and the country was Rússia, só maybe you had an Rússia account or something, anyway, If you are from Áustria Its ALL good, Its actually a no brainer, tour country average saláry is about 5 times higher than Mine, the thing here is, even If you have a Very good business, you wont make much money, a Very rich person here makes 10k dollars, and like i Said, i would need to have like 5 restaurants (the way i was doing) tô make this much money, and this is soooooo much work, i dont think Its worth It, and for what i wanted to do, i would like to Go to a First world country and probably start making some money on Uber driver or something, and then maybe open a business after i understand How It Works there, also my wife hás a beauty business wich would also bê good If she were at a First world country .
Interesting I am a pro player and I'm exactly about to do the same thing as you did @@antihackerify. Open a food service with wife (girlfriend on my case, she has a lot of experience in that area, she leads a restaurant as a chef already but not own business). And more interesting I live in Brazil too. I have exactly the same vision, earn as much as I can do in poker would take me 4-5 good business running but at same time staying in poker (only) for too long seems risky.
Hey friend, you are on to something, thinking in levels. I've seen other poker channels where the creator is at the same place as you seem to be (unfulfilled, fatigued from stress, etc.) but they continue to obsess about winning or getting better at poker (only). I think you have it right; many tings in life that warrant our curiosity and even passion- aren't necessarily worth 100% of our life's energy. It's wise that you can see yourself- and your life's work- as adding up to more than a grind for poker cash. Yet you can still use the lessons and personal growth from poker in your life elsewhere, e.g. your business. I too am a business owner, and I've had MANY adjacent passions and interests that have helped me and my business grow by forcing me to learn and adapt. I'm just always careful to throttle the amount of attention I direct to the 'side quest' so it doesn't divert energy from my primary path in life. So continue to seek the next higher level, AND continue to play poker, and find the NEXT poker. Maybe try Jiu Jitsu ;)
Hey Keith. Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the nice words :)
Poker def. helped me learning a lot about myself and improving many things I would have never even thought of given that my performance, focus, overall happiness correlated with my winrate, so it feels like a good, unorthodox way of fixing myself in retrospect to take on bigger, more meanigful challenges now.
I see business, or youtube f.e. as the next poker. Like different games that require certain strategies to succeed - but with the potential of a more fulfilling outcome once succeeded. Never tried Jiu Jitsu, but I'm getting curious about it, many people recommend it, talk greatly about it.
What business are you in?
Don’t over think it. You’ll be just fine
I hope you are right :)
Long time ago I set a min monthly earnings threshold = $ required for expenses + savings needed + career equity. Career equity is extremely discounted by most. Theres a huge opportunity cost to doing something so specialized over a long period of time. That said lots of valuable life lessons in poker just not directly applicable to a lot of things.
Its just a card game that i actually like, having money involved just adds honest preasure to the game which makes it feel realistic, i dont actually care about the money part but its a nice bonus, and sad that some people play above what they can afford.
The thing about poker is not the guaranteed sucess, it' the feeling and the passion. Like ballett in a way. People that don't do ballett can't understand why anyone would destroy their toes and buy 200 dollar shoes every 3 weeks while making min wage. To me personally, the most painful thing about giving up this dream is that i never really studied the analytical side of the game. Never read a pokerbook and the fact that in the 3 clips Pokerstars sent me for 1 place finishes, 35% of the hands shown were played based on hope.
I've been losing at poker for 13 years now. Still have the addiction. I fantasize about being able to constantly win at poker but even the one time i played low stakes and earned up to $3k in 6 days I almost felt bored from winning so often. Is that sick or what? I wish I had Adderall 😂 then i could be able to see clearly that gambling is an unhealthy obsession and I could build the empire I would rather leave to humanity. Blessings upon everyone 🎉❤
I only played semi professional. Part time for about 8 years. It was good money. But, once my son was born my time with him became more important than playing. Luckily I always maintained a day job.
Smart.
That's another good reason to stop playing. I couldn't imagine raising my child while being dependent on poker income. Feels very stressful. Congrats 🙏
@@TheMonetist , I still play occasionally for fun. But, it’s pretty evident I’m a little behind and need to study more with solvers, and AI training tools. The games is always evolving, but I still do okay when I play. Just not as good as when I was playing more often.
Always more or less worked in a stabile job while spending 20 hours a week playing poker. I invested min. 50 % winnings, and built up and stock portfolio that after 8-9 years gave me what I really was looking for. Freedom------------to do what i like----
Hey, hope you’re well, what plans do you have for business ideas?
Monetizing what I love the most, and in the next 6-12months my goal is find out what that is by educating myself and creating content with my learnings
I love poker as a hobby. Joining tournaments once a week or even 3 times a month is good. But for living, it will be very stress.
When was the last time any of you had to break your back to make a living?? " Waaah! I play poker and make a butt load of 💰 money. Waaaah"
Cool, good luck.. if you have sucess one place you can find it in another
thx. I hope so!
Hi. I stumbled on your video. I´m sorry, what´s your name and poker alias? Cheers!
Glad you found me. I’m Flo :)
Great video
Thank you! Is it true? Only with Aces? 😥
@@TheMonetist absolutely, lol ! and u r so eloquent !
After 10 years of playing pro poker , 7 years ago I started a course for selling on Amazon and the rest is history
How did you do it? I'm curious
If i remember right, i think like 17% of all new business actually ends up not losing money, so making good money probably is a lot smaller. Also it depends what country you are in, the more corrupt a country is the worse it is for business.
sounds depressing if you put it like that, haha.
I'm aware that I don't have a high chance of success, my argument for still trying is that the % of people making money in poker might be even lower.
@@TheMonetist true, but it's very interesting to see and u got my sub already. I'm a pro poker player for 15 years, but i have friends and family with businesses and i wouldn't trade places. Btw, the book Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure ( copy paste ) is pretty cool, i remember reading it 10 years ago and it should help out with how much to risk on a business. But will follow your journey for sure, good luck!
thanks for the recommendation and gl at the tables!
that might be true but even if your business fails you will learn a lot of lessons and the knowledge is still transferable for your next business
Hi Flo!
Great news for you!
When you don't have opportunity, you create it!
I live abroad for 12 years, now in Japan. Playing poker in dead season(covid was long!!!).
Failing is part of the process to success and to find your way.
Follow your ethics, you're a Mench!
Can't wait to see your new content
oh hey I remember you from the app challenge give away. Thanks for the nice comment :)
Yes failure is learning, hard to see it that way while failing tbh but true in general.
Will do my best to not disappoint :)
Poker should never be your only source or income. You should have good-stable source of income, which doesnt generate a lot of stress, and in your free time to try your LUCK to make an extra buck. If you are LUCKY you will win here and there, spending on vacation and so on.
Ya still taking a break?
Poker is just one of the millions other options. You can develope things faster and more stressfull or slower on the chill. You have to only find that way. I dont belive you wont play anymore XD
Easiest path is get a full time job which is not difficult and build your side hustle until it all becomes unmanageable bc yre too busy.
😂😂😂 old man hipster still playing poker. Thumbs up the video!
its better to play poker occasionally like a side hustle. playing it for 10 years straight is mentally stressful and tiring and boring
It's the same for all regular jobs, I think you can start a business and play poker for money at the same time.
Have you tried?
@@TheMonetist I am not a poker pro, i work a regular professional job which pays really good, I'm a millionaire but never gonna be billionaires, I start working on a side business after work trying to get higher, it's growing but not game changing, it gives me a chance at least, at worst I'm still a millionaire.
@@TheMonetist If you are going for money, switching to investment, stock or crypto trading is not a bad option, alot of similar skill set as poker, way more money and much less effort than any business. If you want to do something you like, pick something you like and you got advantage with, but business is really hard. If I were you, I will keep earning money in poker, maybe switch to live private games, one of my friends become millionaires playing with super rich asian newbies. I am not there yet, just some opinions
GGs!
Love poker, love business, made lots more in business. Employees suck.
haha why?
Its not about discipline if you dont look every time until it is finally your turn
I was not a ft poker player but of 3/40 years. Only because i had to or technically. The game is fun. I like fun. I do not want to make this my life...the breaks i took has made it acceptable now years later to play for fun or make a few dollars on the side.
Turns out that a game is something that should be played for fun 😅 Took me too long to understand
Are you over thinking the sutuation? If you are tired of your current job get some additional education in a field you are exciteded about and get a defferent job.
I think i know the answer before i even watch it. Its way too hard a game, in which you sacrifice way too much for what you get back. I know, Ive been there. I thought i was king shit when i won a bracelet in 2010. I realised im prob just avg.
To be profitable is pretty hard for me nowadays.
Hard to be consistent
Variance is a bitch.
It is so insane, it is not fair at all.
I can’t be that selective.
At 36 i hate working as a chef again , i am pretty decent, but it is so hard too.
Starting a business is the way to go. But i dont wanna sell trash.
It's hard because the online game is now fixed. I've lost $12k this year even though my money goes in good 90% of the time...
I quit three days ago.
It is, I always struggeld with consistency the most.
Which businesideas do you consider?
@@TheMonetist Have you tried the apps? That's what I am going to do..
yes, made some videos about my experience there. Maybe check the apps vs sites comparison
@@TheMonetist Do you believe there's something not right with online too?
🙏
I just started playing again after a long break and now I remember why I quit. It is mentally draining and actually tiring. I bet professional poker players regularly wish they had a regular job
I mean professional poker players always retain the option of getting a regular job if they really want it. However, working for someone else on set hours, for a low hourly, in something that you aren’t passionate about, isn’t that appealing to me. Then you also pay taxes on your income in your regular job (which you don’t in poker, at least where I’m from).
Don’t get me wrong, there are some downsides to poker. It can be stressful and you can go on big downswings etc, but ultimately I think it’s still a more enjoyable job than most out there.
There are downsides to every single job, so it’s about weighing up the pros and cons deciding what suits you best. For some it’s poker, for others it’s something else. I think I’ll transition away from poker within the next few years but I still love the game and really enjoy my job.
@@Demondoink1 not all jobs are low paying. This guy said he ran an ecommerce website. He could take those skills and look into becoming something like a system administrator that can pay well. A job in USA also means company provided health insurance and paid vacations. You also have to pay taxes in USA on poker winnings just like any income from a job. I think only a few make a career out of poker long term. For every 100 who try, probably 1 succeeds
I never wished to have a job since me being able to decide what I spend my energy on is one of my most important values. Sure, there are downswings or relatives who would value me more for working a prestigious job which sometimes gets to me but it always felt like a small enough drawback.
That said, I always wished I would have taken a successful entrepreneurial path early in life.
your nick sounds familiar, I think we might have played once @demondoink. What's your main format?
@@TheMonetist My main game is cash games. I mostly play on Stars from 500nl-2k (though i'm trying my luck in donkaments this month for SCOOP haha).
There is a decent chance we played against each other at zoom at some point :)
You're core belief that you need to make money is wrong. You need to survive and have a purpose in life. If you love playing flute for instance it doesn't matter where you live as long as you have enough to eat so you don't starve. In pretty much every western European country you are guaranteed not to starve to death. You could live anywhere and practice flute 10 hrs per day. People would feed you simply because they admire your work ethic and dedication. You could juggle or dance or whatever as long as you work way way harder than the average person and have no interest in money or fame people will admire your monastic lifestyle and feed you...
imma coach and player because i want to beat helmuth while revealing my idea of a winner
You arent better off waiting two hours for highest profit, and your clearly able to move up in blinds
Money management is the key to playing poker
That’s like saying oxygen is the key to happiness. It doesn’t work without it but to be happy/profitable you need more than that. In poker it’s really about playing a better strategy than your opponent
Feel like 99% of this vid was fluff. Could’ve just said u we’re going to quit. All the other things u said were worthless in the grand scheme of the vid. The logic there was kinda lacking
true, I'm still learning
@@TheMonetist On the other hand, the entire video spoke to me and I'm really surprised at Nico's comment.
why not play poker on the weekends irl where the pools are super soft and you make quite a lot of money and focus on the buisness in the week, you dont need to study bc ur not even looking to move up just keep on getting some amount of money like aroind 3k is ez per month while u work on ur buisnnes
yes great idea, something like this might be a good solution to make sure I don't run out of money
@@TheMonetist btw could i ask where you got that mouse i wrly wanna buy it looks so cool
it's the old ergonomic mouse from logitech. the mx master I had before was way better technically, while the ergo solved my shoulder pain issues so it was def. worth the switch for me personally
*mx vertical
@@TheMonetist tnx man i will get it just cuz it looks more professional hahahaha
I played poker from 2003 to 2011. Black Friday was the end for me. Started a business and I'm better off than 99.5% of poker players. The skills you developed building a bankroll from ZERO will benefit you greatly in business.
congrats! hope I can say the same thing about myself in the future. Knowing that I "made it" in poker def. helps with confidence
great video but it's easy to talk once you've made a lot of money from poker and travelled the world, some of us still want to experience that before we move on to other things
I'm not saying playing poker is a terrible thing to do. Back then it felt like the solution and I also felt like I'm not capable of doing something "more meaningful" while seeking the lifestyle poker allows. poker is a stepping stone imho
It's good you left UP....not leaving DOWN
true, but it doesn't really make it easy to transition. I'm still thinking "I should play, I'm losing money by not doing so"
I mean, it's all very personal. Literally could be applied to any normal job, tbh.
it's true, I'm not a special case, it's as you said just my personal situation
1. Good for you. Serously.
2. I truly hope you use your obvious great intellect, self-examination, drive, and talent to create a business that actually does something good for society and creates better futures for others, in particular creating jobs and making your employees successful. And isn't just another hustle like selling an Amazon selling course.
3. Which brings me to this. Coming from someone who is either the youngest boomer or oldest Gen-X. I see the poker table as the biggest waste of human creative and intellectual capital on the planet. In partiular the millenials. All these people posting how they make mid-6 to 7 figures playing poker FAIRLY---I don't believe you. And even if you ARE, all you are doing is taking money from addicts who don't have the sophistication or ability to stop. People who don't have it. Unless you're playing with billionaires, you're not "providing entertainment" to recreational players. You're just a crack dealer with headphones. And that's not including the 20% or so made at the crack factory level (i.e. the casino). You all are.the smartest and most capable people out there and could be doing so much more than this. It is actually gross that people drop out of MIT to play poker. Please consider that you all have a gift, a gift that would be better to share with others than be wasted.
if i can still win its fair.
I was really good @ poker. Thought it was boring.
Took me 10 years to come to the same conclusion I guess 🥶
Poker should be played for fun, put your real energy into something bigger than a zero sum game...
one could argue, that the lifestyle it creates makes it a positive sum game. the base of every business/job is a transation of money which is a 0 sum game as well, but it creates value in some ways. So I would argue poker is just more selfish than most other things someone can do
Playing poker as a pro has so many benefits,if you think running a business is easier I think you will be disappointed. Good luck 🍀🍀
True, I know business is not easier, it‘s what makes me wake up in the morning and be excited about my day tho. Which is what I’m optimizing for. Ty
Απο Ελλάδα ειδικά τι να σου πω φοβερά benefits...
@@abstract1603 στην Ελλάδα με μέσο μισθό 950 ευρώ ή στην Αμερική με μεσο μισθό 4k+ δολάρια είναι πιο εύκολο? Αν ο Αμερικανός για να βγάλει αρκετά χρειάζεται να κερδίζει το .50-1 ο Έλληνας χρειάζεται να κερδίζει το .10-.25. Οπότε δεν καταλαβαίνω το σχόλιο σου
@@makisdimatos3427 πολύ έξω πέφτεις αδερφέ.. δεν υπάρχει αυτό που λες ..στην Ελλάδα αρχικά οι επιλογές σου για live poker είναι κάκιστες κ λίγες. Το online νόμιμο φορολογείται σε σημείο που γ σοβαρά stakes είναι unbeatable...τέλος αν βγάλεις 950ε απ το nl25 θα σ δώσω εγώ αλλά τόσα..μισό ένα όριο στην Αμερική δεν έχει νόημα να παίξεις.. Αμερική θ παίξεις 2/5 κ πάνω live ..το καλο ειναι ότι εκεί υπάρχουν άπειρα όρια κ games οπότε εάν θέλει ν ασχοληθει κάποιος σοβαρά με το πόκερ φυσικά κ είναι πολύ καλύτερο ν το κάνει στην Αμερική είτε σαν side είτε σαν main . Γενικά θεωρώ πουθενά δεν αξίζει να το κάνεις σαν full time πλέον
Invest in crypto. Check out the 4 year cycles of crypto. 2014 2018 2022 are the 💩 years
2024 & 2025 are the good years
I quit gambling arbitrage.
I'm not smart enough to understand the crypto market
to beome a pro and make money in poker you have to make poker you god. and build your life around it. i believe poker is a form of gembling and basically selfish game witch feeds greed. but i play anyways. great way to waste time and probably make some extra cash. but game is very dangerous if you dont have very very strong fundamentals and discipline to not gemble.
So what content are you going to do now then? don't quit you-tube! sport is sport, business is business, obviously a business can be a big or as small as you want it to be, sport has a different kind of achievement but its like comparing apples and oranges, it's also a matter of perspective, capitalism is technically bad it essentially destroys the planet to an extent and communism doesn't work either, poker should be considered a sport, just like when you kick a football for a first time; most play for fun and those that want to achieve more can.
I dont care how good you are. You cant constantly win in poker. There is just too much variance. Starting a business is harder in beginning but worth it , if you can stick to it to grow
Some say nothing worth having comes easy, true for making money in poker and business I guess. Business seems the better choice of suffering tho :D
It's so true. Variance is really not to be underestimated. Doesn't matter how good you are
Being a pro poker player is the dream.
It was my dream when I started
@@TheMonetist toy couldnt beat the game, or why are u quiting?
@the_monetist is it possible to contact you in pm?
I never been a good poker player since playing 7-8 yrs ago and losing hundreds of dollars maybe thousands and until now I can’t move up in mid-stakes coz I know my skills sucks! And honestly I don’t use the poker software coz I don’t f@cking undrstand it! So quitting is the best option to save me some money and just focus on other things that I can enjoy and relieved stress through raising gamebirds/gamefowls.
poker is a fulltime job, at least it was for me, and in the beginning all I did was studying with the goal of understanding why we do certain thing and how to make better decision than my oponents. It's hard work, I would spend 6h trying to figure out why a certain betsizing makes sense some times. Some might make it through "talent", I had to outwork them and I wouldn't have made any money without that approach
That’s sounds a lot like me. I feel I outworked everyone in my games. I played since I was a teenager into my 40’s. I was probably one of the most consistent profitable players at the low mid stakes live games. But after time and when Covid hit something changed idk if it was boring to me but when I get into day trading it took away the interest. And now I think I’m starting to be happier than I’ve been in my life. I have more time and more money. Trading is easier then poker too. You can just wait for pocket aces in trading and there’s no one really there to stop you. Unlike poker id have to play it a certain line against my opponents. But don’t get me wrong it takes a great deal of work to become profitable. But at least now I don’t have to study nearly as much as I had to stay ahead of the game in poker. Gl to you on you next journey.
trading is great since if you "play higher" you are still playing the same "opponent" unlike poker, true exponential growth there. Never got really interested in it sadly.