My two year anniversary...

I woke up this morning and grabbed my phone to see what time it was. I can't remember what time it was, but I did notice that the date was May 1st. This marks my two year anniversary of playing poker full time. I quit my last job on May 1st 2006 and I have to say it was probably the best decision I have ever made. Its not like I was giving up some amazing job that would be impossible to replace if I couldn't hack it as a poker player, but I think it took quite a bit of guts to make that decision. Almost everyone I talked to about it advised me not to do it. There were a few people that told me that they thought it was a good idea, but it was always painfully obvious to me that they didn't really believe that and/or didn't think I would actually go through with my plans. My parents were half-heartedly supportive at first and I understand that it probably wasn't what they had in mind for me to do for a living, especially after graduating college and having a job for over two years before I decided to do this. Now, I think my parents are some of my biggest supporters and are even proud of me for being a poker player. They aren't proud of me because I am not working for the man or anything like that (In fact they'd probably prefer that I do that instead), but I think they are proud of the fact that I am doing something I enjoy and having plenty of success doing it.

Most of my friends thought I was crazy for doing it and somewhat tried to talk me out of it. However, I think they were just trying to keep me around town to use me as a golf scramble/gambling/playing partner, my diving catches in left center field and a staple in the number 3 spot in the batting lineup, the guy that was always available to go to lunch with, and the guy that was ALWAYS the one to sign our teams up for any league we played in. I know this to be somewhat true, because the group of guys I had played softball with every spring, summer, and fall for about 5 years somehow missed an entire year of signing up for softball because everyone always just waited around for me to do it!

A few of my friend's parents and other random adults that I looked up to had serious-sit-down-heart-to-heart talks with me before I moved trying to convince me what a horrible idea it was to move to Vegas and blah blah blah. "I've had friends that have had gambling problems in the past and it has basically ruined their lives" was a common theme of these talks. Another one of my favorite warnings was "Do you know how they can afford to keep building those huge casinos and pay the electricity bill for all of those flashing lights?? From gamblers that have dreams of striking it rich!"

I was always appreciative of all of these talks, because I always knew they had good intentions and I would probably give someone similar advice if they told me they wanted to play poker for a living. It certainly isn't for everyone and I wasn't even sure it was for me. I just knew that I at least wanted to give it a shot or I would never know if I could have done it or not.

I don't think anyone can say that it wasn't the right choice for me now. I have had the time of my life for the last two years, made more money than I ever could have made at my old job, and taken more vacations than some people take in their whole life.

I am so glad that I took a shot at doing something that I knew I enjoyed and worked hard enough at it to make it work. If you are unhappy with what you are currently doing and second guess yourself when contemplating a risky change in your life I encourage you to take the plunge and go for it! What is the worst that could happen? You could fail? Who cares?!