I have been playing poker for about 4 years now and have been doing it professionally for about 8 months, it has its ups and downs as you can imagine.
It all started when I moved to Spain last year. During my time there I broke my ankle, lost my job and in turn couldn’t afford my rent. I loaded money onto my poker account and put some hours in at the local wireless cafe, it kept me alive.

After a few months I realised I was making 3 times more than I was getting for job, so it wasn’t a conscious decision. Now I’m back in the UK I’ve had 3 jobs since. Every time I come back to poker because I keep getting more money playing poker part time than working. Eventually I just made it full time.

Iv had a couple of bad times during my 8 months, all of them being self inflicted, playing with a hangover, too tired, calling to many coin flips,etc…
Most of the time being put down to lack of discipline, I realised this and sorted it out.

I exercise before a session, eat good food, and only start playing once I feel fresh. It’s very tempting to play a few hands after you’ve been on a night out and had a few drinks, fighting this urge is harder for me than actually making the money. I normally play 7 days a week, but I work 6 if I plan to go out on the weekend so I don’t play with a hangover the next day.

Playing poker for a living has its pros and cons. You get as much freedom as you want, you chose you own hours and days, and you can pretty much play anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Not many people have this amount of freedom and can still make money, so I make the most of it, I like to travel a lot. I’m moving to Thailand for a while soon.

You can get sucked in If you play too much poker. I like to play a lot of poker, about 60-70 hours a week. I get out a lot too. Its important to have a balanced lifestyle, otherwise you wont truly appreciate it.

I’m actually looking for a part time job, not for the money but just for the social aspect and to get out a bit more such as a bar job.
My advice for people planning to turning pro is dont gve up the dayjob until you have consistantly earned more playing poker for a long period of time, even then nothing is guaranteed, enjoy it whilst you can.