He titled his essay "I'm Quitting Poker Forever."
I just wanted to post this as a last farewell and for anyone new coming into the game.
So I started playing poker at a young age. WSOP poker app with play money. I grew up on poker. I had so much love for poker that I wanted to play this game until the day I die.
I’m very young. In my early 20’s. I’ve played professionally since I was 18. Yes you read it correctly. I would play online poker when I was 16-18 with my part time job money.
Then I moved out at 18 and played at any casino or poker room that offered it. In my first week I made $4300 and quit my job and never looked back. I paid my bills. Sometimes late but never went unpaid. I never got staked into any games.
In my first year of poker after my bills were paid I managed to profit $19,433.68. Barely getting by. I started to play 1/3, 2/5, then 5/10. My 2nd year I profited $29,205. My 3rd and 4th year combined I profited $81,922.30.
At this point I started to realize where my life was heading. I never looked into the true lifestyle of a grinder. I was at the table basically 80-90hrs. a week. Played on holidays. Played any chance I could. I didn’t balance my social life and everything else. It started to deteriorate.
But those bills still needed to be paid. I realized how hard I had to work just to make the same amount of money that any guy who works a regular job would make but with less hours. Benefits. Health insurance. All of it.
I realized that if I put that much effort into something bigger in my life…That I could go places far better than any poker table would take me.
There’s more to life than being in a casino folding 93o while someone around the corner is throwing their life away on the slot machine. I seen and stacked many people who came to the tables with their last dollar. Poker makes you jaded.
After a while I didn’t bat an eye to it. I guess what I’m saying is that for anyone new that wants to become a poker professional. Don’t… this is coming from a 25yo. grinder. Keep it as a hobby or better yet. Walk away from poker completely. Be like Dan Coleman and walk away from it after your big cash.
The night that made me wake up and get a real job was when I stacked this older white male at 5/10. This happened about a week and a half ago. The pot was for roughly $7800. The guy had a thousand yard stare and didn’t say a word. He got up and left. I left about 30min. afterwards. As I got out of the casino I seen the same guy walk towards me. Sobbing and begging me to give it back to him. It was his last dollar.
He turned his car on and was crying and pointing at his gas tank that was on empty. You gotta help me he shouted multiple times. I gave him $300 and told him to never come here again. He probably will though. Poker exposes you to a dark lifestyle and frankly I had enough of it. Not just for the degenerate gamblers but also for the lifestyle.
You travel to different casinos playing a game that can take it all away from you even if you play the cards right. The hardest way to make an easy living will forever be poker.
The greatest lay down of all time will be tonight. When I throw my glasses and poker grinder sweatshirt in the dumpster and never look back."
— "See you tomorrow OP."
This comment was the highest voted reply, by a massive margin.
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On the same day, another Redditor had some fun with a reply. It was titled, "I will play poker forever."
"I, an older white male, got felted the other night at 5/10. I lost my last dollar to some nitty shitreg. He didn't even wince as I gave him my patented 1,000 yard stare. After losing every dollar to my name in that $7800 pot, I knew I had to turn the charm on. I went into the bathroom and maced myself. I approached the man who beat me in the parking lot, eyes full of tears, and begged for some of my money back. Lousy s.o.b. only gave me $300 and told me to, "nEvEr cOmE bAcK".
Jokes on him; don't need to come back if you never leave. I waited for him to leave the parking lot and went back in and bought it at 1/3. Spun it up to $2k so I sat down at the 5/10 table and ended up leaving +$15k. God I love this game."
His efforts were applauded by everyone who got the joke.
— "This is why I keep coming back to Reddit."
— "Was fucking funny reading this right after i read the other one. belly laughed a bit."
— "A+++ Quality S***post!"
Doug Polk also graced the r/Poker subreddit with his own post, titled "I will go back and forth on playing poker forever."
"One minute you are beating Daniel Negreanu in a high stakes HU challenge and the next you are getting bluffed by Nik Airball as he laughs in your face.
Sometimes you fold the second nuts to phil hellmuth and sometimes you bluff over half a million dollars to Tom Dwan when he has a boat.
Sometimes you fold KK pre to Andrew Neeme and he has AA and othe times you fold a flush to Tesla when he shows you a 2.
I love to hate that I love this game. I'll see you next Tuesday. Or maybe it will be the one after. Or it won't be."
It was early in Austin, Texas when the post appeared, so Doug was told to "Go to sleep dude." But, it seemed like this post was too good to pass by.
— "I get up at 5 or 6 am most mornings these days so I can get a workout in before the kiddos get up," Doug replied. "Also, good shitpost timing."
— "Alright Joe Rogan – make us degens feel worse."
— Another reader pointed out how classic this stance was for The Lodge's owner. "Doug on playing poker: 'I think we can go either way here'"
