This might be my last post for a while. I figured I should let everyone who reads this and might care know what's going on. I'm throwing in the towel as a professional poker player, at least for now. I got in touch with the placement company that landed me my last job and they have an opening available. I'm hoping to set up an interview sometime next week. From what I know about the company, it should be an interesting place to work and very educational. The salary is also very close to what I was making prior to making the jump. Hopefully, it won't be anywhere near as bad as my last job. I've learned a lot over these past 6 months. I've learned that it's easy to say, "I'll play for 6 hours a day" but it can be very difficult to actually do it. Some days I just don't feel like playing, especially after a prolonged losing streak. It's also very hard to play your "A" game 100% of the time while putting in 36 hours a week at the tables. I've also learned that there is great wisdom coming from whoever originally suggested that you have 6 months living expenses saved prior to going pro. I'm not even sure that's enough. Perhaps 12-18 months living expenses would be more proper. I'm sure it helps to ease the enormous losing streaks when you know you have enough money to afford to lose massive amounts of money for an extended period of time. My failure comes from several sources. I tried to make a living at limits that are too small. I had to consistently beat the limit I was playing at a pretty decent winrate just to cover my monthly expenses. I did not have enough living expenses saved up before making the jump. I had to cash out some long term savings that I really didn't want to touch, and now I'm going to have to recover those savings. I also underestimated just how powerful and how long lasting negative variance can be. I'm not going to get into it, but those of you who have read for any length of time know what I've been through. I'm not quitting poker. Not a chance. I am, however, looking forward to the game being fun once again. I'm going to take my time. I'm going back to my original plan that I set into motion nine months ago. Had I followed it, I could be playing the $15/30 game right now. I'm going to come up with a guideline of when I should move up and I'm going to stick to it. I'm going to play the bigger games where I can make $100-200/hr until I can pay off all my debt and cut my monthly expenses to 1/3 of what it is today (that might not be possible if gas prices keep rising). I'm going to save 12-18 months worth of expenses, maybe more. Then, depending on where I am in life, I may give being a professional poker player another shot. I'm really going to miss this lifestyle. I'm so used to going to bed at 5-5:30, but soon, I may be getting up at that time. I'm used to getting 8 hours of sleep every night. I'll likely go back to getting 5-6 hours of sleep every night. I'll probably have to start wearing dress clothes again instead of my jeans and t-shirts. I'll have to go back to having less time to myself. It's not really something I'm looking forward to. I am, however, looking forward to not having to worry if I'm going to get paid this month. I am looking forward to knowing exactly how much money I will have. I'm looking forward to knowing that if I feel like it, I can take a week or two vacation from poker. It will also be really nice to have some extra money again. I think after I get back into the swing of things that I'm going to take some of my poker winnings and invest in a nice, big plasma screen television and a really good surround sound system. I want to thank everyone who has supported me through all this. I wish things could've ended better. I just have not been able to overcome the negative variance enough to earn the money that I need. Maybe next time will be different. I hope that those of you who visit and enjoy reading my ramblings will continue my journey with me. I'm not ending this journey, just taking a different road that will make things a whole lot easier.

Source: PokerAce's Poker Blog