I graduted from Grand Valley State University in 2001 with a bachelors degree in Finance and Marketing. I went to work for JP Morgan Chase selling mutual funds, cds, annuities, mortgages, credit cards... basically every thing they offer in the retail branches. I did pretty well there I was in the top 10% of sales. However, I did not enjoy it. So I started playing poker online in 2005 mostly for fun. As a kid I played 5 card stud with my sister for pennies and nickles for fun. I have always been a gambler. I was sneaking into casinos when I was 17. I read a book on card counting in black jack and tried it out in the local casinos. I bought my first stock when I was 18 (AOL by the way which I sold for a nice profit).

So the blackjack did not work out like I wanted so poker was getting pretty big at that time so I took a shot on party poker. This was when Americans were allowed to play on there. I was making pretty good money at JP Morgan so I deposited $600 and lost it all within a week. So I read a bunch of books about poker, because there were no videos at the time. If I could have watched videos it would have been so much easier. I started playing $33 single table sngs right from the start. I did not know bankroll rules or any of that stuff. I played a bunch but still busted again. I took a couple months off and deposited $600 for the final time.

I have never had to deposit since then. I was beating the $50 sngs then and mtts as well. When I went to work at JP morgan I felt terrible like I knew I could be making more money per hour playing poker and I didn't like my job there anyways. So I stopped setting up appointments with customers and they fired me! When they fired me my wedding was 1 month away and I had just bought a house. So the pressure was on for me to make money playing poker. This all happened in 2005 about 6 months after I had started playing.

So a month after I turned pro I had a huge day for me at the time. On party poker I won a $109 mtt with about 350 people for $9500 and I won a $55 mtt with about 450 people for $4500. This $14,000 gave me a legit bankroll and took the pressure off.

I have now been a professional poker player for 4 years now. If you are reading this and are considering it for yourself let tell you about some of my experiences. The freedom to come and go is great, but if you are not motivated to keep playing it can be very difficult. It would be pretty hard for me to find a job that I make the same amount of money. However, I have to take 30% of all my winnings right out and pay the government for taxes. I pay estimated quarterly taxes because I don't want to get into trouble with the IRS. Some players don't and they are taking a big gamble. The variance at times can be sickening. I have only had 1 losing month in my 4 years as a pro for -$1000. But day to day swings of $5000 playing high stakes sngs are common and cash games are much worse. Lastly, everyone thinks it would be so great to play a card game for a living. But just like any other job it gets to be a grind. After doing it everyday day in and day out you just get sick of it. I do still enjoy playing, but the last few hours of playing everyday for me are purely a grind. I like to mix up what I play to keep it interesting. I have been very profitable in sngs, mtts and cash games. So if you ever look me up you might see me playing any of these.