The Realities of Leaving Professional Poker
I’ve been playing poker for twenty years now.
I’ve seen many pro poker players come and go during that time. I’ve seen many players go and then come back.
What I’ve found interesting is how often pros express a desire or a plan to leave poker for good and how infrequently they follow through on it.
This was brought to the forefront of my mind recently, as I’ve heard the sentiment a few times in group coaching and have been able to dig into it with people a bit further.
So, I’ve been thinking lately about why this phenomenon occurs.
If you’re not a professional or aspiring professional, this post may not be relevant, but perhaps you’ll find it interesting.
Why They Want Out
The most common reason, in my opinion, that people plan to get out of poker is that they expect it to die.
They see the writing on the wall – tools becoming more powerful, governments putting up roadblocks, games getting tougher or vanishing.
Another common reason, of course, is downswings.
Losing money at your job can be rough – even more so when you don’t know when it will turn around.
Whether a player has lost their confidence due to a downswing, or they’re simply sick of the stress that a career in poker brings, downswings lead to a lot of people wanting to find another path.
While there are other reasons, I suspect these two are the most compelling, and they bring up one bigger issue: Uncertainty.
When you’re 24, you’re usually not so stressed about what your financial situation will be at age 55.
But as we get older, it’s easier to start worrying.
For some who are extremely successful or believe they’re on a path to continued growth in earnings, the “plan,” whether acknowledged or not, is to make enough money from poker over the next decade of playing that you don’t have to worry about money.
But when you’re in your 30s or 40s, and you feel that your earnings have settled to what they’re likely going to be, and it’s not enough to retire in ten years’ time, uncertainty can be scary.
What if you can no longer earn like this in five years, or even in fifteen?
What do you do then?
When They Want Out
An interesting element of the wanting to quit phenomenon is that 95% of the time that I hear someone talking about leaving the game, they speak about it at a date years into the future.
It’s rarely, “I’m going to quit poker in a few months.”
It’s, “I’m only playing for a few more years, and then I’m moving on.”
Like anything I find interesting, I ask myself why.
If they’re so sure they want to move on, why do they not want to quit yet?
And, more interestingly, why does it seem to not often happen?
The way I usually see people quit poker is in an unplanned way:
They hit a huge downswing and run out of bankroll, forcing them to find income.
They get a job opportunity and decide it sounds better.
Their crypto goes to the moon, and the games become not worth it (or too tough for them at the level that it would be worth it)
For me, I accidentally (and temporarily) semi-retired from poker back in 2016 because the companies I launched began to require much more of my energy than I’d planned for.
So what’s with the future quitters?
Why They Don’t Want Out Yet
Poker can be insanely challenging – mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially.
It’s not strange that some pros want to move on. But why do they often want to move on later?
I think this comes down to a few things:
1) Money
They have an income in poker right now that can’t be matched elsewhere, so they want to earn for a while longer and pad their bank accounts before moving on.
2) Not Being Ready
They either don’t have a plan for what they’re going to do next, or they have a plan, but they’re far from being ready to capitalize on it.
I think there can often be a naive optimism or perfectionism driving this. They expect that if they take the next few years to earn while finding that other opportunity and getting it ready, it’ll be an easy transition.
It’s hard to start over, often taking a reduction in income while you learn the ropes in your new career.
We want to be as prepared for that as possible, both with our finances and the opportunity.
We’re on the poker train, chugging along at full speed. We don’t want to jump onto the stationary ground. We want to seamlessly hop to another train, moving at our pace and ready for boarding.
This leads me to why it often doesn’t work out how people plan.
Why They Don’t Jump
What tends to happen is that the years pass, and the jump to the next train doesn’t look the way they want it to.
Perhaps they haven’t made and saved as much money as they planned.
They’re no longer on a downswing, and they’re really enjoying the game.
Poker isn’t as dead as they expected it would be. Pros have expected the imminent death of the game for decades. Yet, so far, the opportunities have lived on. They’ve merely changed and shifted.
There are many potential reasons that things don’t look as they expected.
But the reason I suspect is most common is a lack of planning and preparation.
They didn’t spend the time visualizing what it would truly look like, mapping out the steps to getting there, and executing those steps.
So they don’t do as much as they think they’re going to do over those years, while poker is still their primary focus, and the new opportunity is going to happen “someday.”
“Someday” rolls along, and they aren’t ready. They don’t know where to start.
So, perhaps they set a new someday. They’ll give it another couple of years.
But, there are some who make the move. They just don’t all stick with it.
Why They Leave and Come Back
Poker as a living is no picnic. To compete in today’s games, you need to work hard – not just on your game, but your bankroll management, emotional control, perhaps on your network and opportunities.
You have to protect yourself and survive being cheated, scammed, or stiffed. You have to show up to your job focused and ready to go.
No phoning in your workday – it’ll cost you too much.
It’s easy for poker to wear you down. It feels like most other jobs would be easier, and in many ways, they are.
But here is a stance that I’ve changed my mind on more recently:
Is poker a hard job?
I’d say no.
It can be extremely hard.
But it’s not a job.
We could get technical over the language, but here’s how I’d define it:
Poker can be a career, but it’s not a job. It’s a game.
Like playing in the NFL is a career playing a game.
Is it hard?
Do you have to work your ass off to compete at a high level?
Absolutely.
But it’s just… something different.
It’s a different kind of work with a different kind of reward.
It’s easy to take for granted all of the wonderfully enjoyable, exciting, and motivating parts of being a pro poker player and, instead, focus on how hard it is.
This makes you want to leave. And I get it – I’ve been there at times.
But what can happen when some players try their hand elsewhere is that they get reminded of the positives that poker offers.
Whether it’s the setting of your own hours, the motivation that playing a game for money brings, or simply the competitive pursuit – they sometimes find themselves longing for what they used to have.
What to Take Away
While this was more of an exploration of my own thoughts than actionable advice, I’d like to leave you with some.
First, acknowledge and appreciate the positives of the career you find yourself in. It’s easy to take those for granted and focus on the negatives. Actively thinking about, or even writing out, the positives is a great way to remind yourself that there is more to your job than the parts that cause you stress.
If you want to move on, dig deep and figure out what is really driving that decision.
Then ask yourself if those stressors or negatives can be removed while still maintaining most of the positives.
Next, I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting you go pro, stick with poker, or that you quit. That’s a huge decision that I can’t possibly have enough information to comment on.
What I do want to suggest, however, is that whatever path you want to be on – make it real.
Don’t just say that you’ll “someday” do this next thing.
Think about what that would really look like.
Make a plan. Write out exactly what needs to happen before “someday” comes along.
Then, take action on that plan!
It sounds basic, but very few people actually make a concrete plan and stick to it.
Lastly, if you’re emotionally checked out but staying on the poker train simply because the next train isn’t ready, I’d invite you to consider hopping over now anyway.
Playing poker without your heart in it can be expensive, and doing so while not progressing elsewhere is doubly so.
If you jump now, yes, there will be a steep learning curve in whatever it is that you do next, and you need to be prepared for that financially.
But at least you’ll be giving something your all and finding out if it’s the path you want to take.
Other careers are different than poker, but if you’ve been a successful pro for more than a few years, that means you’re smart, you’re self-sufficient, and you have grit.
If you’re financially responsible about it and willing to work hard, trust yourself to figure out and conquer whatever comes next.
I know I do.
