Introduction

I'm going to assume that nobody has found this blog by accident, and therefore I don't need to give a whole lot of background. For starters, a good deal of information can be found in my 2+2 Pooh Bah Post in which I detail my plan and how I got to this point. To summarize:

1. I am tired of my job, and have not enjoyed it for over 2 years now.

2. I have been playing Limit Texas Hold 'Em here in the bay area seriously for 1 year now with excellent results. I have logged somewhere around 800 hours of play in that time.

3. I am taking 6 weeks off from the world of software development to see if I enjoy the lifestyle of a professional poker player. I am very confident that I can win enough money to support myself, somewhat confident that I can replace my entire compensation from my previous job, and cautiously optimistic that as I improve and move up I can make substantially more money playing poker than writing code.

4. I will play between 40 and 50 hours each week, and at the end of the 6 week period will take a day or two to reflect on my situation. At that point I will either make the decision to jump into this "permanently" or dust off my resume and hit the pavement.

I hope to achieve two things with this blog. First, it will serve as a place for me to record my thoughts, experiences, and feelings so that when the aforementioned time of reflection comes I will have a place to turn to remember just what went well and what went poorly. Secondly, I am hoping to give other poker players a glimpse into the life of a "full time professional" to help them better understand what they might be signing up for if they decide to follow a similar path.

My last day of work is tomorrow, August 1st, 2008, and my 6 week trial period officially starts on Saturday. I'll try to make daily updates to the blog, but this is my first time at this so no promises.