I play for the money. I play poker so I don't have to work a "real" job, and so I don't have to put Emma in daycare. I was very very very close to throwing it in at the beginning of this month and going back to work. I still might have to, considering the state of internet poker and the amount of time away from home required for live poker, but an $8k month has left me with a 2-3 month cushion where I don't need to go back to work.

Poker is a challenge for me. It did not used to ba a challenge, since I was a fairly content fish. It was not until I invested a considerable amount of time and study that poker became a challenge. With that though, I don't enjoy poker like I used to before I found BTP and before I was any kind of winning player. I suppose that is true of any hobby that someone turns into their job. I still do enjoy playing cards, just not like I used to. If I was still working my old job and was still the happy fish putting $200 online every other week and running it up an going busto at 2/4 LHE at party, my guess is that I would have simply stopped playing online when Party left the US market.

not to derail, but why dont you think you can rebuild?