In the Beginning and Beyond for mademonkey

[mademonkey]

I am a complete beginner to this type of stuff. 18 years old and a mind that is too good to keep going to waste, it's time to turn things around.

Background:

I come from a decent family where I can live very cheaply feeding off my parents. They buy food and provide shelter for $50/mo. My two little brothers are 3 & 5 and they need to start thinking I'm someone to look up to, not someone who sits around doing nothing all day. I've worked a couple part-time jobs and realized I don't need to work for such little pay.

Recently I had finally realized the perfect way to make money: online poker. I became very good at beating tournaments and had known that I could make at least $25-30/hr doing this for the upcoming months. It took quite a bit of time perfecting my skills as I self-taught myself. As of 4/15/11 the online poker universe was turned upside-down within the states when the Department of Justice shut down the 3 biggest online poker sites to the United States. It's a really sad thing since so many people within the United States were making a living doing this, and some making much more money than I was. For people that don't know, it's not an easy job to do. You might think it's just a game, but it's a game in which you have to analyze multiple situations in a quick amount of time. As a wide example (since I don't know as much about a office job), let's say the average job you make 5-10 tough decisions per day. On the online poker tables I make 250-500 tough decisions per day.

Anyhow, I have no idea how most of this stuff works. I briefly researched a few videos just to see some basics. I plan on doing a lot more of this just to get a feel on how things work. The first thing I've started looking into is wholesale/resale, it seems like it could be decently profitable to get started. Also would like to get into making web pages/blogging if that helps generate income. I really don't see how I can set a realistic goal without knowing everything about what I want to do. I just know that I can do it and need to keep updated progress to keep motivated.

Any feedback is well appreciated, thanks.

[Bozigian]

I wouldnt try the online poker thing as a career but maybe as a hobby

[Darkside]

I wouldnt try the online poker thing as a career but maybe as a hobby

Yea. Especially since there are lots of hackers on those sites that use bots to play for them and one guy was even able to see all the other players cards. At least in a real poker tournament, you don't have to worry about cheaters.

Ultimately though, gambling to earn money isn't profitable or fulfilling. I remember seeing a program on MTV about this guy who won the World Series of Poker tournament. He won 2 million from that tournament and lost it all within a year because he gambled it away. He's miserable. The wins no longer bring him joy and the losses make him depressed.