And Just Like That, Online Poker Swooped Away, Time To Adjust

Wow, I don't know where to begin. As much as this has been a shock to me, I am certain everyone is feeling the same. My heart goes out to the grinders that were handicapped and found a way to do something that they can enjoy and live off of and depended on it, my heart goes out to all the people like me that have a family, wife, and kids to support, my heart goes out to all the young and upcoming players that just put all there time,energy, and soul into the game and now have to possibly go out into the job market.

We are all scrambling to know what to do next. Moving out of the country, people finding ways to still play like using vpn's that are if you get caught can only hurt you, and playing on other sites that currently allow US players to play. I have thought about all these things, and just thinking about it just hurts. I know for me I have spent a good 18 months devoting my time, energy, etc to online poker. The one thing I can take from it is I was able to take care of my wife and babies through that time and was able to stay home with them and just watch my little munchkins grow up. Even though I spent a lot of time on the computer and grinding out those 10-14k hand days, it was worth it and I cannot look back on black Friday and be bitter about the situation. I am going to stay strong and fight to take care of my family.

So what is the next step for me? It's really tough to say. I have obviously been looking into all the smaller sites that seem to be promising and offer good rakeback programs and able to play many tables. But the thing I have to say about it is that if the Department of Justice has already taken all the big sites down, it's just a matter of time that they go after the smaller sites, reasons being the i'm sure US players are going to flood the smaller sites up and when that happens, we might never see our money again. I just cannot afford to throw in a few thousand and this happen again. It certainly is an option, but I think I am just going to start over from scratch on my free time like I did when I first deposited money on sites like full tilt and poker stars for minimal amounts of money. Even though, there are some pretty sick deposit bonuses and redeposit bonuses out there, I think I just can't depend on it since I will have to devote a lot of my time to clearing the bonuses. I've thought about going out into the job market, but I haven't had a job that was worth anything in years since I've owned businesses in the past, being a musician, and living off poker for the past 2.5 years. I have a business degree that probably isn't worth anything anymore since I graduated over 8 years ago and haven't used it ever.

With that said, I've decided that the best means is to play live poker. I fortunately have the luxury to be near a few about 45 minutes from where I live. My wifes parents moved to Tampa,FL a few months ago as well so they are near the Hard Rock about 10 minutes away, so I have a place to stay so I don't waste too much money on gas. The downside at the moment is being away from my family a bit more, but I have to do what I have to do. After our lease ends in October, we are going to have to move and if we can move sooner, we either are looking into moving closer to Tampa which I think is best if I can have live poker success. The good thing is that is how I started but the downside is I was a live LIMIT player, not No Limit and in Florida, they do not have any good limit games are here that are worth anything to make a living. That was a good strength of mine and I am a much better LIMIT player than No Limit. We've considered moving back to California where the games are just insanely good for limit players. But I think I have a decent skill edge live for NL and that is something I am going to have to adjust to.

Since black friday, I have already starting my live poker journey and been playing the 1/3NL $300 max buy in game. I have had some decent success at it and my hourly is actually better at the moment live than online. Short term sample, but I've basically played 5 days a week and logged in about 70 hrs. So I'm hoping to improve and adjust to the games. I am going to start playing 2/5NL in the upcoming week or so since the money will be better and easier to make 4.5k+/monthly as opposed to 1/3NL where I would have to win more buy-ins there. Even though I think I have a decent chance to come close to it, that isn't good enough for me. I will start posting hopefully some Live Poker stuff,strategy,current games live compared to online as I continue to figure it out.

I hope this is a new beginning for me. All I can say is right now, I am able to spend more time with my family compared to online where I would worry about grinding a certain amount of hands every day. I hope everyone is doing well out there. I cannot complain, talk about how much life sucks, bad beats, etc because I can't. I have people that depend on me and I cannot let them down.

As the journey continues, Good Luck!!

Jeff