A few months ago, Courtney G. wrote a blog post at PokerListings about how to play high stakes poker against some of the best in the world in the PokerStars.com Big Game.
Kourtney continues her commitment to never work 9-5 yet playing poker professionally, and she gives us the opportunity to follow her progress on her new blog right here! Check out this introductory article and stay tuned for weekly updates as Courtney kicks off the rat race to pursue her dream of becoming a pro poker player!
My name is Courtney G, welcome to my new blog! You may already know me from several posts I wrote in February about my experience playing the PokerStars Big Game. My story of participating in the Big Game revolves around the goal of never doing 9 to 5 work again. I would like to use this blog to document my experiences working towards this goal.
I went to the University of British Columbia and majored in biochemistry. At the time, I thought I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare. In my third year, I realized that I absolutely hate what I was studying, but I felt that it was too late to quit. I decided to just finish and leave with my bachelor.
When I went to school, I entered the Student Painting Studio and ran my own business. I have been doing this for 3 years. The summer was insanely difficult and I have never worked that hard in my life. It was worth it, though, because I graduated from high school with zero student loans and had an amazing management experience.
My years at Student Works are important because they showed me what it's like to be my own boss and have freedom in my work. I worked 14 hours a day, but I decided EVERYTHING - what time I would like to start, where I wanted to work and with whom I wanted to work.
I graduated a few months after my last year in Student Works. I worked in the mobile phone sales department part-time, and after graduation I worked full-time. I must admit that the 7 months that I worked full-time at this company were some of the worst months of my life.
The days were long and monotonous. Every day I got up much earlier than I wanted to, came to the same office, sat at the same desk, made the same phone calls and made the same proposal. If I wanted a day off, it had to be booked in advance. If I got sick, there was a lot of pressure on me to get better as soon as possible and get back to work.
I could keep doing what I don't like. Every day I woke up in the morning and couldn't wait until the end of the day to go back to bed.
This job was obviously not for me, so I started planning to quit. I had a couple of things. One of them was poker. I learned to play poker a few years ago and I have become quite competent at it. Another thing was part-time work with FlopTurnRiver.com (FTR). I worked for them part-time when I went to school and they were ready to take me back.
I quit my job at the end of 2009. At that time, I had a year of the living wage in the bank and a bankroll of 20 thousand dollars. I planned to work 15 hours a week at the FTR and then spend 25-30 hours a week playing and learning poker. Due to my part-time job, I had to earn about $ 1500 per month playing poker. It seemed simple to me because it meant making only $ 13 an hour at the tables.
However, according to Murphy's Law, everything should be difficult, once you think it should be easy! In my next post, I will talk about my new life in 2010. Thanks for reading and see you next time!