Yeah, I quit playing professionally after finally deciding that my human/lizard brain was just not wired correctly to deal with the swings. Which is too bad, because the game is so interesting! And the fantasy--of making money with your mind, on your own schedule--is very seductive.

I think that a very, very small percentage of the population can happily play poker for a living; but for everyone else, I think long-term exposure to poker will almost literally melt your brain. The sheer amount of stress I used to experience during high-variance poker sessions was just absurd--I sincerely hope there's nothing else like it.