Profitable Hobbies

It's been awhile since my last post. What have I been up to? At the risk of losing all credibility with my readers, I'll confess. I've been playing online poker trying to play enough raked hands to earn a $50 bonus.

In the summer after watching my fiance play online and having him teach me the game, I decided to deposit $20 into an online site. If I lost it, I vowed never to deposit another cent. It was an entertainment cost when I was bored one Sunday afternoon. Three weeks later, my poker bank roll was up to $200 and I withdrew my original investment of $20. Now that I'm getting a little bit more experienced, I've started to bonus whore. This means, moving money around from site to site, in return for the site granting me a bonus for the amount I deposit once I play a certain number of raked hands. My poker bank roll is now up to $600 of which $125 is from bonuses from a couple of sites.

I'm NOT suggesting that everybody go out and start playing some online poker. Many people develop serious gambling problems and it's not a reliable source of cash flow. Poker is however a good source of entertainment for me and as it turns out profitable. Instead of going out to rent a movie when I'm bored one night and shelling out $5 at Blockbuster, I am now more likely to play some poker and hopefully earn some money. I should also note that I'm excluding my entire bankroll from all investment and net worth analysis since I could lose it at any point.