Thanks so much for this opportunity!

I live in Phuket, Thailand and ran into a guy a couple of weeks ago at a party who plays online professionally. He just travels around and plays. I talked with him a while and started to get really excited about the idea.

I've never been a huge poker fan - have just played penny ante games with friends. I always had fun, and never lost too bad, and often did fairly well. But the thought of doing it professionally or for any kind of money never occurred to me.

I have, however, been seriously interested in trading stocks online for quite a while. I did a lot of studying and a very small amount of real trading (not doing too badly), but had to stop, because I have never had the $30-50,000 disposable money to do it properly. As I spoke to the guy at the party, I started realizing how similar playing poker online and trading stocks are:
- the importance of bankroll management
- the importance of knowing the game
- the importance of managing one's own psychology and state of mind (i.e. having a sound strategy and being able to stick to it)

The big differences between poker and trading stocks is that you can safely start of with a very much smaller bankroll and the odds are massively more predictable and manageable in poker!

So, now I'm hooked. It's become the main focus in my life besides work. I'm a complete newbie, but I've discovered this forum and am going through the recommended steps. I want to do this "right", in a disciplined and committed way. I haven't even played for real money yet, though I'm going to open an account probably today with about $70, but I may not even start playing for money for another week or two. Have too much studying to do first, I think. My plan is to focus on NL ring for now, until I've got some basic skills under my belt.

I haven't posted much here, because I've just joined and have so much learning to do on my own first.

I'm pretty much living paycheck to paycheck now, and am hoping this might develop into a great way to supplement my income, which would impact my quality of life in a huge way. For the same reason, it would be hard for me to pay a monthly subscription fee for this kind of thing, right now.

I just ran into this today - the last day to apply - and I'm hugely excited about it. If I'm lucky enough to be chosen, I might be an interesting experiment, because I'm so new. Also, I promise to not take the opportunity for granted and really dedicate myself to using it to the extent I have time (which is a fair amount in the evenings after work and on weekends). I also promise to do something similar in the future to repay the good fortune. I think it's really amazing and encouraging to see such a kind and generous action on the part of someone in this community, and I truly believe that what goes around, comes around.

So, thanks Gary and Jeffrey for doing this.

Glenn