Warning: I'm going to ramble.

I'm seriously in shock from all this. I've had every emotion/thought from "Everything will be fine, this will be good for poker in the long run" all the way down to "The sky is falling, I better call everyone I know and look for a job" even to "Maybe i'll go postal".

I don't feel any semblance of freedom right now. Yesterday I was a hard working United States based (mostly online) poker pro. I have been this person for 6 years now.. June 2005.. I am now a bum w/out a job. I represent the ''class'' of poker player that is going to be most affected by this. After my son was born 2 years ago I have slowly merged from a live pro travelling the world to a stay at home dad making my living off the internet. I no longer have that option. I am seen as a criminal and a felon on par with child rapists and internet porn kings. I had the ability to stay at home, work when I wanted to and make just enough money to pay my bills and live a middle class life. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do now. I have no college education (yes this is my fault), very little job experience and a gaping 6 year hole on my resume. It's hard enough to get a job right now when youre qualified. What chance do I stand? I'm a laughingstock in the ''real world" when I apply for a job.

I have diligently paid my taxes for 6 years. I have purchased a home. I have become a good little consumer ant. I have done nothing to hurt anyone, yet my freedom to make a living the way I want to is now gone. I have paid hundreds of thousands in taxes over the last 6 years from poker. Do you think I have any chance of writing the IRS and asking for my money back? You know since they don't consider the way I obtained that money to be legit in the first place.

I've sat here thinking about listing what options I have and I can't really come up with anything. I can go back to my old job I had 6 years ago. Or atleast the same field.
I could pack my family up and move to Las Vegas (puke) or possibly outside the country to Canada. I'm not sure that +ev as the global landscape of online poker itself seems to be in doubt. Plus if I could find a way to circumvent the restrictions placed by my country's gov. I will be doing so just to flip variance coins with the other Reg's that are willing to try hard enough to play online. Bye Bye fishies
I can use what nestegg I have built up and go to school. This seems least likely right now as I'm on the tail end of a giant ball shriveling downswing and a lot of the money is gone. It seems the most likely course of action is both the wife and I get a job we don't want to be at, try to make exactly what our bills are going to be and hopefully not have to touch the money we have in the bank. A rainy day fund couldnt be more accurate.

My only hope seems to be liquidating all of my investments/retirement plans/personal loans with interest I have out (which surprisingly amounts to quite a bit of $) Getting some sort of job I don't completely loathe and try to bridge the gap between now and legalization of online poker.

I don't even know who to be mad at. I want to be livid at our government for shutting down an american pasttime and being a bunch of closeminded greedy fools, who think that playing poker for a living is somethign that should be abolished meanwhile theyre bailing ACTUAL thiefs and dirtballs out of trillion dollar scams.. I want to be mad at "The Big 3" of the poker world that allegedly money laundered/committed fraud or whatever to get the attention of the DOJ. I want to be mad at the Australian boy genius who ''single-handidly brought down online poker" but it sounds like he was only retaliating by doing the very thing the poker sites did to him. Allegedly.

In the end though I only have myself to be mad at . For being in this game as long as I have and not developing an exit strategy. It's my own damn fault. Anybody hiring? lol

Libertas mortis?