I absolutely love several things about the game and average playing about 20 hrs/wk over the year.
In no particular order:
I love the social aspect of the game. It gets me out of the house (I'm single w/ no kids). I have other things I do: go to ballgames or concerts with friends, go on long bike rides, plus the reading, playing video games or watching the occasional Netflix show. But since I gave up boozing 6 years ago, I'm not really into meeting up with people at bars or parties. When I show up, there's usually several other people at the table that I need from playing with and am able to joke around and have a good time, while trying to take each others money.
The intellectual / mental challenge of the game. Poker is a very complex game the more you get involved with it. The cards don't matter as much as many people would believe. The key to the game is learning how each of your opponents plays. And then coming up with different strategies to exploit their weaknesses. Older people are really tight (generally) and do not like to call big bets without the best hand. When an obvious draw comes in, many pots can be stolen with big bluffs. That's just one example. The psychological aspect of the game is big too: tilt. Knowing when your opponent is on tilt and playing recklessly. If I see an opponent is on tilt, I will absolutely raise to get everyone else out of the pot. I want to be playing that person one-on-one while they are playing sub-otimally. Also, I think one of my strengths is that I tilt less than other players. If I lose a giant pot where I was an 80% favorite to win, I realize that I am still going to lose that pot one out of five times. I am able to shrug it off knowing that the math all works out in the long run. Many other players completely lose their cool and will lose the rest of their money.
I basically love to think about the game on all levels, replay hands that I have played and think about different lines I could have taken against that particular opponent. I really need to set some time aside and use some of the software I have to really go deeper into my off-table study. I can input the a particular flop that hits and then input the types of starting hands my opponent is likely to play and then I can see how often they have a made hand, a draw, or complete trash on that flop. That should tell me how often I should be bluffing them or calling them or what not.
I'm pretty sure I could make at least as much from poker as I do my real job if I lived in Vegas. But, I do not want to pack up and move while my mom is still around (she's 70 and very large, she is going to start having more and more health problems). And I'm still 3 or 4 years away from grinding my bankroll up to a level I'd be comfortable being a pro with. If I were to actually play for a living, I'd want a very large bankroll just so that the psychology doesn't mess with me if I go on a losing streak. Losing streaks are easy to handle when poker is a money making hobby. How would I react to one if I was supporting myself with the game? I see a lot of kids trying to be a pro at the small stakes and they absolutely are always stressed out. I'd want to play at higher stakes and with a really large bankroll to take that stress out of the equation.
If my mom were to actually die 5 years from now when I have the sizable bankroll, would I actually just switch careers then? I'm fairly risk averse. I know that if I were to do it for a couple of years, it would be hard to reenter the workforce (I'm currently 44). But I'm also getting burned out on corporate life (I'm a business analyst in a software dev group).
But part of the reason I want to do it post FI is that I want to do a lot of traveling, particularly out west. Growing up, every summer we'd take a 2-4 week vacation to different parts of the country. By the time I'd graduated HS, I had at least driven through 45 of the states and been to Canad twice and in Mexico for 3 hours. Maybe at the time, I didn't appreciate everything as much as I would now. So I really want to do a lot of time driving around and camping/hiking in all of the cool spots in this country. I also think it would be cool to travel around to a lot of the cool concert clubs across the country and see some of my favorite acts that way instead of just seeing them at home. I imagine along the trip, I could hit many of the casinos along the way for a night or two and earn some money as well as playing when I'm home.
Guess I've rambled enough here. In short, I'd like to be able to see and do a lot of what I want to do and still make money playing a game I am obsessed with. Make sure I never run out of money even if the worst scenarios happen in life and hopefully be able to leave a good amount behind to an organization or two I care about.