I have not read this thread, and I want to start reading it from the beginning.

From everything I have read you are an awesome player, but maybe the competition is so hard at 200 NL that there is difficult to gain a significant edge, especially when playing long sessions.

I am starting to think that it is difficult to make serious money at online poker. I have read posts concerning the "Golden Age of Poker", where you could 3-bet all hands in position and bet 1/2 pot every flop and be a big winner. It does not seem as easy anymore.

Luckily I do not rely on money from poker at all, but I can imagine the incredible stress it must be doing this for a living.

You mentioned you were close to quitting, but that you could not stand the thought of starting over- I have excactly the same thoughts. To sum them up:

1. Poker takes quite some time, especially if you want to make some money doing it and count for variance.

2. That time, at least for me, is better spent irl honing my social skills and working/studying to become who I want to be.

3. At the stakes where I want to play, most players are professional and they have significantly more experience than me. I do not want to be another Guy Laliberte.

I plan to withdraw all but 100 USD. Then I can play the occasional SNG and some micro cash- purely for the fun of it.

Maybe we just experienced the downswing blues though...