Vanessa Selbst is a relatively newly-minted hedge-fund analyst. She describes the work as “really freaking difficult” and “exhausting, exciting and completely humbling every single day.” But that’s nothing compared to her old gig: Professional poker player.

Black Friday has meant that in order to do this job professionally, you either had to move out of the country or travel 90% of the time…. I don’t feel good about promoting poker as an ambassador anymore (I can’t tell amateurs they should come play online and it’s beatable for them when I don’t feel like it’s true). Lastly, whether because poker got more competitive or because we got older (or likely some combination of the two), poker recently turned into a real job, requiring hard work and discipline to succeed.

Wow. “Working at a hedge fund” is the more spiritually-rewarding activity requiring hard work and discipline, and with a better work-life balance to boot. And even feels more entrepreneurial. A hedge fund!

The environment feels a lot like poker did back in the day – a bunch of nerdy kids collaborating to try to beat our opponents at a game.

Poker legend reveals shocking retirement news in insightful Facebook post [USAToday]