I have shared this dream at various points in my day-to-day grind...I think online poker would be one fairy reasonable approach. Depending on skill level, one could make a fairly good living grinding it out for (insert reasonable time here) a day. Just a thought, I think it could be a hard way to make an easy living.
I know a bunch of guys straight out of college who do this, quite successfully. There are a lot of degenerates in the online poker scene, but these kids all have their heads screwed on straight and are using poker as a means to travel and live around the world.
One of my favorite stories was when I was at a cafe in Buenos Aires working for an afternoon with these guys. After about 5h we decided to adjourn to a bar, adn I was chatting with one of the poker players (who's 25):
Me: "How'd it go today John?"
John: "Not bad, I'm up 15k today."
Me: ?!?!.... OMG!
J: "Yeah, it was a good day. But there are some days when I lose 13k."
Dealing with the emotional swings would be the toughest part of playing poker online, according to these guys.
Exactly. I have experienced this first-hand, and my swings are much smaller than that. The thing is, anything worth a spit is going to be hard; there are swings in "regular" professions as well. Learning to deal with them is part of growing as a professional, in my opinion.
I think that there are many life lessons to be learned at the table, virtual or felt, and mental toughness is one that can be extremely beneficial to someone traveling the globe.
There isn't a swing out there a pint or four can't cure!
