Julien Nuijten started playing poker for a living back in 2007 and had a lot of success. Nuijten who comes from Amsterdam made it big in 2008 when he won the PokerStars Latin America Poker Tour in Rio de Janeiro and took home $222,940. Nuijten was one of the youngest full time professional poker players on the circuit and his goal was to make enough money so that he could settle comfortably in Amsterdam.
Today, Nuijten has quit the professional poker circuit and wants to pursue a career as a chef.
Nuijten had reasonable success on the poker circuit but after 5 years playing poker for a living, he felt that it was time to move on and do something else that ignited his passion.
Nuijten recently spoke about his decision to leave the poker circuit. In a statement, Nuijten said
I have played poker full time for five years, and although I wasn’t too old when I quit, I can still say that I have been playing for quite some time. I think I decided to stop playing more for a combination of things. The game got tougher, and I think a lot of people have experienced that. This means that if you really want to excel, you’ll have to put in a lot of hours. These days, you have to study hard and be really disciplined
After leaving the poker circuit, Julien Nuijten took on the role of managing a barbecue restaurant in Amsterdam and later moved on to working at a salad bar. He has a passion for food and cooking and is currently serving as a cook in one of the restaurants in Amsterdam. He rarely plays poker these days as he believes that it is a lot harder to win serious money these days as the competition as really competitive.
In his five years on the poker circuit, Nuijten quit poker twice but returned once again to the circuit as he did not know what he wanted to do with his life and had to make a living. However, he is adamant that this time he has quit for good and will not return to playing poker for a living as he wants to pursue a career as a cook.
Nuijten is grateful as playing poker gave him the opportunity to travel and live a lifestyle that he wanted to enjoy. While he will not play poker for a living, he says that he will never turn his back on poker completely as the sudden urge to play a few tournaments in Amsterdam will always be an attractive proposal. He said
I might play every now and then because I enjoy that. Last year at the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam, I didn’t play a single event, but this year I played the €1,500 re-entry. It was exciting again
