Quote:
Originally Posted by Under_the_Radar
Cush, I can hardly believe you're still playing poker for a living!
Some of the words you type and comments you make are such a vast contrast. Obviously you know and understand that you're at a dead-end job.
Fear can be healthy, and fear is normal for everyone doing their own gig. Being scared of failure and scared to let yourself down is normal and common. This fear can be a motivating factor that keeps you hungry to succeed in a competitive world we live in.
You don't have to "give up" anything in life, however giving up on poker as a full-time year-around job, that you've finally learned to hate, would be a good start to making a positive life choice for yourself.
I played full time year-around for 3 years. The first year was kinda neat, the second year I became more focused, and the third year was a new form of pain in my life. The best choice I ever made was stop *trying* to fool myself. In the 3 years since I quit playing cards full time I have made more money, more friends, have more stability in my life, and generally have more balance and a sincere feeling of 'everything is cool' in my life. Why continue this death-trap emotional roller coaster of barley scraping by as a low stakes grinder? There is way more to life!
Best wishes.............
Hey man, yea I definitely see where you're coming from, poker can be a dead end job if there's no diversification. A few thoughts on your comments regarding fear: I took a fairly big risk moving out to Vegas with no job, no friends or family, and no tangible reason to believe I could make it as a pro poker player. Thus I traditionally haven't thought of myself as having much fear of failure. However, as it relates to leaving poker, I find myself much less apt to take risks that are probably smaller than the ones I've already taken, which has led me to ask myself in the more recent past whether fear of failure or self-doubt is playing a factor.
Its something I've wrestled with mentally before and try my best to keep out of my decision making process. I have my reasons for still playing poker full-time, which I have discussed in here plenty. I believe they are sound despite knowing that poker isn't my end game.
I'm glad to hear you've found something better since getting out of poker. I think nearly everyone sees similar life improvements when they get out in terms of money/friends/stability as you talk about. Most low stakes grinders would be much better off if they followed suit.
If you don't mind me asking, what are you up to now? I'm always interested to hear what people do post-poker and whether they prefer it to the grind, which it seems you do.