He didn't say he was getting out of poker. He claims he is going to stop playing full time

Don't get all the negativity about this guy.

He was smart enough to create some wealth for himself and got around the rules without going to jail.

Some of you have obviously never held a position in the business world.

Guys like Brian Hastings are what future leaders are made of.

Oh, well then I'd imagine it could get very difficult to put all this baggage behind. If the business isn't a home run balancing poker swings vs. putting in volume to handle variance vs. building a new career & dealing with that investment/salary will be tricky. Needs to run good somewhere. Still, he's a very smart guy with a decent amount of business experience at this point.

I think a lot of it stems from being so out of touch with reality. Talking about making $350k in a few months but being depressed. That's not depression. That's someone being out of touch whining about their life.

As someone else said they should try getting up everyday for a ****ty 9-5 and see how they feel then. Intelligent enough to win at poker but not enough to realise how good their situation is.

wow. good luck with that genius

ITT many people who assume that money equates to contentment

tl;dr

You're right about the hate, 100%, but that $ is not mutually exclusive with depression. Depression is driven by anxiety and chemistry within the body, different from feeling sad about your life situation.

I wonder what the rate of major depression among successful poker pros (as opposed to the gambling public) vs. the general public is. I think playing poker for a career causes changes in the brain that science hasn't yet pinpointed.

Read an interesting study talking about how chess pro's utilize part of their brain during end-game scenarios that most people never access. I bet it's the same with poker and there are a handful of similar abnormalities. To be a top pro you literally need to train your brain to think and analyze information in a very specific way. Chemically speaking online poker (specifically bc of the speed & availability) provided a very unique reward system.

Interesting.
Good post.

the book was first written by KGB. this new one is a re-print

His post seems to only focus on negetives (made bad investments, caught cheating, lonely) etc.

This guy should be enjoying life he has way more than a lot of people. This sounds like a recipe for disaster to be honest. If his tea business goes busto he's gonna be at the tables when he doesn't want and could even go on a down swing. This kid was never even that good just ran hot, finally catching up to him. Should have banked his cash after the isildur thing.

lol

If he keeps betting sports, he will lose the ~30% or so, he has left.
His CR Videos were excellent, a great learning tool for HU play years ago. Thx for those Brian.

NH, WP, GG. +2 points for being a Cincinattian as well.

Also, Hastings is a boss. Still hilarious that a guy who also played from the states was trying to burn him at the stake because he is a HS fish.

Still waiting for him to come through on his promise of repaying all the players he cheated.... he wanted me to do some ridiculous calculation based on data we both didnt have to even begin discussing what he would send. Hope you are less dishonest and deceitful in the next occupation you chose.... perhaps insurance salesman

People write paragraphs rather than one line wonders on twitter?

true or false, most poker players are depressed? excluding fedor/colman and whoever else is on a heater + smart people like ike/sauce/baron

I'll go with true, at least at some point in time. I'm not sure it's possible to spend so much time by yourself behind a computer screen perfecting a game like poker without it ever getting to you.

"except for"...just lol. what criteria you have. all poker players are depressed except for the ones that aren't, amirite you guys!??!?!?!!?!?!

Why is narcissism so rampet in the poker world? Why do these guys always have to announce their "retirement." You play a card game and make money leeching off degenerate gambling addicts, it's not the NFL.

Anyone that harbors actual anger towards Brian needs to grow up and get a life. Come on its gambling, it's inherently shady and what he did wasn't even a 2/10.

Miss!?

Retiring,bummer i was 3k short of a 4 hour lesson,what to do with the $17k now?

There's something intensely dislikable about the guy.
Always playing the victim card. It's disgusting. "Admitted cheating on camera - reporter ****ed me" "won 350K - depressed out of my mind" "Bought a pad in Florida for 800K - **** my life, why me?"

He also strikes me as a mediocre poker player who runs disgustingly hot.
And he writes terribly for a Cornell graduate.

eh. hes been winning for 10+ years. still a scuz tho.

ummmm no. Thats just something scumbag cheats did, given its an illegal advantage and against sites T&Cs.

Yup.

Good reads.

LOLNVG