Anything that makes you throw up from stress needs to be removed from your life, surely. Personally I couldn't even wait until spring bonuses, unless the decision to quit was such a relief that most of the anxiety would be gone - which it well might be.

Goals are helpful with motivation and yours sound good. Just try to avoid pushing too hard, so that PLO doesn't become just another big source of stress in your life. For example, there's nothing wrong with playing less hands or taking breaks after running bad. Low confidence and high tilt sensitivity aren't exactly conducive to winning poker, so if that's the result of extended negative variance and any mindset approaches aren't working, it's fine to just give it some time. No reason to feel guilty about not playing if you don't feel like playing.

I have a certain number of hands as a daily target that keeps me grinding. The number is high enough that I need to put some effort into it, but not so high that I have no time left for studying theory or doing non-poker things. But it's just something to aim at. If I'm feeling bad and get anywhere near my C-game, I let go of the target immediately so that it doesn't become a burden.

thanks for the pep talk, appreciate it.

I would quit right now, but I have too much debt, can't take that risk.

I've been always very careful not to let poker effect my life in any ways. My gf says it isn't bothering her that I play and she is very understanding about it. I actually think he get a rush from poker, I always feel so happy in the evenings when I get to grind. If I lose a few buy ins, it never takes my sleep away. If I tilt too bad, I quit immediately and try to figure out what went wrong.

Napsus.

go for it man.

ask yourelf this question.

what is the worst that can happen if i fail?

and then tell yourself you'll handle it.

i'd also just like to add a link to a website of one of the most inspirational people i've ever read.

he has loads of books and if you'd like to read some of his stuff before buying there's loads of articles on his site.

http://www.geoffthompson.com/

I don't know enough about your personal situation but it seems abnormal to be a 30yr old ibanker and be burned with debt. Most of the ibankers (at that age) I know already have quite a nest egg built up and little or no mortgage. Obviously money isn't/shouldn't be the biggest goal in life but when I first heard of you wanting to quit banking to play poker fulltime, I assumed you already had a good amount saved up and just wanted to switch vocation for something more enjoyable. If that's not the case and you have debt to pay and will have the pressure of winning in order to live, you may have to adjust your standard of living from what you are accustomed to now.

Best of luck though. I know it's gotta be tough to put in the grind in the evenings after a *long* day at the office as an ibanker.

yeah, everyone's situation is different, some are rich when they are 30, some or not.

ty

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Napsus,

Life is a gift and (though it sounds depressing) the time we have here is limited. That said; I think the most important thing in life is to enjoy it. If you enjoy every day, you'll have a wonderful life. If you enjoy life, you can also contribute joy to other peoples lives. This ideal situation should be a goal for everyone and has to be the foundation of decision making in life.

Throwing up (because of stress) is a physical warning that you are doing something wrong. Go back to the source; where is this coming from and what can I do to change this?! Stress will result in a chain reaction of negativity on all aspects in life, so it's key not to wait to long I guess.

Doing what you like best, in pursuit of your passion, gives a form of balance in the mind and direction to your life. This balance will also widen your views on all aspects of life and hopefully resolves other issues (if present). I think these combined are ingredients for inner-peace

Personally, Poker has given me this balance. I've struggled in life for the last decade or so and about 2 years ago I decided to play poker full time. Starting out to play NLH sng's and tournaments, switching to cash and eventually PLO. As you know I recently moved to Malta with my GF and we are very happy we made this step. During this writing I scrolled up to read some more of the responses in this thread and noticed the Steve Jobs vid (my first paragraph was already written so I decided to leave it in ). Steve Jobs talks about connecting the dots; 'this can only be done afterwards'. I kind of have the feeling I can connect some dots.

Doing what you like best; should be a goal in it's own. I noticed that you set (sub)goals in achieving this goal. I personally stopped making 'money goals' not too long ago, because it's an illusion of control. You will know when you can live from poker and you will see when you have enough BR to move up . There are just to many variables in poker AND life to plan this. A very good book on the illusion of control is; Dance with Chance by Spyros Makridakis and I recommend it to everyone.

Having found your passion is a also a gift (at least I consider it to be) and my advise would be; pursuit your passion!

^^ good post

i agree with not thinking about your goals too much (i do think they're decent and realistic btw). if you achieve one quickly, you might be content to not work as hard for the next one, and if you don't achieve it, you might find cross paths with some negative emotions that could carry over to the tables and other parts of your life. having a plan for money is important because we need things to be practical, but i think a better way to approach poker is just have the goal of just being your best at every moment. if you're conscious of what's going on in your mind/body at every/moment, you'll be able to recognize what you need to do to become a better player - whether this recognition takes place at the tables or away from the tables, is specific about playing poker or generally about you/your life, is something you can actually change or is something you just need to observe. when you're constantly improving, you'll be doing what's most important, and the money will take care of itself.

Million thanks guys. Definitely a lot to think about. I will definitely push myself towards a life where I would spend my days doing what I'm passionate about, whatever it is.

I've done some soul searching over the weekend and realized and lot of the stress I have to deal with comes from inside. It's not so much my boss that puts the pressure on me, it's me who's doing it. A small side project might become a huge mental burden for me when in fact it's hardly relevant for the big picture.

It also comes down to the fact that I'm not living in the moment. I worry waaaay too much about things in the future and let it shadow joy of now. That being said, I will probably have to slightly review my goals.

I love quotes, so I'm gonna share a few good ones with everyone.

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but yout thoughts about it."

"Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach. It's the end you're after"

"Stress is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."

"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday...and all is well."


/Attention whoring

Here's a link I want to share with everyone ITT. It might make you think about your life differently:

Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed

great post OP. i enjoyed the story with the monks and the chick.

excellent will begin to read and contemplate these deep thoughts and meditations when I am in the right space to do so. Much gratitude.

Peace and Blessings.

This thread should be on the first page, so here's a bump. ~~~

to keep the convo going, I'd be interested in hearing how much rest you generally take from poker. let's say that you play for living or at least very seriously, how many days per week do you take off?
I just realized that I had played every for about 17 days in a row and it was clearly too much...
Jared Tendler recommends in his book to take 1 day off per week and total of 5 days per month, completely free from poker.
What is your routine?

I try to take one day off a week. But it kind of depends on results as well. For instance: when I'm on a sick heater I keep on playing no matter how many days in a row I've played, on the other hand when I'm having a terrible week I tend to play my 'free day' as if I'm in make-up or something (this is def not advised), but personally my problem is; I can not rest when down. I think the general rule should be at least one day a week off (no poker 2+2 or other vids, books etc) and a least 1 week off every 3 months.

Keep it up guys, amazing ****

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I suggest more than one day a week off. Atleast two, and lots of planned or spontaneous vacation.

I've thought about this a few times before and I always come to the conclusion that one day off poker per week would be good for me and my game. Playing too many days in a row just makes the mind really crowded.

In practice though, I always end up playing every day for as long as I'm playing well. When I begin slipping into my B or C game, I notice it and automatically take a day or two off. If I didn't have this awareness of and reaction to playing bad, I'd definitely have to use the day off rule.

(Similarly, if I didn't have the ability to quit when I start steaming, a stop loss rule would also be very useful.)

Can you seriously stop when down 15 or 25 bi's?! As said in my previous post; I can't rest when down. I stop when I realize i'm steaming though (usually take a break and start grinding again), but when you run just worse then terrible i seriously can't stop and almost always I tend to play better then, resulting in winning it back. This has happened almost every time (mostly after 12 hours of non stop grinding). Only 4 days ago I lost about 3000 big blinds in one day. EV wise: had to lose about 700. Result; make up to myself. Grinded 10 or more hours a day for the last 3 days and got it all back.

The above is how I handle losses in gereral. I'm very disciplined when it comes to making up losses, my problem is I should do the same when winning (or running good).

How do you regs handle big losses or big downswings?! I'm really curious

Letting your monetary result dictate the hours you log is probably the most stupid thing I know about.

And even if it might help you break even, it sound pretty unhealty playing 10h sessions because of it.

One of the best ways I've heard about to counter this is leatherass's book when he advises NOT to look at cashier exept from end of months (or maybe weeks if that fits you better)

You are completely right about the above. I actually try to not look at the cashier (or sessions tab in HEM) only after a session. How do you handle downswingaments if I may ask?!

In theory there is no way to handle downswings. That's imo a pretty important concept to understand. A downswing is just a name pokerplayers have come up with to explain bad results.

What works best for me is being overrolled. Not looking at cashier exept for planned spots. Like mid month maybe. I don't want to know my day to day results, so I never look at graph (again exept for planned spots), I have removed winnings and ptbb from the tabs I use the most. (I have $rake$ though since I have 60% RB and thats a constant win and not affected by day to day results. That motivates me sometimes when I feel playing good is hard).

When I feel like I'm loosing alot I post alot of hands, since playing good when winning is alot easier than playing good while loosing. So thats probably when your game is not A. In periods of loosing I also shorten my sessions, the harder I loose the more breaks I need.

Edit: I'm just playing 50PLO and supplementing my student loan with some money each month, so I am by no means a professional

That's pretty impressive. I don't even think your approach is that unhealthy if you can play well while grinding it back.


I also look at my balance only once a month on rakeback days. Well, in addition to that I might glance at the lifetime graph once or twice for a confidence boost. Hiding account balance helps a ton(!) in getting my focus away from the short term variance of how much I'm up or down, since I don't even know. So then the requirements to play become:

A) I'm feeling good and playing well
B) The games are good

What else is there? And B isn't really an issue at SSPLO.

For example, since the 1st of this month I played a lot every day, until this morning's session, where I made a mistake or two. I don't even think I lost a buyin - can't remember - but something didn't feel right, so I quit after 100 hands and have been taking the rest of the day off.

Tomorrow I'll be extra watchful in the beginning of my first session, and won't continue grinding unless I feel I'm focusing and making good decisions. Repeat every day if necessary.

First of all; I think a downswing is not a name to explain bad results, but a mathematical phenomenon which happens in poker, because of the chance variables in poker.

Secondly I think you do handle it more professionally then I do tbh. The problem with checking results during play is; it affects the way you play. The mind is not cleared or focused on the playing your best poker. A friend recently pointed this out to me; he noticed that I was checking session results (esp EV) almost compulsively. A sort of checkup that i'm playing well or something. I think that checking session results afterwards might me useful, because it can give you information on the way you've played and motivates you to continue playing well or (when playing bad) to improve you game.

How often do you guys check results?!