Do you guys have any tips how to get life in a balance when playing mtts for a living and being deep in makeup?
So let’s say the situation is: 26 years old, very deep in mu at low,mid stakes mtts, broke, barely making ends meet with the rakeback.

How your plan would look like? Let’s say option to go for a job atm wouldn’t guarantee a bigger pay. Not only the backer wouldn't be excited about that but also working full time and qualitatively playing long sessions seems like an incompatible thing. Am I wrong?
Somedays I feel positive about focusing solely on grinding mtts full time, somedays I feel like that's a bad idea, it's very draining to focus only on mtts and I should try to balance life with being a lot more social/doing other things/diversifying more options in life... But again options are very tight because of money.
What do think? How much time would you spend studying the game?
How much time would you grind? How your day/week/life would look like? Would you try learning new formats? What would you do when you get out of the mu?
Would you solely focus on mtts? How would you prioritize your time?
Would you start working on your way out? Would you plan to go to a college? I would love to hear your opinions and experience.

Honestly? My advice would be to quit poker and get a real job and/or go to school.

i would use my lack of money as advantage thusly:

buy only cheap food. don't go out ever. use all the time you'd normally spend going out to eat or party or meeting other human beings in person to FOCUS all your energy into grinding online poker as hard as you can

t=0 wake up
t+5m: smoke your first bowl and start registering tournaments
t+1h: quickly make some ramen or cheerios in between hands
t+9h: some more food somehow, but don't miss any hands
t+as long as you can make it: fall asleep footsteps away from your computer, prepared to do it all again tomorrow

Considering he's 'deep in makeup' you should probably schedule some time to study and get better at poker. Not gonna get anywhere riding the same treadmill.

he'll learn by playing! it's called picking yourself up by your bootstraps, and he doesn't need your ivy league elite education to do it

Making small steps will be a huge thing for you I imagine, scheduling your day a bit better will help greatly ie. Get out the house do some exercise will help.

Study and review your game, I find talking poker is good especially before sessions so make it a must a few hours a week, we spend so much time grinding what's 5 hours a week reviewing.

Try not fall into auto pilot mode , screaming asians suggestion makes me laugh cause I've been there ha but trust me you will benefit from balancing poker and life, remember money isn't everything if you do nothing with it . At same time I can see if money is is tough to come by then getting a job might be a good idea. Gl

I'd recommend cutting the 5 toughest/highest variance MTTs from your daily schedule(IDK what your schedule looks like really but probably some MTTs you shouldn't be playing when not feeling good mentally)

Add volume at lower ABI/softer games to replace this lost value from cutting 5 games.

If you're really feeling drained mentally, take a day off from the game and spend time with friends. Think about what you have to be thankful for. People in your life, the opportunity poker may have provided for you etc. Do something nice for someone else, realize how small you/your problems really are.

Confidence and some element of passion for the game are important factors in success, if you dread firing up MTTs every day you are unlikely to have success. With that being said, if you aren't enjoying life and don't see a future in poker it's better to quit sooner rather than later.

good luck

-Make a deal with ur backer to get rakeback or 50%
-Grind hard
-Try playing in aussie time, when i was deep in MU, i was waking up @4:50 local time in winter to grind it out. Bc fields is a lot smaller, u should make a lot of deep runs and win confidence in your game.
-Do not get out to party too much, but GET OUT SOME TIMES, its really important.
-Try change habits just to motivate you, like get outside and walk for 20~30min, start eating a bit better ( even if its not to drastic )
-Study a lot, ask your backer/coach for HHs, send to him/her HH and ask for writen review, watch videos and enjoy that part.
-And never, never, never think in big hit, put in your head that is not hitting big that u will go out of makeup, its just a mess for your session, everytime u bust something big u will be upset and want to stop regging/playing bad. Its step by step.
GL with that, hope u turn it around.

so f true. variance doesn't care if our card has to held up 1st level or @ FT vs Chipleader.

in case anybody wants to know the resolution to this story, i'll copy/paste mine and OP's skype convo here:

ScreaminAsian: There are keys to success in the poker business. First of all, you gotta stay relaxed.
mttsftw: Yeah.
ScreaminAsian: You jerk off?
mttsftw: Do I...do I jerk off? Yeah. Yeah, I jerk off, yeah.
ScreaminAsian: How many times a week?
mttsftw: Like, uh...three...three, three, four...three or four times, maybe five.
ScreaminAsian: You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket. I, myself, I jerk off at least twice a day.
mttsftw: Wow.
ScreaminAsian: Once in the morning, right after I work out, and then once right after lunch.
mttsftw: Really?
ScreaminAsian: Mm-hmm. Why? I want to. That's not why I do it. I do it because I ****ing need to.
mttsftw: Mm-hmm.
ScreaminAsian: Think about it, you're dealing with numbers all day long. Decimal points, high frequencies, bang, bang, bang. Eh-eh-eh-eh. ****ing digits kick, kick, kick, all very acidic above the shoulders mustard ****.
mttsftw: Mm-hmm.
ScreaminAsian: Right?
mttsftw: Mm-hmm.
ScreaminAsian: The game can wig some people out.
mttsftw: Mm-hmm.
ScreaminAsian: Right? So you gotta feed the geese to keep the blood flowing. And keep the rhythm below the belt.
mttsftw: Done.
ScreaminAsian: This is not a tip, this is a prescription. Trust me. If you don't, you will fall out of balance. Glitch your differential and the tip **** over. Or worse yet, I've seen this happen, implode.
mttsftw: No, I don't wanna implode, sir.
ScreaminAsian: No. No, you don't.
mttsftw: I'm in it for the long run, you know?
ScreaminAsian: Yeah. Implosions are ugly.
mttsftw: Yeah.
ScreaminAsian: Pop off to the bathroom, work one out anytime you can. And when you get really good at it, you'll be ****ing stroking it and you'll be thinking about money.

Well good try sort of.. ^ 2/10

But flopp3dira advice was rlly good.

Wolf of wall street ftw

Thanks A LOT guys, appreciate your time.

Summary for myself and others in similar situation:

Prolly not the best option atm cause noone quits poker forever and I still enjoy playing most days and see myself playing at least some poker in the future. Moreover I want to clear the MU first. Getting ready to go to school/job after clearing MU might be a good plan.

That might be a nice dedication but I don't smoke so that would ruin all the plan I guess



Great advice!

I get the rakeback. What is 50%?
Wow that makes sense. Playing in aussie time is not sexy as there are not much possible big hits but as you say you should worry least about the big hit... Thought it takes a lot of discpline to stick to the aussie schedule and avoid the temptation of bigger guarantees. It's all about discipline I guess.

dat bowl huh

As someone did exactly this last year the other way around (job2pkr) and eventually didnt pulled through (as in the sense quitting the job in august while running/playing crap for the rest of the year) I just wanna add if you ever consider this think about it like a quick half a year rush tops, beyond that timeframe I think physical/mental health can wear in a much tragic pace than normally expected... which not helping the graph obv.
If u take a job try to make it sure your day somehow always starts with poker (working solely in night shifts or idk). Otherwise you never be on schedule (like planned 8+5 hr day or w/e will just always take longer, a LOT cos of deeps/stuck in session and its never like going to bed 2 mins after busting the last table...) + learn to cheat the crap out of your job energy-investment wise to stay alive

This
And this

plus one......cant imagine how bad it was be to be stuck the way u are, even if u bink its likely u will just fall back into makeup after giving away your profits. if u cant make it in the game without backing ....what does that tell u about the game?

stop wasting your life and career/partner prospects ....play part time

gl

Considering it's not an option to quit, and you haven't done a lot of studying the game, start spending a lot of time to study with your peers, you'll get better and it makes you more confident. If you work hard, you'll get there.
Once you have a few bucks on your own, maybe use those to play some off-stake games (if you're allowd to - e.g. some NL10 zoom or similar) I assmue you are +EV in those limits and make some more or less consistent money that way.
Also, try avoiding stars completely for a few sessions and just play MTTs on smaller sites with lower guarantees.
You have to have a plan how to proceed with all this imo. If you're unsure how your life should look like @ let's say end of 2016, you'll end up in a depressed mood too often, not only while playing, but it gets to you even more while trying hard to grind out the MU, which will end up in you having only mediocre results.
Create a schedule which allows you to take at least one day off.
Go for a jog a few times a week or do other sports you maybe enjoy.
And don't worry too much, we all struggle ;-)
gl

Completely depends on the person, but if you feel you aren't playing well then I would advise taking a break. It might just mean no poker for a week. It might mean getting a part-time job and spending 3 days a week working elsewhere, a couple days a week reviewing/studying, and then off days for anything else except for poker. It would be easy to quit the job if you get back on track, but gives you a way to take a break from the game without abandoning the backing deal and leaving yourself some small stream of income to survive. You'll know if and when you are ready to grind again.

If you do play through it, make sure you: a) sleep, bare minimum 6 hours a night but generally more is better b) eat small snacks/meals rather than breaking once for a large meal. c) exercise, even if it's jumping around and push-ups during breaks d) make sure players you respect are reviewing your game play. In general, but especially during this period. It's tough enough when you're playing well and trying to improve nowadays muchless when things are bad and confidence is lost.

I don't know what kind of deal you have, but some backers are willing to cut some slack when these things come up. You could ask your backer about cashing out and adding a bit to makeup especially with an upcoming score. It might make you feel better to have money in the bank even if in makeup.

From a "should I play?" perspective, things are worst when you feel that you are in a position where you *need* to win. You will lose sight of the fact that this game is just one long session, and it makes it difficult to focus. Minimize that feeling, even if it means stepping away from the game or a radical change to your playing regiment.

Also think what gettym said has merit. Good luck.

Great stuff guys! Much love Huckleberry83, AMT, HorvatH!

Wellllll yes and no. Most mtt guys are allegedly backed and it's not cool to stop while in mu. You have to find a grinder's heart in you like The Lipo Fund.