49 wow......I don't think I've ever come across anyone who is so close to 50 and still acts like a teenager!

Trooper seems like a responsible adult to me.

The dude's gonna hit 67 without social security.

Many senior citizens wish they were teenagers again. In fact, there is a cruise in which seniors are made to go back in time. Get rid of cell phones and anything that would remind them of the present. Then they would wear old clothes, old watches, listen to jukeboxes with music from their youth, etc. There is anecdotal evidence that it may extend their lives.

Teenagers are 100% dependent on their parents. Trooper, in a successful relationship with a good woman, independently pays his bills and pulls his own weight. Yet he gets to also be a teenager.

Of course his life is far from perfect but whose life is, especially when judged from point of views and values that are not their own. In other words, minimalists may not care about accumulating things. Accumulators might not respect minimalism. People who value security may not care about adventure. People who are into adventure may not respect people that, in their words, play it safe , and so on. Everyone has different values.

Rampage made is fame by being young (and stupid?) at the poker table but quickly improvised and improved. There has to be some talent there, eh?

You don't get taxed on 'cash outs' .. you get taxed on 'winnings' (per session), which are dollars that you now have that have not been taxed.

Professionals can directly write off 'losings' and expenses incurred along their poker journey. Where as amateurs have to be able to Itemize beyond the Standard Deduction in order to write off the other side of the coin (losing sessions) .. and no expenses.

I'm assuming Trooper is smart enough to write off all his Starbuck and meals that he makes 'part of' his Vlogs. They are legit expense he regularly incurs in the making of his Vlog .. and therefore an expense against his YouTube income.

I know a Pro who was 'smart' to enter the WPT 5-Diamond because he had a 6-figure score earlier this year. Even though he normally doesn't enter the $10K tournaments, he will actually get a 'discount' on this entry due to it now being an expense for his 2021 'fiscal' year. Well, he (screwed up and) cashed so now he's got an even bigger tax 'problem' .. one that we all would like to have! GL

So being dependent on the government for a paltry income is what it takes to be a responsible adult?

Thing is though, Trooper is 49 and in a declining market (His vlog is almost dead) with no plan after that.... Then what?

Tim has made the decision to be a "gig worker" so at this point you accept the fact you live on the margins. Have little to no savings or emergency fund etc. Most experts suggest you have one year worth of expenses in your bank account. So you can pay your rent or mortgage, car payment, food etc for one year. In the event you lose your income. I seriously doubt he has this. Also remember what I said a while ago. Tim's current lifestyle is great until also of course you need to go to the doctor or need medication. I see it so much since I have 50 guys working for me on a independent contractor kind of deal and 12-15 of them don't have a good full time job with benes. They exhibit all these same traits Tim does. Short term it's nice since my guys make a ton of money, much more than Tim but long term it's not sustainable. Especially when you go to collect SS and instead of making 2-3k you are making 400-500 a month.

Well at least you don't have to answer to the man!

There was an episode of Black Mirror that did exactly this.

Using the proper lens to examine Trooper's life, one would say that he's living well beyond his past projection.

Could he do better? Of course.

Is he doing better than he ever thought he would, realistically? I would say so.

In fact, I don't think he'll know what to do if he is plugged into Owen's life or even be considered happy in his own term.

I thought that sounded familiar, I can't remember what happened to them tho. I'm sure it wasn't good.

Regardless of one's view of social security, it's the only income many retirees rely on. Unfortunately for the troop, he dosent even have this backstop when he reaches retirement age. He obviously has no other retirement saved. Will he have the drive to grind 1/3 at the westgate when he's 67+ to make his monthly nut? Who is gonna pay for his increased medical bills? what is he gonna do when his teeth start falling out?

Maybe trooper will get an inheritance?

This is interesting i wonder what happens in the next 5 years with his vlog, does it continue to be around 10k views and now usually 5-7k from the last couple weeks. Does the candy thing blow up or quietly die off? Hes just hoping for a miracle. Maybe he just is like well ill just enjoy life now and when that time comes ill deal with it, but man hes already so old, hes really looking down the barrel of really being ****ed and working some weird server job at 60. Poker isnt going to get easier, he isnt going to ever play higher than 1-2, with inflation its even worse even imagining that hes winning, which is kindve not the case unless you zoom out like 5+ years, he won this year, but over the last 2 years hes losing, over last 3 years hes losing, over last 4 years hes losing, if you go back 5 years to now hes won ~5k total, but that is only because he won almost 9k in 2017 his all time high for a year. Poker isnt going to be his way out, maybe it can continue to be his loss leader, but there are just so many poker vloggers, poker is losing interest, hes gonna have to really lean into the lifestyle thing or something, and his more lifestyle vlogs get less views than his poker vlogs, you can see it on the view count for each one. He really might know that a reasonable inheritance is coming or something, because thats almost the only way it makes sense or hes just in denial or hes just enjoying what he has now and isnt worried about the future and will take care of that when it comes, which i dont blame him for, he sounds like he hasnt had an easy life working from one low paying odd job to the next always, this is like recess for him and i cant fault him for want to enjoy recess.

Kindve off topic but i know of this poker personality in my neck of the woods who just got a big inheritance apparently and went from being like a 1-2 breakeven type to now has all this weird designer clothes and is DUMPING in the poker games at this one club and claims to be a professional poker player, which is a funny thing thinking about you guys argue what makes someone a pro or not. This guy is a "pro", he only loses 10k a week playing and drives a maserati!

I foresee dealing poker in Trooper's long term future.

You have asked a lot of good questions. It's funny but this whole "next big thing on the internet thing" works in mysterious ways. I knew a college kid who created an aviation website and ran it off a server in his dorm room that went on to net him millions of dollars when he sold it and then watched all the copycats think they could do the same with come generic site that always ended horribly. Are there people on youtube making 6 figures and up? Sure but they are few and far between and had great timing. As you pointed out in your post hoping for that miracle has passed and he jumped the shark a long time ago. I doubt coffee and candy are doing much more than paying the bills but one thing is for sure is he hasn't put an iota of work into becoming a better poker player and can't profit from playing poker. Shame is he is a very good poker dealer and could probably make a good living if he decided to.

Rampage got a tournament ring?

It looks that way.

Trooper had perfect timing for this poker vlogging thing, but he made some really bad decisions, that were easily seen in real time.

Damn, another one? The kid is a crusher. His style of play seems to suit tournaments.

A LOT of people don’t make it to age 67. They live in the moment and die young.

Let's not go overboard about the circuit ring. Congrats for the hardware but it's next to nothing in terms of $$$.

There were a number of WSOP circuit tournaments this past week. Wonder which one he took down.

The guy is definitely climbing the ladder and doing a great job.

My guess is that he took down Event #12 of Aruba which was a $300 Re-Entry "Last Chance No Limit Hold-em" Event.

Even if troop could grow his vlog into a proper YT channel making 6 fig's (LOL) it can all go away easily if he stops uploading (which he won't do) or sucks at titles and thumbnails (which he does suck at):