@44dd

the beautiful thing about poker is the fact that people are able to lie to themselves and actually believe it. "God I run sooooo bad...no one runs worse than me...etc". I am extremly lucky. EVERY one of my poker buddies is smarter than I am. SPC is massively smarter. I am constantly discussing hands and mistakes that I make. 2 nights ago I made a 360$ mistake. I am still pissed at myself...but the good news is I will not make that same mistake for a very very long time

variance happens and cant be controlled. Bad play can.

I have said this before and will give it up again B/c I think it it that important. In my current locale I have never ever seen sooo much entitlement tilt. It is nuts. I realized that it was starting to creep in on me. Boom got up took a walk - problem solved.

I dont really talk about it but I have had too many concussions from my athletic career and I have quite a few issues with the effects of them and they have been increasing over the years. I now take a mandatory orbit off every 1.5-2 hours depending on how I am feeling. Even if I did not have these issues now that I have been doing it for quite some time I would do it and highly advise it. It accomplishes sooooo much

clears my head
eliminates entitlement tilt
gets body in motion
enables me to refocus
prevents autopilot
the list of benefits is long

You're livin' in poker heaven! I'm so jealous
Is this down south where the Hard Rock Cafe is?

Where I play, we have a helluva' lotta' "I ain't gonna' bother with goin' to the cashier's cage with this chump change [<$100] ALL-IN!" tilt.

Last night, actually early this morning, guy straddles [UTG] all-in for his last $105.00. Needed to beat the rush hour traffic & the $105 was chump change compared to what he had already lost.

So how are you jealous of squid when guys are throwing away $105 and it's chump change?

Great stuff squid, I take breaks, but I'd benefit from being stricter with myself on the regularity.

I'm reminded of a guy who I coolered months ago at 2-5 (in FL, perhaps not coincidently) . Decent player. After the cooler, he started going on about his quota is $2000, he never leaves a session until he's up $2000. He really sounded so sincere as he bought back in for $200.

I'm similar to that guy - I just never leave till I'm down 400bb

Good post. I definitely have noticed entitlement tilt is much easier to creep in when playing live compared to online.

Just curious, what do you mean when you say you made a $360 mistake? Did you calculate it cost you $360 of EV, or is it something like you bluffed off $360?

Mind sharing the hand, btw? Obv no prob if you would rather not.

and then you rage quit obviously

Almost at 500 tracked hours in a db started March 2014, though as people always say, I think I'm a much better player now than I was at the start.

+5200 over 5 sessions
-1800 in one session

Why does the 1 session feel so much worse always than the 5 sessions? If you had told me a week ago that I'd be up 3400 in a week, I'd say, hell yeah, bring it.

Mixture of entitlement and regret.

You feel that you're entitled to win more money, because you had won in previous 5 sessions.

You feel regret because you thought that weird sensation between your toes was an obvious sign that you will have a losing session, and yet you ignored it.

Is there another way to quit?

I think people who think the bolded either have no idea how much a solid winning player can make at 1/2, or how difficult getting and keeping a good job is these days.

The fact is that compared to your run of the mill part-time job, if you have a winrate of 5bb/hour you're coming out ahead. Compared to the most common (worst paid) full-time jobs, you're ahead of the curve at about 8bb/hour. At 10bb/hour you're making more than most jobs with less than an associate's degree pay, and more than most small businesses make per hour. And the fact is that most people with degrees are emerging into saturated marketplaces and not finding jobs.

And that's all without a boss, a dress code, or a schedule.

Obviously if you do have a job you should keep it as long as possible (zero-variance income) until your bankroll and play level surpass your regular earnings, but stating that one shouldn't under any circumstances go pro at 1/2 is silly. It handily beats the sh*t out of retail hell, or being a janitor or working at a warehouse.

The employment gap is also potentially not really a problem. If you actually socialize at the table (as opposed to sitting quietly with headphones on), you will likely meet some reasonably successful people (presumably most people who have $200-1000 to dump at a poker game in a night, and aren't doing it professionally or semi-professionally, will be doing well in life). Which means at least some will be in a position to employ you, or recommend you to someone that will just because you're friends with so-and-so.

Think about the future though. Not everyone can "climb the ladder" in poker. More people fall off than move up. Or the games could dry up or whatever. Not saying they will but you don't know they won't.

At least with the minimum wage job, if you get laid off you've got a line on your resume and a reference. And you actually know you're out of a job, and don't spend six months thinking you're "downswinging" playing -EV.

Hope you're not serious...

Landing a decent job is more about meeting the right person and impressing them than about what your resume says. Plus embellishing a resume isn't that difficult -- find some form of self-employment you can do for a few hours a week, or just spend time volunteering for something (preferably a cause you believe in).

And yes I am serious. Lotgrinder has an entire rolodex of business contacts, many of them obtained at 1/2 -- and he grinds possibly the sh*ttiest 1/2 in America (Detroit).

Now I know you're joking when you're citing Lotgrinder as reference.

If your idea of job reference is at a poker table, then you probably should really reevaluate your 5-year plan.

I really agree with aleksei when he says people underestimate how much money you can make playing 1/2 fulltime.

As a disclaimer my game is 1/3 with a MS straddle but that only became my main game about 1/2 way into my career.

In the 2 years I've been a professional gambler I've managed to buy a house, acquire a second dog, go on at least half a dozen mini vacations and overall live a pretty cushy life!

With that being said I am infact a ruthless cheapskate and am able to live on much less then the average guy

Can I quote you as saying:

"I can say with full confidence that if it were not for Two Plus Two Publishing and their website, I would not have been able to proudly post my rapid improvement in cash games over the last year."

Let's put a dollar amount on what you think is medium hourly of someone playing 1/2 FT.

So if one start-up made millions in IPO, all start-ups will make millions in IPO?

$12-15.

Let's be honest, if your EV is less than that at most 1/2 games, you're not cut out for poker as a career. 1/2 opponents aren't hard to beat.

TBH, I don't think anyone "underestimates" $12 - $15 hourly.

They actually kind of do, which is how you get ******ed movements like the whole "Fight for 15" bull****.

Unless you live in a liberal failed state such as Cali or Maryland, $15 per hour for 40 hours a week is actually a decent, if very modest, living.

If you want comfort (let alone if you ever want a family) you will have to move up, but 1/2 is a "job" with no entry barrier sans your capital, that makes at minimum as much as a well-paid entry level job.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't choose this career for myself if I thought $15/hour was the ceiling.

The truth is that I think $15 is close to the floor, for anyone who has actual talent at the game. In reality, I would expect that anyone with the talent of most 2+2ers with experience would normally make $18-20 per hour at 1/2 -- and then there are always bigger games to eventually move up to.

But my original point was that 1/2 makes more than A LOT (if not most) of the more easily-attainable jobs, and given that it's not that easy to get a job nowadays (especially if you haven't had one in a while), it's not as simple as "don't play, get a job instead."

You lost me.

I think if you want to believe that poker is a decent career choice even at $15/hr, I can't really sway you otherwise.

I am not here to bash anyone's dream, but I think it's a disservice to tell a young person that time investment in poker as a profession is not a waste.

That's kind of the problem, 1/2 is always going to be the similar to entry level in terms of pay, but that is about it.

Game will shrink, disappear, get tougher, and so forth.

Your paycheck at this "entry level job" doesn't remain consistent, it is actually likely to have diminishing return over time. Think of it as inflation but at an even faster rate (and you still can't avoid inflation).

Plus entry level job is mostly mundane, just same thing over and over until you have mastered certain abilities to move up.

You don't do the same thing over and over in 1/2 and hope that will build your skill level to move up. It won't.

Anyhow, there have already been many posts out there discussing why poker isn't a good career...