its not poker as much as it is the monotony if it

read the bible and dedicate your life to jesus... you will become infinitely more fulfilled guaranteed

and how exactly do you know you are mature for your age?

its about the money

im from the streets

Jeezus, nothing ****s me off more than poker players who are as good as I wish to be whining about how boring it is to be rich.

Wake the **** up. My job--a real job, doing real work--is horribly boring. I have no option but to do it because I have to keep my family and I have no other means to make money. I'd trade for your dull old baller life right now and never complain for the rest of my working days.

I think the first point I need to make is the fact that happiness is a journey, not a destination. Everything you are saying you want to do can be done. Poker offers us the freedom to do anything we'd like at any point in our lives. The thing that limits us are the tendencies we have as people, such as laziness. When I sit in front of my dual monitors with all these bright colors glaring into my eyes, it definitely has an affect on me from a motivational standpoint. I think poker is a great game if you are in it for the competition. If you love money and competing, poker is perfect for you. No matter what you put your mind to, you will always have to make an effort every day to feel meaning in your life. Older folks retire when they're 65 and a lot of them go back to their "boring" jobs just to add some meaning into their lives. I have a question for you op. Do you aspire to be the greatest poker player of all time or are you content always play vs fish? I have never seen the name "kurosh" sitting at a high stakes no limit table vs some of the best in the world at the game. Is this something you aspire to accomplish some day? Going back to my happiness being a journey point. Poker is one of the only jobs that you can go to and lose money at the end of the day in. That can be really painful because this makes you feel like you wasted your day completely. Every player goes through this feeling. Some people can't handle this feeling and go broke. The stronger ones survive through it and move up in stakes where they test their skills vs stronger, more gifted, intelligent, opponents. Op, you are one of those stronger players. The fact you're still around here today to talk about your experiences with this game and are sharing it is in itself an accomplishment. You should be very proud of what you accomplished. I think it comes down to being able to appreciate who you are as a person right now. You have survived through the many changes throughout the course of the game and have only improved as a player ever since. Maybe try testing your skills at the higher limits? Try to appreciate where you could be right now and how bad your life could really be, rather than dwell on your life being "boring" right now. There are many things, MANY things, you can do to make your life interesting. I won't recommend taking any drugs because of the long term effects most of them have but I will recommend taking the raptor route and start putting time into looking into some forms of meditation. Most practices in meditation consist of taking actions that are completely natural. Basically, when you meditate or do yoga, you prepare your body for the "daily" grind. Life is a grind but there are many things you can do to better it. There are days where I tell myself things like "wow life is supposed to be boring! let's make it more interesting now!", then I forget about it a couple days later. Life is pretty damn repetitive and without support it can be really difficult putting effort into every day of your life. Working out is also another alternative that I'm sure someone has already recommended to you. I know Patrik Antonius has a very sophisticated workout routine which he tackles on a consistent basis. He seems to have a pretty good life and good game too. He also drives a nice car. I guess what it comes down to is: do you aspire to be the greatest poker player alive? Do you enjoy competing at a game you spent years honing your skills at? Are you in it just for the money? It really seems to me that you've just been in the game for the money. I think to be really good at something, you have to have your heart, soul, mind, and will power on your side. I guess just try to figure out whether you're in it for the money or for the competition. There are many players waiting to play vs you at the highest limits so you can bring your deep stacked perfections into that game and see where it takes you. Just keep in mind it could take a really long time for the cards to "even out". With the amount of variance in omaha and even NL he, it could take a pretty long time before the cards even out. Of course there's still a ton of skill involved but my advice would be to have a significantly large bankroll before diving into those bigger games. Maybe this will give you motivation to grind more where you can make more money and possible play in these big games some day. I just enjoy playing poker for the competition. I also love the fact that I have to constantly better myself as a person every day I play the game. In order for me to actually compete, I have to get in a workout. I'm a complete noob if I don't workout before I jump into the game. Then when i'm playing, I can push smaller edges and maximize my use of fold equity. I have a better "feel" on the game after I get a workout in.

cliff notes: you are a poker player, which means freedom. You have the option to do anything you want while playing poker.

i hope this helps. it would be pretty cool if you figured out something amazing some day. it's very possible. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Go for it. Good luck.
cheers gl folks
time for me to take a bath

Marginal benefit my friend.

starving people in africa would love to be homeless on the street in nyc as well.

that doesnt mean that people shouldnt strive for more.

yo op, for competitive people money can be great

capitalism...$$ its how we keep score, and im winning

you guys have too much ***** time on your hands to think about this all the time. maybe fix that?

I think a lot of it is perspective. Ie, not having done something even more boring, for more hours, for less money, for an extended period of time.

lol

edit: So if someone is a liar, adulterer, theif, and murderer but he wins the lottery he's better than someone who dedicates their live to curing aids but doesn't have as much money.

+1

It's not about how much $$ you have.. its about how much $$ you have in relation to those around you

side note about being competitive.

I love poker because I love making money off people who are intellectually inferior. I enjoy punishing them for their stupidity. I enjoy inflicting crushing defeats on other people (particularly those who I find annoying) more than I enjoy achieving victory for myself.
This all sounds pretty sick. But I think 90% of you feel exactly the same way except you won't admit it openly.

wat

I know what marginal benefit is, and I know what I said, but what you're trying to say is a mystery to me. Clearly, there's no linear relationship between money and happiness, but I'd gladly trade 40 hours of the bull**** I do for 20 hours of teh pokahz for twice the money. If you're suggesting that the gain from having more money diminishes, yeah okay, but that's a lot easier to say when you have lots than when you have little, and I'd welcome the chance to try out the platitude that money can't buy you happiness.

Yes, the starving guy in Africa can take me to task for whining about my boring job. He has a damned good point. I doubt he's envious of where I am though or wants what I have. Also, I am not posting on a boring-job website about my boring job. See how it works now?

Shortstacker End Thread

this thread turned into a toolbox contest really quickly

winnar

I'm in the camp of 'poker is pretty cool and still fun a lot of the time (maybe not as often as it used to be), maybe I want to do something else more productive to society down the road, but I also realize how fortunate a situation I'm in and have no regrets.' I think the relative happiness stuff is all very real, but I also know that things are great right now and will continue to always be at least good if I stay with poker. I have some interest in finance but just can't see myself going from a life of freedom to grinding 80 hours a week in the office for significantly less money to start. Luckily, like many of you, I'm young and have lots of time to figure this all out, but right now, poker does seem like a pretty sweet way to make a living.

word for word how i feel.

LOL, I tried to read this at first got but got blinded by the Wall of Text.

...ever heard of brevity? How about breaking it up with paragraphs. A couple pics in the middle might also help. Most of us lazy poker players are just too tired to read diatribes like this.

BTW, can we start putting cliff notes at the beggining of our posts, instead of the end? By the time we hit them at the end, it is too late.

im with stinger and dirty todd

whats worse is hearing people complain about their normal boring jobs. u can be anything u want in life. u chose ur crap job, u could quit tomorrow and do anything u want but u dont. so shut up and stop complaining. and besides that there are millions who have it worse than u. nothin grinds my gears more than people who are ***** ungrateful about life

deep down poker isnt the most satisfying thing. you have no work mates. you're often working alone. you're not doing anything to benefit society. its a pretty selfish job. after awhile i can understand questioning if this is the best way to spend your time....


....but then i think back to when i busted my ass at a hotel for 3k a month clear maybe
and i go to sleep with a big smile on my face everyday and am very content with my life. anyone that clears 6 figures a year playing poker should consider themselves very fortunate to be in this position to work probably less then half of the average person and make 300%+ more.
sure poker can be a horrible slut whore during a downswing/breakeven stretch, but in the longterm this is a pretty damn cool occupation that most ppl would love to have.