So over the last 7 months of playing $1/2 live I've taking my BR from about $500 to $10,000. I also am a winning player at the micros online and I have a long term goal of going pro, but right now I work a part time and I won't even think of going pro until I have a proper bank roll of 30-40k.

I'm a loner and all I do is work/study, play poker and chillax with movies and exercise. I don't use drugs or drink.

I'm a bit of a mommas boy, although I live on my own, I hang out with her a few times a week. She's constantly scared and anxious I'll become addicted to poker and lately at the table I've been hearing her negative phrases go through my head while I'm trying to tank and or observe the game.

Last last night I was deep stacked with $600 on the line, and I heard my mom's voice in my head and felt her negative energy, the voice said, "poker is no way to make a living" and I felt like ****. I spent the next 40 minutes folding and just thinking about whether I should cut her out of my life, talk to her for the millionth time, or try and rise above it and just not let her influence me. I eventually decided I will just think about it tomorrow which I'm now doing today. I ended up finishing the session $800 ahead.

Anthony Robbins says, "There is nothing that will have a greater influence on your life than the people you choose to surround yourself with".

I'm worried that my mom's constant fear will **** me up. I need some outside perspective, so twoplustwo its is.

Can I learn to not be affected by the anxiety and negative of someone I'm in consistent contact with? Can I rise above it? She won't stop talking fearful about my poker, she says she needs to vent to me about it as I've asked her to stop.

Anthony Robbins says, "You can also rise above your social circle, and lead them, but it's very hard to do".

I don't feel like I really have time for friends, or I'm not even sure what I would do with them. Most young adults my age (27-35) get high and or play video games. There's nothing wrong with that, and I support legalization, but I don't want to waste my time doing that.

Anyway, I'm not sure what to do? Do I have to cut my mother off and if not, how does one not let what someone says affect them, but at the same time you still have a relationship? She's very supportive in other ways, sometimes too supportive, but her anxiety and fear around poker is an issue I need to solve.

Why do you want to play poker for a living? There are good posts and threads by professionals explaining why it's a bad profession with expectation being skewed by the lucky winners... meager hourly, no benefits, bad people to spend decades with, hard to meet a real girl, etc. Your mom is lookin out for you, you'll see that in 10 years...

Other than that, just ignore her if you want to continue down this path. I wouldn't cut her out completely.



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There are many reasons. I'm an out of the box thinker, who questions things and situations that don't make sense, and I always look for better and more efficient solutions and where I make egregious errors, which is really useful at the poker table, and most importantly analyzing my game later to improve myself.

This pyschology makes my life miserable in the corporate world as I'm seen as someone who can't just follow orders without question. So I would rather play poker professionally until I finish school.

I'm currently self supporting, and due to health reasons, I can only take about one class a semester if I'm working, which I need to do. This means I won't be done with school for 5-10 years, depending on my health outlook. I don't want to play poker for my entire life, but if it's a corporate job to get me by or playing poker, I choose poker.

I don't tilt easily as I know my limits and generally have a strong psychology. I can keep my ego in check. I don't think I'm gods gift to poker, but I do believe I someone who is meant to play games and solve problems. I just feel like a duck in water when playing games involving thinking or programming, which I'm going to school for. I was beating expert rated chess players before I switched to poker and I've been a self taught programmer for more than a decade. I'm going to school to simply fill in the holes and build my confidence again as a programmer, which I got burned out on when I younger and not as experienced. ( drugs + 24-48 hour work schedule without sleep will cause burn out).

So I know how to avoid burn out with poker because of my experience with my other passion, programming. I love the game right now, my joy for it hasn't lessened in the 7 months of playing the game, and I manage my energy well. I leave when tired, even if there's fish at the table. If I meet the short end of the variance stick, I leave if I'm beginning to feel tilt and or gambly.

C'mon man, do what you like in life. Not that u can do whatever the fk u want but this is what makes you happy. Give it a shot ( at the right time ofc. ) and if ur having a happy life and earning some dollars ur mom will eventually see that u made the right choice and have peace with it.
Parents only want that their children have a good future, I've never met a father or mother that said Yeaah good idea boy let's play some poker and don't use ur study. If it doesn't work out you always can get a job, but at least you tried to live ur ***** dream.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that becoming a pokerpro is something that u can easily do. But if you got the skill, game, passion and the study to become a pro, why not. If you don't try, you'll never know.

Just my two cents,

Peace.

And btw, why cutting ur mother out of ur life because ur having a job she doesn't like? She just have to respect ur choices and vice versa.

She probably doesn't like it because poker has a very negative environment. She's probably afraid that it will change you for the worse. She's probably also worried that because you've made some cash at this game, you're going to stop making goals for yourself outside of the game. To elaborate, she's probably worried that you'll drop your life to grind forever the way alot of "poker pros" do, and to be honest I'd have to agree that that's no kind of life, though it is your choice.

On the other hand, if your goal was to bank up a ton of cash so you could say... have the money on hand to take a risk by trying to start a business, do some investments, buy a house, start a farm, anything else you can think of that would be productive, etc, I bet she'd feel alot better about what you're trying to do. She's probably just worried to death that you're going to waste years of your life isolated and grinding away for a sum of money that isn't quite enough to unshackle you from the chains of society. Were your goal more ambitious, such as to use the money to take a shot at something that truly does free you, I bet she'd be 100 times more supportive.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I talked to her tonight about her poker anxiety and she mentioned again that she's worried I'm going to live a marginal life of a poker player. I need to just reinforce the fact that poker is a means to a goal; which is to be to be financially stable enough to go to school and get an education.

BTW: where are some links to some of these threads by poker pros that says the job sucks? I'd be interested in the perspective of actual poker pros.

I think you should watch some motivational speakers such as Henry Rollins.

I can't find the exact thread that I remember reading but here are a couple pages I found that are worth reading:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/53...ncome-1399634/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/20...ortar-1426797/

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...ovinger/050111

Just be careful with poker... I know a lot of brilliant people who have spent decades breaking even... I was lucky enough to run decent over a 5 year period so I can keep it part time for fun.

All I can find is information about some rock muscian? Is there a particular audio/paper book I should listen to/read?

He's a musician that does motivational speaking on the side. Maybe try youtube? I haven't searched for him but I like his point of view from the small sample of his speeches that I've seen.

That's an illogical reason to cut someone out of your life, especially when it's your mom dude. When you're at the poker tables you need to just focus solely on the decisions at hand. The best players are able to tune out the rest of their lives when they play. If someone else's anxiety is having an effect on your life, it's because you allow it to.