Hi Everyone,

I turned pro poker player a few months ago. I had really good results for about 1.5 years before that. I climbed the stakes and made more money than I was making from my job for about a year. I decided to quit my job to give more time to study.

However since I turned professional, I have been under a lot of stress. I am not able to sleep properly which is affecting my results. And my results are in turn causing sleeplessness. Not only sleep issues, I feel I try to play too much. I often play when tired. And I feel all this might be due to the deep lying anxiety that I have of not having a job and hence lacking a safety net(I do have sufficient savings).

Since turning pro, my mentality has been such that I should just try to get better or play 24x7. I might have just taken 2-3 days off in last 6 months or so. I usually play around 75k hands a month.

Many times when I play, my mind is just scrambled. I am not able to think through hands clearly. I call off nits when I know I shouldn't. I just am not able to think clearly in the moment. I feel like I might be burnt out. Or maybe I am just perpetually on some sort of tilt.

What should I do? Would be extremely grateful for any advice. Thank you.

More questions, than answers. Are you staying active outside the casino? Exercise? Are you balancing your poker and the rest of your life?

Definitely not staying active.. I try to exercise 2-3 times a week on a treadmill for 15 mins at a time.

In general, I am not balancing things well. I have given no time to my hobbies these past few months. I usually watch some netflix/TV with my wife, say a couple of hours a day in the evening. But thats about all I do outside of poker.

Poker is no longer a recreational activity that can be fun (or not, depending on the results haha). But overall, it sounds like it was fun for the 1.5 years you were profiting.

Now it's a job, and it needs to be treated as such. You didn't spend your last job working/thinking about it 24/7. You can't do the same with poker. There has to be a separation, even though when you're losing, it feels like any time not playing is lost time. If you trust in your long-term win rate, have a proper bankroll, and have good savings, the short-term results shouldn't matter.

The challenge is having both a proper bankroll and proper savings.

But being a pro, you have to accept that 3 month, 6 month, 12 month, etc. losing/breakeven streaks are very possible. Which is why both a proper bankroll and proper savings are necessary.

There is a reason that when most ask about being a pro, the consensus answer is don't. Keep your day job. It's ****ing hard.

Good luck.

What I would suggest, to start, is to look for a summertime festival that you can go to with your wife and spend the day. Decide ahead of time a reasonable budget for it (about $200 total) and enjoy it. Take the following day off to rest up. Also, tell your wife why.

Then go back to the poker tables.

We are creatures that have needs and creatures of habit. Arrange your life so your habits satisfy your needs. It ain't easy and it's a little different for each of us, but it's worth it.

If you ain't happy, momma ain't happy. If momma ain't happy, no one is happy.

Thanks, your reply makes a lot of sense. I feel like I do have good savings. I can get by even if I don't make a dime for next 5 years.

Based on your suggestion, I think I should get away from poker for the day once I am done with study or playing. I need to maintain a proper schedule. I need to treat it as a job and have a better balance in my life. Being happy outside of poker might positively impact emotions while grinding and might lead to potentially better results.

The part about habits struck a cord with me. I will definitely try to spend some time with my wife this week outside and will take few days off to relax.

This made me think of a learning study I saw a while back. People who took a nap, after studying, had better retention than people who didn't. That might explain some of my results as I tend to study, in bed for an hour, before going to sleep.

FWIW, I'm just connecting this now.

Hi Arch:

This sounds to me that you have become mentally tired (as opposed to being physically tired). Mentally tired is why we all need a vacation every now and then. I think the solution is clear.

Best wishes,
Mason

Put as much focus as you can on the work you're doing instead of on the results.
Set volume goals, don't even look at the results if you can avoid it.
Like look at the results at the end of the week or even month.

I highly advise finding a mental coach or even a sports psychologist to talk to about these sort of things.
Not only will they help you figure this out, they'll also help you perform more optimally and win more.

Think about what OP initially said. He plays 75,000 hands a month. Assume a 30 day month and plays 24 hours a day. That works out to over 100 hands per hour. Now my assumptions are clearly unreasonable, however, they paint the upper end to the possibilities. He is multi-tabling online poker, probably 4 tables, 12 hours a day, or 6 tables 8 hours a day from his description.

That means his life has become one-dimensional and as I inferred and Mason flat out said: OP has become mentally tired. Setting goals isn't going to help much.

As far as a mental coach goes, I'll make the assumption that they can actually be of value (for the sake of the argument). However, there are many things one can do in life before running off for help, much of which has already been suggested. There is one more thing though. There is already a "Mental coach" in most of our lives and they go by different names. In my case, I call her my wife.

That happens when not taking enough time off from playing. Paying nits off as a result of coma or whatever is a part of the learning curve; how well you gto call and adjust it to players and make sure you think it through enough every time; the last one can be the root also. Emotional imbalance, I have no advice to that when playing so much, though the mind goes through a transformation during the first year of so much play and as a result gets stronger, as it does in other poker problems.

I think the proper balance is like half the time and that half one can do more or less any way one wants. Then there isnt the constant dragging of the lack of recovery and lack of feel to play, needing to work hard just to do it, and in many areas of life one gets even less than half done, or half or less the results when working under that lack of recovery.

The monitor produces light and blue light. One can vary them. Music or other can give other stimulants to the brain.