Originally Posted by Stake Monster
This thread made me make a blog post about playing poker for a living. tl;dr incoming:
This might be pretty rambly, but here goes some random thoughts about poker.
I started to play full-time, officially, 17 months ago. Before that I played for 2-3 years, going from hobby to taking more and more time in my day. I can safely say playing for a living has been the toughest and most challenging thing I’ve done… but, also, the most enriching one.
A lot of people have amibitions to eventually play for a living and get free of their 9-5 job and basically do what they want to do, whenever they want to. That’s probably the easiest part of it all and I think that is where a lot of people eventually fail on. Going into it, very few people understand the emotional and physical toll it can take on them over a long period of time. At first it’s all fun and games and to me that was definitely the easiest period. I was just waking up to play some games and make some easy money, and for the most part it was. Then it becomes more of a job, something that is a part of your daily life and really nothing too exciting. The emotional rollercoasters it brings you on will do one of two things: destroy you or make you much stronger.
Over time, I’ve discovered a lot about myself because of poker. First, there’s definitely been an evolution in the way I view money. Quick disclaimer: money is nice but it’s probably the last thing you need to be happy. When I was “busto” all I could think about is eventually having loads of money, making 10k in a month, having 100k to my name, buying a nice car, etc.. I got all of those before I figured out that having a lot of money (relatively to before) doesn’t change much and can actually be a crutch you use to either fill in gaps or holes in your life by buying new toys or a crutch to escape the fact that your life isn’t exactly how you want it to be (not the case here but just an example).
Secondly, playing poker for a living is very very tough emotionally. It has been the biggest challenge I have ever taken. It will stretch you out in ways you never experienced before. There’s a constant battle between your emotions, your brain and the game itself. There’s a lot of thoughts about money, losing (mostly) and a very brief moment spent on times where you win. Eventually, there’s a good possibility your daily/monthly results end up defining how you feel and how much you value things around you and how good you feel about yourself. There’s variance, emotional stressors, bad days, good days, breaking even, periods where you can’t imagine winning again, doubting yourself, doubting your career choice, etc, etc.. There’s a lot of terrible things associated with playing for living. It’s not for everyone and the way you handle it will greatly affect the outcome of your career choice. It will make you or break you at the core.
Thirdly, trying to balance the robotic emotionless mindset you need to have to play poker with actually being a healthy and happy human being is also very difficult. After 10 yrs of doing graphic design and 4 yrs of playing poker, I was really out of shape. My back was starting to be messed up from bad posture and the gym already claimed my right arm in the first session i had (sprained rotator cuff). It’s hard to focus on yourself when your main goal is pay bills, make money and improve so you can make more money. This narrow mindset is easy to have when all you think about it on a daily basis has something related to a dollar sign. It’s hard to eat well and not skip lunches sometimes when you have some good games going. It’s hard to eat well when you’re so pissed off or stressed out your stomach hurts. It’s hard to want to go out with your gf when you feel so annoyed at the day you just had. None of these are easy to deal with if you weren’t prepared for it before.
Fourth, and I think this is where most people fail hard. Playing poker for a living means WORKING HARD. If you think you can just play poker and wing it, forget it. If you don’t work on your game constantly and with gusto, your opponents are. There’s no easy money in the game anymore and whoever works the hardest will win all the gold in the end. Most poker players seem to have this mindset that because they’ve won before they’ll win again and consistently. No such thing. There’s not even a special skill associated with playing poker well, to me it’s 80% hard work, 19% emotional balance and 1% having a brain to work with.
I could probably list more challenges associated with poker and especially playing for a living. To a random observer it would seem that it would be a very poor choice of career for most people. And that person would be right. It’s a terrible choice for a lot of people, yet a lot of people take the plunge and I would bet that most of them are not ready for what it entails. It’s a pretty alluring job, to play cards and make a bunch of money, but for most people it won’t be the case.
So all that being said, am I happy I chose to do what I do? Absolutely. Why? Because it made me a much better person to myself and others.
Having money made me realize it’s not that important and decided to focus more on my relationships and also sharing with others whenever I can.
The emotional downhills of poker made me work on my spirituality and emotions more. It took me about a year before I realized that the way I was feeling in my mind and how I approached life in general was not only going to be beneficial to my poker game but also everything in life now, and in the future. I owe that to poker because without the tilting sessions, the long breakeven periods, the sheer frustration towards poker and how powerless I was trying to control it, the constant thinking about money and stress associated with the game, well, then I would have never seeked to better myself in those areas. I would have never been challenged to.
Poker also brought a much better balance to my lifestyle, once again realizing money isn’t everything in life and that my health, relationships with others and my overall emotional happiness are a lot more important. Without the game and the challenges it brings, I would have never been strong enough to deal with negative events the way I do now in a positive way. I probably wouldn’t appreciate what I have as much as I do now and I would likely always fight against things I cannot control instead of accepting them and turning them into constructive events.
Finally, the hard work I have put into poker has made me proud of having achieved the ability to make a living off of it. It has allowed me to pay for a nice wedding for me and Elaine and hopefully buy a house because of it. It felt easy at first because I hadn’t been challenged yet, but over time I realized that I had never worked so hard at something for so long. Even when I did design work I barely worked on new techniques because I relied entirely on my talent. With poker, there’s no free meals and if you don’t work harder than your opponents, you will lose. In a way, the game showed me that hard work does pay off and that is something I can apply to all aspects of life.
So, in closing to this long post most people won’t read, a little tl;dr: Poker is really hard and will pose a lot of challenges to anyone who chooses to do it. Not many people can do it but it’s important to be aware that it can be a very positive thing to you and your life, as long as you don’t expect it to be easy and that you can approach seemingly negative things in a constructive fashion and turn it into a positive. For some it will be a very frustrating experience, but that is a choice and not a given. In the end, the effort someone puts into it, emotionally and physically, will heavily determine the outcome of choosing poker as a career.
