Sad story, RIP. Mental illness should seriously be the #1 priority in this country right now.

Ahh, no sympathy for people that take their own but seems like he had depression problems before and poker was his escape
sorry to hear
RIP

First of all RIP, sad to hear this.

And sorry, it is well known that these garbage medications increases the risk of suicide, it's even described in the possible side effects that come along with the medication. For that reason alone they can't be prescribed to certain age groups.

It is well known that these type of medications have no better effect for mild depressions than placebo, and only "work" for people who have a major depression. If prescribed, and that was written in a 2011 report, it causes more damage, sometimes irriversable damage along with actually getting depressed and an increase of the illness.

Up untill today they do NOT know how these medications actually work, and they just assume that it does, what they think it does. Great, give people garbage which alters stuff in the brain without actually knowing what it actually does.

They lost court cases when people, who by the way were perfectly normal, but just experienced a rough time due to whatever happened to them recently and were prescribed this, murdered their whole family.

More studies have been done and they keep upping the age groups, with now alot of doctors asking to ban it altogether and that number is growing each year. Unfortunately the industry is powerfull.

This garbage destroys lifes, I should know because it did exactly that to me. I only had panic attacks, thanks to this garbage I can't do jack **** anymore.

This is very sad. I hope he's in a better place. R.I.P

i'm not disagreeing these medications have horrible side effects, but what is the alternative for some of those taking them?

If they are at the point they would take some of these drugs then they are more likely to have major issues.

Like i said, grossly over prescribed, but sometimes there aren't many alternatives.

why? 3k ,a car, family , friends i dont get it. poor kid. rip sad for his family. that is a mouse way out. dang. and in wild wild west parking lot.. a drug/pimp/whore hotel. i wonder if foul play or drugs was involved.? i wish more youngsters take heed and get help. please ,you only hurt your family.please stop. Poo

Shaniac,

I have a ton of respect for you and I'm not trolling but at what age is it ok?

What in his post led you to believe there is an age at which it's okay? Here's his post; point it out.

Like I said I wasn't trying to be a dick but I guess when he said a 26yo

I've heard dentists and physicians have a high suicide rate compared to other occupations.
I hope no one will say being a doctor caused someone to take their own life.

I'm not sure if suicide can be attributed to occupation or lack of occupation. It seems like the cause lies in something deeper than that.

RIP though.

Hmmm the thing is, it's not just about "a game taken away from you".

Imagine you practice a hobby you love for 40 hours/week, and you've been doing this for years. It also happens that this hobby is your main income, and a significant one, probably much higher than you could make with other hobbies/jobs. Then one day it's just taken away from you. It's not just "a game", it's your career, what you love, and what you've spent most of your time doing.

Now add this to someone who has already anxiety and possibly some depression and self-esteem issues, and you've got a deadly cocktail.

Yes, you can move countries, but this is not always a small process, it means leaving some friends behinds etc... it's not that simple.

RIP

RIP

Terribly sad.

RIP threads are not the appropriate place to argue about psychiatric medication or rail against the US government.

Please refrain from political statements and allow this thread to be about expressions of condolences only.

Thank you.

I agree with this. "It's just a game" is a really empty statement. If it's something you do for money, it's not just a game. Also, people are wired to take certain forms of competition very seriously, because hundreds or thousands of years ago things like that determined whether or not you would reproduce. The brain doesn't see it as "just a game."

Not to mention that losing your job at the same time as your bank account (which, unfortunately, a lot of people's poker rolls were) with absolutely no warning was a serious shock to many of us. Obviously with what this young man may have already been struggling with, it was too much.

Condolences.

Damn...

Brought tears to my eyes reading that. A lesson though, poker is not life. Hope this isn't taken in the wrong way

Amen Shane, great post.


Another tragedy that had very little to do with poker and more fighting from within from a tragic up and down life.
I didn't know Matt but played with him and my thoughts are with his family

RIP

Rest in peace.

One thing that's recommend to depressed/anxious people is to find something that gives enjoyment from a sense of mastery in the domain. Who knows what the psychological implications (positive and negative) of Black Friday were for every player, but this particular permutation is extremely sad.

Brandi was a whole different situation, plus she was never good at poker, ask Newhizzle:/

RIP, condolences to the family.

Condolences to the Family and Friends. I hope he's in a better place now but to blame Black Friday on this is wrong. What if the kid went on a huge downswing and went broke? He might of went off the deep end from that too.

Unfortunately, even if he's a great guy to those who knew him deep down he lacked mental stability. If online poker was his only source of happiness he would of stayed in Canada and continued to play but from the sound of it that wasn't all he cared about.

I feel for someones family and friends more then the person who takes themselves away from their loved ones when it could of been prevented but I understand they have a mental illness.

Life will throw tons of things at you and a lot of it can be difficult so whenever someone thinks of doing something this rash I wish they would take a step back and think about the people that do care about them. Some people always have it much worse then others yet they are fighting and living so I wish some people could see this before taking their life.

The way I interpret this:

He's someone that realized money isn't everything, and realized he wasted a large portion of his life chasing it. After investing a large portion of his life towards that pursuit via poker, there was no turning back, and he didn't want to continue - ultimately leading to this.

God. Wtf am I doing with my life.

Absolutely terrible. RIP dude.

We're clearly going to disagree here, but it is just a game... Also I played 40hrs+ a week pre BF as did many on 2p2 and it did not lead to that extreme of a result. Obv this poor kid had other issues, and it seems BF was just at the worst possible time for him. But guys poker is a game, it just is, in the same way chess, backgammon, ect are games. Yes we get to play it, play it, for a significant amount of money but that doesn't change facts.

There's no question that this is tragic, and we all wish both this and BF hadn't happened.

I mean kinda same this as above, but to expound, according to the article in OP he had lots of money at the time of his passing, fwiw.

Also while we couldn't have known BF was going to be as bad as it was for FTP/UB/AP players, we all knew that something like this could happen after 2006. And to not plan accordingly is ones own mistake. Also fwiw, I had waaayyy to much of myself on FTP, so even I personally didn't plan very well.


There's no question this is a sad story, but hopefully it will act as a cautionary tail for others.

that's such a sad story Condolences to friends and family.