Original tweets that I liked a lot:
https://twitter.com/Evan_ss6/status/1413540319476527106
Sharing for the remaining 2+2 audience.
Random throwback poker advice thread, especially for young players.
In poker people have different sources of motivation, but everyone who starts out plays for money. They want money to live the life they want to live. In poker, money won is the only way to keep score.
With that said, put yourself in the best positions to make the most money with proper risk management and without dependence on others.
That means: (Tip 1) don't do things to build your notoriety or get into ego matches.
There is barely anything out there for you as far as sponsorships if you're just another white 20-something male who plays cards. Focus on winning the most you can from the games. Recognize no matter how good you are, fish sustain the ecosystem as their money flows upstream.
(Tip 2) Don't play tournaments. This is simple:
a) less $/hour
b) higher bankroll requirement
c) less flexibility on schedule
d) higher variance
Wait, why do people play these things?
If you must, limit yourself to playing them as a minority of your volume/effort.
There are still lots of mid and high stakes games that are outrageously soft. If you're not playing/beating these stakes, you're either doing something wrong or you don't have what it takes.
Another area to be honest with yourself is playing private/app games.
Don't get blinded by "ZOMG everyone here sucks!!" or how much your friend won.
a) what is the rake?
b) realistically, how much are these bad players losing in bb/100?
c) are you the best, 2nd best, 3rd best? This matters A LOT
d) do you trust game integrity+payouts 100%?
(Tip 3) Be honest with yourself.
This applies in lots of ways but firstly, if you're not playing 5/10+ within a year or so, you may want to take a serious look at your habits, consider coaching, spending more time working with software, or working on performance anxiety.
Tip 4) If you don't already play PLO and PLO8, what are you thinking?
Games are far softer, recs enjoy the action, variance allows them heaters which makes it more fun for them -- the list goes on. There is plenty of action in live rooms and across the internet.
(Tip 5) Don't get caught in the false dichotomy of "GTO vs exploitative"
Great players know how and when to take liberties but almost always have very strong theoretical fundamentals.
(Tip 6) Don't get backing or sell tons of action.
If you can't build up the roll to play high stakes within a year or two, you have no business selling action to play higher stakes. It's still easy -- trust me. Do it on your own and keep all the spoils for yourself.
I tried to make these general so there are of course some exceptions and special cases but the general points stand.
If you have what it takes and put in the work, there should be no excuses and you should rise to the highest stakes games available to you in time.