Quote:
Originally Posted by pokerdood
I think p2 dog might be right. It sounds like you are out of balance with your life. When you take anything you like and turn it into a job, that is when all of the fun gets sucked right out of it. I personally love to surf. I could surf all day, but if you told me to start surfing 9-5 for 40 hours a week for months on end, I think that would suck the joy right out of the experience. Anyways, echoing what others are saying you are burnt out, you should try playing something else for fun.
Well, that depends on a lot of things. Some people love their jobs and are happy working 50+ hours a week. Other people will grind at their job, no matter how hard it is, if they can make a lot of money.
If you offered a job shoveling manure for eight hours a day, for a salary of $1 million a year, a lot of people would take that job. I am a retired army musician and a full-time poker player, and I could be very happy doing either of those things as my job for the rest of my working years. Even so, I would probably scoop the poop for a million dollars.
Another thing to consider is that almost every job involves grinding. Pro football players spend a lot more hours in a season watching film and practicing than they spend playing. Surgeons read a lot of medical journals to keep with developments in medicine.
When I'm playing full-time (I'm in a caregiver situation that makes that impossible for now) I study at least 15 hours a week. I read every new poker book at least three times, either to make sure I didn't miss all of the ideas, or to find specific concepts and ideas that I can apply at the tables. I run equities.
I memorize certain hand ranges, for example, one day I decided that I wanted to learn to play more hands when deepstacked. I had been opening with about 15% of my hands. I decided to memorize an opening range of 20% of my hands, to include all pairs and suited connectors. I figured out which hands I would have to open from each position to make that work, then I put the opening hands from each position on flash cards. I have ADD and I get bored very easily. And studying flash cards is really boring. But I thought it was something I needed to do to be a successful player.
By the way, a little studying can go a long way. Knowing what cards are in that 20% range benefits me in many ways. I can be more aggressive, and win more chips, before the bad players get knocked out of the tournament. If I see a player showing down small pairs and suited connectors, I'll know what he's doing what I'm doing, for example, he wil be more likely to be betting than the average player with a set, straight draw or flush draw.
Also, with my 20% range, I could start out playing 10-15% of my hands, then change gears to keep my opponents guessing. Or when someone opens with a few more hands than I, I can put him on a 25% range and be very close.
What would happen if you bumped up your opening range a bit? You might cash more often, but by itself that adjustment won't make you rich. But what if you also:
revaluate your c-bettting ranges?
work on spotting tells that show your opponent is weak?
go over your hand histories after playing online?
practice better tournament selection?
learn to play more tables online?
You get the idea. Studying isn't always fun, in fact, for most of us it's grinding, just like my flash cards. But grinding might be what it takes to be great. Cellist Yo-Yo Mo, one of the most famous and successful classical musicians in the world, has to been known to practice scales in his hotel room for six hours.
I love poker. But it's hard. I am so easily distracted that I log my study time to the nearest quarter hour, just like I'm punching a time clock. Otherwise, I would be probably be studying a lot fewer hours than I planned. I have to force myself to grind, but I get it done.
I'm a much better player than I was last year, and my hourly rate is better. I expect that to happen again next year, and the year after that. At some point I might hit a ceiling when I'm too old to keep up with the changes in the game (I started playing poker at age 50, I'm 58 now), or the buy-ins will get too high, or for some other reason I'll be maxed out. I might decide that's it time to give up poker.
On the other hand, if I remember correctly, Doyle Brunson won a WSOP bracelet at age 76. So I have still have 18 years left to keep grinding, keeping getting better, and get a bracelet.