This is not a well, but it's leaning toward it a little so I might as well ask:

Life time graph?

is your sn public?

thx for your post, it gives me a lot to think about. A little introspection can never hurt. Or if it does, than you need a change.

I dont think playing for a living is as bad as you guys are making it out to be. Ive been making my living off of poker for 6 or 7 years now, and im happier and more fullfilled than almost all of my friends who have normal jobs. I dont know if I could handle being a low stakes online PLO grinder (I make most of my money playing live midstakes limit holdem) simply because it takes a bit of a psychic toll on you. I remember a time last year when Id just started playing PLO and I went through a 25 BI downswing at 100PLO rush in the course of a weekend, and i just felt absolutely ******. I went to the aria the next weekend and lost the same amount ($2500) in a single session of 5-5 PLO and it didnt bother me at all. With all of the hands you put in on line it seems to intensify the highs and lows.

And as for this:

This is unfortunately very true. Despite the fact that ive been doing this for a while, Ill still have moments of self doubt when I have a bad session or two and think maybe i just dont have an edge any more. Any time I find myself in a negative headspace like this, i just take some time off from the game, and wait until im eager to play again.

Nice milestone post.

This.. very important. When playing live I do a really good job of not being attached to short term results. Online it's almost the opposite, probably b/c I'm still new to playing PLO online and don't have a lot of confidence. That's something I need to work on when playing online though, so thanks for the reminder.

Cheers

I almost lost 8k in Eurolinx. I must have been one of of the last people to get a withdrawal before they shutdown and that douche was cleaning out the offices in the middle of the night.

Razor, How's that series going w/ Leroy at pokeysavvy? What are you plans for future series?

i think some of it has to do with a pride thing wrt tilt management online v. live.
for me, live, when i lose a big pot, i want to show the old time grinders i don't tilt, i don't want the people at the table to see me tilting and change their game, and I save all my breaks for right after a sick beat or big lost pot, so i immed leave table and get food.
online, there is no one there to keep you in check (usually), no one to see you tilt, and too many tables going to take a break. i tilt way more playing 50PLO HU v a drooler than 10/20NL live.
or maybe i just haven't run bad enough live yet...

this is heavily to do with concious voice and action. It takes much more effort to raise real chips in a real poker enviroment than to click a mouse, simple remedie is to always spk or think the correct action, or feel your instinct and confirm with rationale before letting those neurones fire in your finger, before you click. Multitabling magnifies this drastically, tilt has so many forms

Don't worry about asking questions, i know it's not a "well" but if you have something you want to ask, fire away

yes, there are obviously lots of benefits to playing poker for a living, but it's very easy to list what they are and to only look at them when considering it as a career choice. When i used to be employed, if i got bored with poker, was running bad or whatever, i could just take a break for days/weeks/months and it didn't matter, nowadays i don't have that option. Bottom line is that if i didn't enjoy poker, then i would find another way to get by.

Yeah i remember how i felt when i turned my PC on, loaded the software in and got that message. I did what most people would do and went to bed and sulked for the rest of the weekend. However, a lot of good things came out of that moment. It made me sit down with a blank sheet of paper come Monday morning and work on a way to come back. I got staked, started doing some coaching and that lead to my tie in with pokersavvy. I had a great backer who gave me a lot of confidence to play some bigger games and got acquainted with a lot of good poker players through him. I managed to turn a lemon into lemonade. Having gone through that, i tend to not look at experiences being good or bad, but just that they are experience and the only thing that matters is how we learn from them.

Video series with leroy is going well i believe. Chris from savvy mailed me a week ago saying he was taking some time to learn PLO and would i mind doing some video's with him, so that will prolly be my next project. I'd still love to do some more videos with some 2+2ers, especially some of the vroom guys, so watch this space

A good read, thanks

Lolll!

Law school is the consolation prize.

Good post Razor. There's been a lot of these milestone posts recently and I cant say Ive read all of them but I intend on taking a little time out of my day and going through them!

Razor, how do u deal with tilt? like the really bad beats (from all ins) or when you 3 barrel bluff someone to get called with bottom 2 or just really bad hands that should of folded pre. how do u deal with the tilt these cause?

Yeah sorry to all the aspiring lawyers i offended with that post the point i'm making is that for an average person to succeed at poker, they have to apply themselves just as had as if they were studying any academic career. There are no short-cuts in life unfortunately!

hmm, well i don't really tilt, and never have to any real extent, so that's a tough one to answer. I guess I am guilty of playing too long when losing, and quitting too early when winning on occasion, however i usually set myself a goal for a session, be it one hour, 500 hands, 1000 full tilt points, etc and try to stick to it.

I also play pretty nitty for the first and last orbit of a session, so around the first 50 or so hands; when i have decided to quit then i'm pretty much in auto fold mode. This might not be +ev based on single hand analysis, but making several mistakes early on can negatively affect you for the rest of the session so i think that's a good thing to avoid, and by the same token i don't want to flip 500bb's or whatever 3 hands before i quit. not saying those kind of things work for everyone, but they work well for me.

Just wanted to drop in and let you know I really liked your post. I'm also struggling with a looming pro-dom, so I've had to mull over this stuff as well.

Good post from a good guy.

Wish you all the best in your poker and real life stuff

This was a good read. Thank you sir.

.i also noticed that i also at the start of a session if i lose a 55/45 flip the rest of the session tends to be pretty bad / Breakeven. ill try this thanks.

Great post. Made me think about where I'm headed.

For anyone who cares, I've recently "gone pro" and not because I won a tournament or I've studied hard or worshipped Phil Ivey.

I quit my job, sat at the computer looking at job websites etc. Started playing a few tables and became aparent I could make 3-4 times what I could earn in the workforce sitting at home doing something I enjoy.

I've played for a number of years, but never had the luxury of playing without the distractions of work, and squeezing in late night sessions, or sacrificing time on the weekend.

I didn't really think about "going pro", it's just that getting a job now serves no purpose for me. I'm not a doctor/lawyer type who will make $100+ hour.

This is a similar situation to how i ended up "going pro" - it was certainly more circumstance driven than ability. In my experience, anyone capable of making a living at poker is capable of achieving those doctor/lawyer type jobs, so i would strongly consider undergoing some kind of academic program alongside your poker. For me it serves often as a welcome distraction, makes sure there are no cv gaps, gets you out of the house, offers a different challenge, and i could go on - but either way its +ev for both poker and life.

bump to prevent archiving

Really good reading

Bump!

solid bump frank99.

nice read... i wish i read this thread 5years ago when i was thinking about going pro. im almost sure i wouldn't be a poker player, like im nowadays.

btw elrazor, what are you doing nowadays? 2years after you posted this !im curious to know if you still play poker, if you work w therapy/psycolhogy etc

I was close to saying: screw it, im gonna go pro. after graduating high school. Best thing ever, that i decided not to. while at uni you'll still have plenty of time for poker.

you have no idea how much i regret for not doing what you did... bad thing is the time is gone, can't go back 5years ago.

What was your option(s) 5 years ago, urubu?

You can always change your path. Always.

This. Obv if you're 60 and realize that it's v different. How old are you and what has changed?