Thanks for all the well wishes above
got 19 days left and I'm at 5550€. Been bricking super hard and then just now got 13th/23535932952385 runners in a mass field Wseries, pretty soulcrushing. Biggest score is still 500€ from literally day 1 and I'm down ~3500 euros at 10s and above. Pretty sick to think that if I had never regged a single tournament above 5€ I would have more or less binked the bet already, haha.
Anyway, this bet has been pretty eye-opening really. I realize thar this may sound like I'm saying this just because I've played too much, but deep down I've reached the ultimate conclusion that whether I win or lose I'm done with poker. During this grind I've found other career prospects that I find more meaningful for myself and I've realized that ultimately poker lifestyle is just too draining for me these days. There's so much I want to get done in this life and I think I've reached the stage where poker is rather holding me back than helping in any way. Poker used to be all upside -- I used to travel 150 days a year at one point, saw the world, had access to all kinds of things -- but now that I'm a bit older the things that I'm interested in aren't really materialistic and I feel that to unleash my creativity I need to let go of poker entirely. I've lived a pretty crazy life by most people's standards and even though it sounds lame and grown-up, I've found myself craving normal routines and stability. I was never after money per se, I just wanted to have access to everything that used to be meaningful to me in the past, and back in the day poker was the best way to achieve my life goals. But those goals have changed now that I'm 31 instead of 21, and to reach the new ones I have to let go of gambling for a living.
I'm not sure yet what exactly it is that I'll end up doing post-poker, but regardless of what happens I'm going to be done on January 29th. I have a Unibet live pleb ticket I need to use in February, and there's a clause in the bet that if I lose I'm still allowed to play for another month and officially I'll only quit 30 days after the last day of the challenge (this clause was added because obviously I'm not going to find a job on day 1 after the challenge, so it wouldn't make any sense for me to be forced to do nothing), so I might dabble around here and there and play all my favorite MTTs a few more times for old times' sake, but yeah basically I've got 3 weeks left of this career and then I'm done. Couldn't feel better about it really
I've been in talks with a couple of poker companies and there's a small chance I might end up working for one of them. This is going to be another big crossroads and honestly I don't have a good answer to how I feel about that side yet. I'm not really a business oriented person, and I never thought I'd pursue anything like working for a big gambling company. But then again, it's a really good feeling to be good at what you do, and I don't know if there's anything in the world I'd consider myself more of an expert at than poker-related stuff (I've done heaps of stuff from consulting to content creating for half the poker companies over the years). So even though a part of me hopes to do something entirely different next, I'm at least going to consider turning this into a career on the other side of the fence.
Either way, I feel really at peace with everything and couldn't be much happier about the direction my life is about to take and don't feel much pressure about the bet itself. I might do one more English stream after the challenge but we'll see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by J0hnny_Dr@m@
havent posted here in ages but thought i d make a comeback to wish you gl
always enjoyed your writing style keep it up!
at this point at even money I would def bet on you rather than against but friendly suggestion from someone who made that decision 5years ago is quit professional poker no matter the result and just play once in a while when u feel like it, the joy of winning becomes much greater again.
remember meeting you years ago in prague with marcel...gimme a shout if u re in london sometime we can go out for some drinks
Hey man, of course I remember you, you were doing some sort of money transfer on my laptop at the hotel lobby and I nearly missed my flight because of it
I actually didn't know you'd quit poker, and especially that you'd quit that long ago. It seems like you're pretty content with that decision, so good for you! I'll be in London next month for the Unibet Open, I'll hit you up and we shall have a drink or seventeen.
Btw do you have any idea about what happened to Marcel in the end? As in, is he even alive? He doesn't owe me anything, I just always wondered if he ever managed to turn it around. Seemed like a good soul to me (and yes, I'm aware he scammed half of 2p2 and almost certainly tried to scam me too), just a really troubled one. Now that my adventures in the poker world are coming to an end I've often found myself thinking about some tragic stuff from the past decade that I've been around these circles. Several OGs have passed away and there are a couple of really tragic stories there. I'll never forget Dana Gordon even though I never even met him. HotKarl and Marcel I both met, I was pretty sad to hear HMC had died as well even though he scammed a bunch of people in the end. Marcel seemed to be pretty deep down that same path and I'd love to hear if he somehow got his life back in order, it's been years since I heard anything... I don't know, maybe I'm old and naive but there was something about that kid that made me think good of him even though we all know what he did.
Last edited by Chuck Bass; 01-10-2018 at 01:18 AM.