Two Plus Two Newer Archives - OT: Life update of a beefcake (uber long)

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OT: Life update of a beefcake (uber long)

I originally posted this in Skipperbob's roulette thread but decided that this would prolly get more views.

Most here know that I have been playing poker for a living for about a year and a half. About a year and a half ago, I had switched majors for the 87365023875620 time. I had 6 years of college experience, but due to the fact that I wasted 4 years of my life in engineering school, I didn't have anything remotely close to a curriculum acceptable for a degree. I was about 2 full years (yes, including summers) away from getting a degree, and since I have always hated school, the thought of completing my degree made me sick. I enjoyed playing poker, and like everyone else who plays this game, I thought that I was a lot better than I actually was. As such, I declared myself a professional player. I contacted Irieguy about coaching to learn sngs, and I learned a decent amount from him. But, my views on life were very skewed due to my massive ego. I thought that just by having been coached and being johnnybeef I would crush the sng world. Basically, I struggled......a lot. Some how or another, I ended up making enough money to make it out to Vegas 2x to kick it with everyone and I made some great friends who helped me stay a float for a year and a half (the first time being June of '05, the second being Sept of '05.)

Since the last trip out, I have probably told umpteen million people umpteen million times that I would make it out to vegas/LA/or wherever to kick it with them. Every one of those times fell short because even though I understood the game of poker, I just had too many damn bad habits to keep me from getting any good at the game (the most notably of which is trying to push people off of hands far too often.) From Sept 05-Sept 06 I pulled in about 20k which was enough to get by on due to my low cost of living. Most of you are probably wondering why the hell I would subject myself to such a [censored] life.

When I started playing for a living I did it because I wanted the freedom of being my own boss. I thought that college was a waste of time because all of my buddys with degrees were making 40-50k a year working for someone else and they seemed miserable. As such, I absolutely despiesed the thought of getting a job or going to school. This kind of thinking blinded me. I thought that I was getting better every day, and success was just around the corner. I was about to break out any day. Days went by and no break out. I was making about 2-3k a month at micro limits. But, for whatever reason, I couldn't overcome a couple of massive leaks and move up to 1/2 nl and above. Anyone who has played with me knows that I am very able and capable of beating this game, but I finally decided in the beginning of November that maybe I just wasn't meant to be a professional poker player.

I won't go into great detail about what forced me to start thinking about a job, but essentially I hit a pretty nasty run when party left the market, and I had to empty my br to pay my roommate money that I owed him for the last two months of rent and bills. Since I was broke, and my line of credit was more or less maxed out, I decided that I would work for my boy matt 2-3 days a week and play in a few juicy home games until the holidays when I would get some seasonal employment. After that, the plan was to go back to school and become exactly what I didn't want to become (a w-2 employee making 50k a year and living in misery.) This plan lasted about 2 days as I worked for Matt on the first monday of the month. After we got off, he took me to a bar to watch MNF and we had a few beers. At the bar, I called up my old friend Nate in an effort to get a number of a guy that used to run a game that we used to play in. That is the conversation that changed my life.

He ended up giving me the number, and since I hadn't talked to him in a year or so we shot the [censored] for a few minutes. I asked him if he was still waiting tables and he said that he was, but he had just started a new big-boy job as a mortgage broker that could be very lucrative for him. Nate and I were in very similar situations in that neither of us had degrees because the thought of finishing up college at 28 or 29 is overwhelming, and we both kind of got caught up in the restaurant employee trap (cash in hand at the end of the night, living your life like you are in college even though you are 24 or 25.) He asked me if I was still playing poker (I left the restaurant that we worked together at for 3 years about 2 years prior to this conversation) and I told him that the dream was just about over and that I was about to be poor as hell (even poorer than I was.) He instantly told me that he could get me an interview at his company with his manager (who also happened to be his best friend that I have met once or twice.) Being open minded, I accepted his offer.

I have now been training to be a mortgage broker for three weeks with this company and I think that I have found my true calling. It is as if everything that I have done in my life up to this point has lead up to this. Athletics and poker have given me an aggressive cut-throat mentality. My fraternity and restaurant days have taught me how to speak to people. Poker has taught me how to be much more analytical and much less emotional. In short, I love my new job, and am as happy as I have ever been. I pull into my companys parking lot and see nothing but BMW's Lexus' and Mercedes everywhere. If you were to walk into my office when people are on the phones, it wouldn't be too far removed from the movie boiling point (except for instead of everyone being millionares, its more like $100k-200k.) I used to think that there was no greater feeling in life than winning an enourmous pot and tricking some donkey into stacking off to you. Well, I am here to say that this is no longer true. The biggest rush of my life happened today. In a nutshell, my job is calling people who have expressed enough interest in refinancing that they have given a full sheet of information about their selves, their homes, and their mortgages to a telemarketer. Most of the time when I call someone, the first thing that they do is immediately say "I'm not interested." Overcoming this statement is a very difficult thing to do as it is so very easy to put your tail between your legs and say, "ok, thank you for your time." Today, I learned how to overcome that. I have done just about every drug in the book in my life, I have had enourmous highs of winning a poker tournament, and I have absolutely dominated someone on a wrestling mat in front of 4-5k people. Not one of those will give you a bigger ego boost or a better high than hearing the words "I'm not interested" and somehow getting them to tell you everything about every little detail of their life. To top it off, I actually get paid very good money to do it.

I'm starting to get a little long winded right now, but I basically wanted to update a bunch of friends on how I have been doing, and to tell you that while I will be missing out on the activities of next week, I will without a doubt be out in Vegas the next time that this crew meets up. In fact, I can't wait to tell John Hurst to "cut the BS." I can't wait to spend $500 buying lapdances and shots for Usher even though I only brought $3k with me for the entire trip. I can't wait to tell Dali what a pissant he is, or Skipper about how old he is. I can't wait to harass suited for being a pussy because he isn't having the time of his life in the best city inthe world. I can't wait to tell slacker to take off his damn hat at a top notch steak house and then have him rip my shirt while wrestling with him in the parking lot. I can't wait to hear Yugo's annoying phrases "batches" and "ship it" or to keep greek house up all night long because I snore too much. I can't wait to have Irie bet me $200 that I can't get a hot chick to say 5 words to me when we are both black out wasted, win the bet, and then put it on the pass line at a craps table because it was the easiest bet I have ever won........and on and on and on. The rest of you that I haven't mentioned, I appologize, but people are about to stop reading so that will have to wait for another thread. Just know that I love you all, and that I look forward to seeing you, as well as meeting everyone who I have ever heald a conversation on aim with (even if it was only 1 or 2 sentences.)

Looking back on the last year and a half of my life, I have absolutely no regrets. I learned more about myself and life in general from 2 years of poker than 12 years of school and athletics. I would say that about the only thing that I have learned more from was living with my parents for 18 years (who are both very successful....and not necesarilly in the financial way as my mom is a teacher.) To those of you who are thinking about quiting college, don't do it. Keep your options open because you never know what opportunity will open up. I am 26 (turning 27 in 3 months) and just finally starting to find myself professionally. Keep your chins up and when you fall down, keep on getting up. You will thank yourself for it in the future.

ps. I am purposely not spell checking this just for you Craig.