[somapopper]

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I think my biggest problem may be that I never had a true passion for poker--only a passion for the professional gambling lifestyle.

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It seems like there's a lot of this around here. If you don't love poker, I can't imagine how you could play roughly a million hands a year and not become quite depressed.

I'm no pro, but I've been putting myself through grad school on it for awhile, at least till I go busto, and I think if I didn't

1. love poker in a mooning, fawning fashion

2. play just about every form of poker

I'd go nuts. There are a lot of specialists around here, and while it's true, the vast majority of my hands are full ring lhe, I don't think there's a significant dropoff for me when playing anything else, except nlhe cash games, which I don't have the mentality for.

Tommy Angelo has some great psychology type posts. While his strategy advice is often suspect, I think he's probably the best in terms of explaining the mindset you need to be happy doing this as a profession.

Of course death valley and others are right in there assesment that most players go bust and leave these forums. Having a year's living expenses set aside, and 1000BB bankroll isn't easy for a lot of folks, but if you're really goint to make a go of it, I'd say you're living dangerously if you haven't proved to yourself that you're already able to bank this much of your poker winnings.