[Sciolist]

Well done on the WCOOP result!

It's pretty easy to get burntout on poker, and it sounds a bit like that's what you're approaching. The first million's the easiest, the second isn't anything like as easy to get through (not that I have played that much yet).

I do quite like the idea of deciding "ok, I'm going to play 3 hours a day, minimum", and staying if you WANT to play more. Obviously if you have a good reason to not play, then that's Ok, but you have to make sure you aren't making up reasons to stop.

I think this is an issue of protecting yourself from burnout vs. taking what you can while the going is good. Are the games always going to be this good? There're a lot of doom & gloom merchants who I obviously don't agree with, but the games are always going to get tougher when the growth rate can't be sustained. The fact is that games are already tougher now than a year ago, and whilst that has always been the case (online, at least), at some point the games will get tougher faster than most of us can keep up with.

When will that time come? I think it'll be a while yet, but you have to consider what you're going to do then, and whether you'll regret not playing now. Of course, of the people who'll adapt to tougher games, you're in a pretty good position: You're already playing some of the tougher online games. I mean, if need be you could drop a few limits and still make more than enough to live well.

For what it's worth, it took me a good year to overcome my burnout, and now I stick to ~20-25k hands a month. Can you live for a year without needing to play? What'd you do with that time?

So what do you want? Is this a smash-and-grab while the going's good? Is this a long term career for you? Whichever you decide determines your choice here. Burnout or not?