[Ansky]

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I agree with this sentiment.

Poker players today are in a unique place in time and space, and if they really want to be part of the larger world, they should try to connect in more real ways with things that aren't always related to gambling lots of money. The contest for Biggest Degenerate will never be won, so it would be far more enlightened to take that money and do something useful with it. (Edit: At least in the case of someone trying to pursue some version of religious enlightenment with or without poker).

I also think it's crazy that we have the unique opportunity to travel to lots of amazing places in the world, in near first-class style and with relative ease, and the only thing most poker players could tell you about those locations is how good the cash games were or how much they flipped for over dinner.

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God I love you shane.

Perhaps the greatest thing about my 0-4 record thus far in live events is that I've really gotten to see the places I've been in. Altantis and Monaco were ridiculously awesome trips because I went around and did so many non-poker activities, not because of any of the poker related activities. I would hate to have missed out on an afternoon trip to Italy whilst in Monaco, or a Jet-Skiing adventure in Atlantis w/ my best friend because I was locked in the lobby playing tournaments like so many people were. I'm in this for the money and for the thrill. There are certainly people in this who are just in it for the gambling it seems, and their supposed glamorous cojones on and off the table are likely just a facade for their degeneracy.

I am guilty of quite a bit of degeneracy myself, but I'd like to think it's not overwhelming, and I can balance it out. I still agree w/ much of what Strassa said in the other thread about David's attitude about all of this, but I definitely wouldn't compare a Teddy Rooseveltian take on life with constantly being busto and gambling your life away on -ev ventures. There is a fine line between pushing the edge and having a bit of risk in your life, and being a mess of a person whose mental state rides on the turn of a card every other day.

I have played over my head in games I shouldn't have played in, I have done my share of retarded shot taking, but make no mistake I realize that it was my ego clouding my vision, and not an Evel Knievel take on life.