[LearnedfromTV]

Nice posts by Tex and Shannon

Re this

[ QUOTE ]
You guys are silly if you don't think I read and study the game. My comment in my blog was just saying I should probably do it 5-7 hours a day if I really, really wanted to be at the top of my game. I'm not playing the game at this point to grind out the highest possible hourly rate. I'll be content with knocking off a tournament every now and then for six figures and getting a little better along the way.

[/ QUOTE ]

The post I made early in the thread probably isn't being viewed by anyone as overly critical of Shannon, but just in case and to make a legitimate point separated from the idiotic jealously-based one-liners:

All I wanted to say is that working hard to improve is necessary to doing this job well, and that someone who isn't interested in putting in the work shouldn't be surprised if he feels like he isn't as good as he could be or doing as well as he could be. Shannon could easily be more successful than a nobody grinder (like me) working half as hard, but if he's feeling like quitting because he doesn't want to put in enough hours to stay at the top of his game, then he's probably better off doing something else and/or doing poker "halfway," as long as he's cool with not making the most $ possible with his talent. As far as I can tell, Shannon is a talented poker player who may have run over expectation but generally deserves his success. The only question is how much he wants to dedicate to poker going forward, where it falls on his priority list. People attacking him for working through those issues on a blog are dumb.

In general, any people making judgments about the psychological affects of playing full time and the particular work/life balance issues that this job entails without having actually played poker full time should be very cautious with those judgments, because they probably don't know what they are talking about.