Does poker consume your life?

[Justaguy33]

Stay in school... If you had never found poker you would have probably have the same issues with different examples. i.e. All I do is party and hang out with my friends staying focused on school is so hard to do should I drop out? You guys are just at the point where you really start question what you want to do with your lives. Be grateful that you have the opportunity to do this!!! Many people don't. Most people at your school are or will go through the same thing but most people are forced to "suck it up" because they need to make ends meet, lucky or unlucky for you poker success doesn't force you to suck it up. Man (or woman) Up and accept your success and enjoy it. The biggest potential crime in this thread imo is not feeling the way you do but not learning that you are in a great position to be able to enjoy the success you created.

[Justaguy33]

Can I get an amen! lol

[DonButtons]

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However, while he genuinely respected my play he told me something I will never forget and still haunts me. He said that he doesn’t envy me because there will be nothing that I can ever do when I get out of college that will make me more money than playing poker. He also said that I was cursed to be one for the rest of my life. No disrespect to the people who do this for a living, but I just don’t want to be spending my life by myself sitting in front of my dual screen mouse-clicking away at a bunch of tables never seeing the daylight and never seeing any of my friends. I just feel like I’m wasting my life away just for the money.


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lol, completely false.

just keep stacking chips up, the more money you have the easier it is to make money off it. the better deals usuaully require more of it.

I think your problem is school, I was in your same boat when I was going to school out of state. Barely knowing people who didnt live on my floor and mostly just hustled. Since I dropped out and moved back to miami, Ive completely changed. Very social and outgoing person while still playing a lot of hours. Just not playing marathon sessions anymore after 5-6pm anymore. Playing cash games over tournaments also was a major help, and gave me a lot more freedom.

But even though I play more poker than most, Im more more social/outgoing then most as well. I usually go out 3-4x a week at night, and chill with my friends everyday. I just balance my schedule very well imo.

[chip_nich]

OMFG

19yrs old up 275K and whinging.How many people try and improve and end up losing and losing and losing.

If want to feel abit of worth go out and do some charity work.

But a better idea for you is to go and spend some of that dollar on a nice holiday and buy a few gadgets and ffs stop whinging.

For a quick cure to the ailment your suffering ...get a job in Mcdonalds.You'll soon realise how much fun poker is.

ps-im not sure if this post is BS..probably is.

[SilentNoise]

I HAVE THE ANSWER.

you cant stop double clicking pokerstars..get a friend to install a virus type piece of software on your computer that stops all pokerstars.exe fulltiltpoker.exe etc from running..it just shuts it down. sign an agreement with him which says you wont be able to ask him to switch it off somehow. and tell him not to tell you how to workaround it.

regarding playing live, that is a bit trickier. setup a contract with the casino staff where you sign a piece of paper with them which means when they are working they dont allow you entrance to the casino for lets say 3 days of the week (however much you dont want to play). You pay them at the end of the month if they do their job properly. My guess is a badly paid doorman/receptionist at a casino wouldn't mind making a few extra bucks agreeing not to let you in. They would do a good job otherwise your little contract would say they dont get paid at the end of the month.

if you really want to stop playing, but cant bring yoruself to do it. This is what you have to do.


WHat you think of the idea?

[samoleus]

idonked, I would suggest waiting to see how the legislation plays itself out before making these kinds of decisions. On-line poker may be going away - at least as we know it.

[Double Down]

I have what I think might be some helpful advice for you.
I am in a similar situation as you, but a few years down the line.
I'm 26 and I am an actor in LA. I did acting all through high school, studied acting in an intense program for 5 years in college, and came out to LA to pursue acting the day after graduation. A few years ago I took up poker as a hobby, starting making a lot of money, and now do it for my sidejob instead of waiting tables.
I must admit that it feels great to be making so much money. My roommates come home after a 6 hour shift at the Cheesecake Factory showing off how they made $150 in a shift. I don't want to mention that that's what I make in an hour. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

My acting career is going well, I get commercial and film parts semi regularly, I do stand up comedy, improv, sketch, and just got a new agent.

A key is balance, but more important than that, you have to remember WHY you want the money. There are times when I get so involved with poker trhat I forget that the reason why I'm doing it is so that I can be able to fully pursue an acting career.
There are times when friends invite me out for drinks, etc. and I turn them down because there's some big tourney online or something, but then I have to remind myself that that's not why I came to LA. I'm here to meet people, have a good time, become a well established and regularly working actor, and buy some cool stuff.
So instead of poker being a means to do that stuff, it's now HINDERING me from doing what I love.

The money that you are making in poker is a lot, and now you have a ton of money. There should be NO pressure to keep playing. Play when you want to, but if there is anything else that you would rather be doing, do that. You can afford it. You're 19, you should be getting drunk and banging chicks that a guy at my age of 26 is starting to feel creepy about banging. These are your glory years.

Finish school. I'd have to imagine that whatever you're studying in school, you are studying it because it will lead to a job in a field about something that you're passionate about. You are already burning out from poker because you are seeing the effect it's having on your social life. how do you think you're going to feel about it by the time you're 25? 30? 40??

The reason to play poker is because it's
a.fun and
b. good money

You are no longer having fun and the money is no longer rewarding for you.


So my advice is to keep playing, but when you play, remember WHY you're playing. It's so that the money you make from it can be spent on the things that you TRULY love.

Good luck, and PM me to let me know how it goes.

[Praxis101]

Sounds like a philosophical type problem.

All the young pros now have the financial means (and likely very capable minds) to do whatever they want. The problem is deciding what is really important, what do you really value the most?

Yes, buying cool $%!^ is fun and entertaining - but it is only going to entertain for so long.

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19 year old with a quarter million clicking a mouse?

my heart BLEEDS FOR YOU

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Money only seems the key to hapiness when you don't have it.

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This is so very true, and it makes lots of sense. When you don't have any money, life is inconvenient, stressful, and limited - but when you have some, you are now challenged to really fulfill your potential. When a person makes so much money so fast, so early in life, its hard to catch the rest of your life up to your new situation.

I suggest reading maybe, thinking about what's important.

You guys can seriously do anything you want, you can work on anything in this world (or close to it). Spend some time thinking, I bet it will prove to be very productive.

Emerson and Nietzsche really open my mind, put the world in perspective, but that's just my personal recommendation [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

School, also, is only going to take you so far. Most college kids, the vast majority, are there because they do not know what they want to do and because it is what they've always been told to do. For the few in this group who are very smart and now wealthy, school might not fill your needs.

Maybe this is nonsense, I dunno! Hope it helps.

[BUTNAHHHH]

i think u are close to self actualization...MAn i am jealous

[whoomp]

I agree with Double Down, I think you should view poker as your job, not as something you should do all the time just to get more and more money. Take some time off from playing poker and focus on school and other things. Then you will see how much money you need just to get through the week and play poker just so much that you get that money. You will get that ammount with poker much faster that at McDonalds, so you'll have a lot of time to do the stuff you love.