Two Plus Two Newer Archives  

Go Back   Two Plus Two Newer Archives > PL/NL Texas Hold'em > High Stakes

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:24 AM
iDONKEDyoo iDONKEDyoo is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 185
Default Does poker consume your life?

This is my first post here, but I have been lurking for about a year. I’m one of those 19 year old college kids who has become a big winner in this game. Poker has been great. Unlike most college kids struggling to find money, I never have to worry about it when we go out and often treat my buddies. I’ve also been able to buy myself quite a few nice toys. I’m up about 275k.

Yet, while poker has given my life changing money, I feel completely unfulfilled, totally addicted, and totally controlled by poker. Although I feel like I’m a pretty strong player, poker is playing me so much worse. What I mean is this...I’ve spent so many long hours at the computer just playing 8 tables clicking my mouse around. And the thing is, I’m so burned out that I don’t even like poker anymore. I’m addicted to money, and I’m addicted to winning it. It’s a pretty sick thrill to go up 50k in a day and my life has been totally consumed by this. My mood is totally dependent on how I do that day, and there have been a few times I’ve cut my social interactions with others short to go home and put in a session on those juicy weekend nights. Before poker, I have always been a friendly happy go lucky guy, but now I’ve become less and less social.

Additionally, poker has cut deeply into the amount of time that I study. I used to be that model student, getting straight A’s, getting into all the colleges, doing well in sports... this year, I quit my college sports’ team. My initial thought was that this would allow me to study more as I was busily pursuing a career in medicine as well as play more poker. My day now looks like this...I will start when I wake up...which is at around 2pm. I wake up...don’t eat, shower and play poker...until 6. Then I go eat after which I will play more poker into the wee hours of the morning...like 4 or 5. Then I miss my 10 or 11am class. I’ve basically been completely unable to study and am falling way behind in some of my classes.

Last week, I went into a local casino 30 minutes away from campus to play in their 2k min nl game. There, I met a guy in his 30s who was very impressed with my play. I started with 4k to leave with 10k. 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.

It’s so hard for me to just sit out at a table. My sessions all end up being marathons because I do not know when to quit. I just sit there until I am too tired to do anything at all. My sessions often look like a great upsloping graph for the first 2 hours and then I make some dumb bonehead move because of being burned out and tired. Even though I’m still up...do I stop there? No. I get pissed at myself for pissing away money and try even harder to make it back...at this point I actually start to play better. This chain goes on for what seems like enternity.

I guess...to sum it all up. I feel so unhappy and unfulfilled with myself with this money. I feel like I’ve done nothing for the community and yet can’t seem to stop letting poker control my life. Does anyone out there have any advice or experienced similar experiences....

How do you guys deal with them...
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:29 AM
cts cts is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: VA
Posts: 5,208
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

Take a break and go buy some cool [censored]?
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:40 AM
Jazzy3113 Jazzy3113 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Mergers & Acquisitions
Posts: 1,022
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

very similar to me during sophmore year, but my story is a little different.....i was only able to make about 40k......i go to Penn and began making trips to AC......i would make money at poker and lose it at black jack or lose at the poker tables....either way i started losing every trip...i became addicted to the gamble and someimtes just played table games and then a friend introduced me to sports betting ugh that has ruined football for me..anywayss..i had to take a semester off cause of bad grades...since then I have gotten back into school and am gonna graduate in may......reading what you wrote is exactly how i felt except that in my case because i kept going broke the decision was made for me to basically quit and get back on track....my parents are wealthy and able to support me but they said they would stop if i did not get my degree

man i know how addicting poker can be and i have to be honest if i ever made it to 250k i dont think i would ever have stopped.....try real hard to take a 2 week break and I am pretty sure you will be able to gain control or gain some perspective....i dont agree with the guy that poker is a boon for you and will haunt, but I agree with you that if i had a choice i would not want to be a pro, but simply a serious recreational player with a good job. ur 19 and still have plenty of time to do whatever you want.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:41 AM
HobbitFeet HobbitFeet is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: California
Posts: 45
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

Try to keep it balanced by taking a break from poker, hang out with new people (resist from telling them you play poekr), read a couple novels, play some kind of sport (basketball, tennis, etc, something you can try to be good at so you keep the competitiveness there).
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:51 AM
Roman Roman is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: NYU
Posts: 2,078
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

find something else to focus on.... if poker ceased to exist, what would u do with ur self?
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:57 AM
captZEEbo captZEEbo is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: blog: Oct 23- Diary MD-pt 4
Posts: 6,927
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

[ QUOTE ]
find something else to focus on.... if poker ceased to exist, what would u do with ur self?

[/ QUOTE ]kill myself
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 11-08-2006, 12:59 AM
AceCR9 AceCR9 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: railbird coaching, $100/hr
Posts: 3,952
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

I didn't read the above post, but I'll anwser yes to the subject line question.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 11-08-2006, 01:02 AM
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

/\

lol zeebo

OP, this sounds just like me. i thikn i am going to listen to cts and take some of my bankroll to the side and buy kewl stuff

that means i would have to move down to 10-20 though [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] i already have a hard enough time not taking shots at 50-100
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 11-08-2006, 02:28 AM
hexag1 hexag1 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: dimension X
Posts: 275
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

suggestion : travel with friends / girlfriends / solo. whatever. theres something that you can spend your money on and feel like you're doing something. go to someplace where you cant really play and have experiences that you can look back on and say hey that was good. go mountain climbing or take some exotic tour package to south america or some [censored]. i would do that, but as is my bankroll is only 10k...
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 11-08-2006, 02:28 AM
cardsharkk04 cardsharkk04 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: move up or shut up
Posts: 3,331
Default Re: Does poker consume your life?

for me once I start playing I have a hard time stopping, so if I know I want to go out at night and hang out with my friends or get school work done I just don't play at all that day. Is it too hard to take days off of poker for you??
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:53 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.