5000th Post AMA: Poker, Life, and Balance

[Micro2Macro]

Spending 7 - 10 hours a day on your career is laughably common, right? I mean, most people work 8 hour days. IIRC, 8 is between 7 and 10.

Taking a long-ish vacation is dreamy, but you're still playing, just about 1/2 as much. So really, you just took a break from a full-time job to work a part-time job for a while. This sounds like a luxury that most people can't afford.

Finally, the only thing that sounds off about this is that your time frames are "months". If your "balance cycle" was on a shorter scale, like say 5 days of focus, 2 days of rest... instead of 5 months of focus, 2 months of rest... well, you get the point.

heh, well I was just stating an average for 7 days a week. I typically didn't go out on weekends other than to the movies or dinner with my gf at the time. now I get out quite often and am a lot happier with life. currently searching for the right balance that will help me get SNE w/o being unhappy. people say I grinded out of the micros really fast, but I probably spent just as much if not more time than others who went on to play ssnl+ maybe 7-10 hours a day is an understatement. if any of you guys want to move up fast, you gotta spend a solid 6 months only focusing on poker imo without too much break from that

I'm spending more time now on poker after my part time phase. I truly hated it looking back, it was just a hard rut to get out of because 'wah wah work' so anyone of a real profession works a lot harder and spends way more time on things though. im currently single so this is helping me devote more time to career, and I intend on staying there in the meantime unless lady gaga proposes to me. but first I'd have to have her play me hu4rolls.

regarding my time frame being months, you may really be on to something there... problem is I've got serious cabin fever from living by myself and living/working in the same building. So I need to get out for a few hours each day to keep sane. I never used to be like this, then I realized it was taking a toll on my health. I'd actually go a week without leaving the house other than to get food when I lived with my parents because I was so motivated to make a living at poker. now my motivations are shifting I think. I still want to do this for the next few years, but I don't want life to fly past me. and that's where my recent 'holy shit I gotta balance and I gotta do it now' mentality came from.

btw, how's the weather is St Louis?

[MadMojoMonkey]

btw, how's the weather is St Louis?

Today they said it was going to snow all day. So of course, there was no snow. It has been ~34F (1C) for the past week or so. We got a nasty snowstorm last week, but it's mostly melted by now. Typical February.

*ahem* I mean it's a long way from the equatorial jungles of my home.

I see a lot of myself in your past, although with less fanatical devotion to poker. However, I found me a nice Hawaiian girl and taught her tha pokerz, so she gets that side of it. Hell, she's better than me HU and in MTT/SNG's at NLHE, and she's getting better at mixed games, with a solid foundation in 7-stud.... and she's currently bragging about leaving me for Vegas in 2 weeks. I hope she comes back!

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...inners-circle/

I see what you did there.

-.-

[daven]

which is better: a crazy woman who is great in bed vs an awesome sane woman who is meh in bed?

You progressed through the stakes playing 100bb poker and then moved to cap a while back, do you ever think about switching back? or are the veeps too good at cap mid-stakes? what are your thoughts on mixing hypers with cap?

spending something like 7-10 hours a day every day on study and playing

good times?

taking months off barely playing 20 hours a week, ignoring study, and essentially just being a degenerate drifting along.

good times?

I am consciously seeking to improve the health of my poker game, fitness level, and social life.

how closely do you think these three things are linked? i've done a great job on the latter two, but a poor job on the former...

i used to have an ok grasp on poker relative to the state of the games, that's obviously no longer the case cos lol-results-don't-lie. What two things do you think players like me would most benefit from working on?

my investment philosophy is park it and leave it. some of my friends are doing the, oh im gonna buy into this... then they talk about selling 1-2 years later. fuck that. hold it forever. unless the product turns out to be spew after further review, im forgetting about it and treating it like a sunk cost until cash out day comes.

i like this a lot.

[Savy]

i like this a lot.

This is an awful idea though, unless you really are constantly monitoring it from a completely objective point of view ( I doubt we ever are)

A 600% gain this year could lead to absolutely nothing in 201. Investments you have to monitor.

It'd be like (and I hope this holds true) you investing in someone who beat poker at a 55% level at the stake he played in 2008 if he played a million hands. But if he lost 3% on every year nad played a million hands every year up untill this point you'd lose have lost on your investment.

[d0zer]

which is better: a crazy woman who is great in bed vs an awesome sane woman who is meh in bed?

Compromise on a semi-crazy woman who's semi-great in bed imo.

[Icanhastreebet]

Compromise on a semi-crazy woman who's semi-great in bed imo.

I don't think women below the level of semi-crazy exist.

[MadMojoMonkey]

which is better: a crazy woman who is great in bed vs an awesome sane woman who is meh in bed?

I don't think women below the level of semi-crazy exist.

... or men, either, for that matter. Have you heard what some of them will eat on a pizza?*

Of course everyone is crazy. Just find someone who's crazy in a way that you find amusing, or at least non-threatening.


* Chicken & Bacon (w/ Onion, preferably) for me, please... or I might split a large pepperoni with m2m.

[Micro2Macro]

... or men, either, for that matter. Have you heard what some of them will eat on a pizza?*

Of course everyone is crazy.Just find someone who's crazy in a way that you find amusing, or at least non-threatening.


* Chicken & Bacon (w/ Onion, preferably) for me, please... or I might split a large pepperoni with m2m.

if you're ever in Toronto let's grab a pint and a pizza. same goes for any of ya'll, meeting FTRers is cool.

[Micro2Macro]

which is better: a crazy woman who is great in bed vs an awesome sane woman who is meh in bed?

short term: crazy, long term: sane. though im of the opinion all women have a degree of crazy in them because estrogen is quite the wild hormone. if you chose to get involved with bit of a crazy in any way, have an escape plan in place from the start, otherwise their manipulation tactics will fuck with you.

You progressed through the stakes playing 100bb poker and then moved to cap a while back, do you ever think about switching back? or are the veeps too good at cap mid-stakes? what are your thoughts on mixing hypers with cap?

I'm not really sure. I'm working on grinding as many VPPs as I can this year while also pushing myself to improve. I'm not sure on mixing hypers with cap because I haven't played them seriously but I'd say it would be a good idea if you want to go for something sick like 2x SNE. If I grow my bankroll large enough and feel skilled enough to play 10/20 as my minimum stake, I will then start working on deeper game play. I don't think I'll ever become a Sauce or anything, but I suppose it can't hurt to just aim high.

good times?

Yep, just not balanced.

good times?

Yep, just not balanced.

how closely do you think these three things are linked? i've done a great job on the latter two, but a poor job on the former...

I'm now of the opinion that if one area is falling behind the others, it will drag the others down if you don't take control.

i used to have an ok grasp on poker relative to the state of the games, that's obviously no longer the case cos lol-results-don't-lie. What two things do you think players like me would most benefit from working on?

watch the latest videos to find out what people seem to be talking about a lot. find spots you come to that you feel you could get a better feel for and play around with pokerstove or something for that spot, then talk about all that with other poker players.

i like this a lot.

.