I'm calling it an early night. I played a bunch of tournaments and lost like 3 grand or something when I failed to cash any. I didn't get much sleep last night due to partying too much and it caught up to me later in the evening. When I get tired I lose focus/patience and I make more mistakes. I also lost a key coinflip in the only tournament I was really doing well in. At least I realized there was no point to keep playing. I'm heading back home to Newfoundland tomorrow for a week so I probably won't be playing as much. I guess I'm going to have to get used to that because I need to spend a lot more time on school next term.
I know school still needs to be my first priority but when I see first hand the kind of money I've been able to make this summer and even moreso the money my friends like Steve/Aaron/hit21hit have cashed this year I sometimes feel like I'm just giving away a lot of money if I don't get in a lot of hours at the tables each week. It's hard to say how long poker will remain this profitable so it's tempting to try to capatalize as much as possible while the getting's good. Like I said I know what my priorities need to be and it's not like I'm going to do anything stupid, but it's easy to go through stretches where you get too caught up in the game. I don't think I've been too bad overall. I'll almost always hang out with friends over poker for example, but on the other hand I haven't gotten as much exercise lately (playing sports especially) as I should have. I'll keep an eye on things and try to make sure I keep a healthy balance. The fact is that other than the occasional night like tonight where my head just isn't into it I still really enjoy playing this game. Combine that with the money and it's natural that I'm going to want to spend a lot of time at it. However, it's important to remember that there are so many things in life that are more important than playing poker and making money. Like most things in life it's all about balance.
I'm not sure why I decided to bring all this up tonight but it's something I think about a lot. I could go on and on about it but I'm already pretty tired. I'd better go throw some things in a suitcase for tomorrow.
Mike
5 comments:
Not to sound too much like myself here, but exactly what need do you have for cash at these days? Play for fun man. Money for its own sake is a bad habit to get into.
This isn't exactly a last ditch effort to save the farm.
Having shiny things is always nice.
And if a summer of poker can buy you an audi, why not? lol
lol I'm really not interested in a lot of shiny things or a nice car, though a little something nice from time to time is fun. Like I said I still enjoy playing. If at some point I don't then I'll move onto something else, I have lots of options. On the other hand having enough money that I don't have to worry about it would be great. I could be free to do whatever I want for a while without any financial concerns. However, at the moment a lot of my goals involve poker, and I'm in there trying to make them happen. I guess that line about giving away money isn't quite right. However success in poker is always measured by how much money you make if you're a competitive player like me, so you can't completely separate the two. As they say, money is how you keep score.
The question you have to ask yourself, aside from 'is it fun' is: "If I spent the amount of time I played poker on school, would I end up with more money?"
The answer, definately in your case, would be yes.
I don't see how, without some miraculous luck, how you could possibly make more money playing poker than if you spent that amount of time on the masters / phd. It's a lot less glamorous thats for sure, but what 'goals' could you possibly have set for poker?
Passing the 100k mark would be nice, but aside from that you'd have to make it your career, or get really lucky to make a lot more.
The shitty thing is with poker, the tourney that makes you your million can also bust you getting there... picture if you hadnt made that chop in vegas and would it still have been fun? If what you're saying is true and money is only a 'score', then you would have had the same time, and felt the same about the trip, right?
I don't see any reason why I can't make a lot more money playing poker than I ever could in an academic field, at least in the short term while the games are so soft. I don't have enough data to be completely sure of that yet I guess, but I'm very confident in my abilities. As for the Vegas tournament of course I wouldn't be as happy if I didn't win/chop. In any game or sport that you play competitively winning >>>> losing. My point is that it's not just about the money. The part that's different about poker from other games is that you're winning real money and you can make a living at it. That's a big part of it, but my point is that it's not the only thing. Im not playing just because I can make money, I still enjoy the challenge and the feeling of a big win. If I got bored of that the money alone wouldn't be enough to keep me playing.
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