[Enon]

About a year ago I was still a weak tight nit so my winrate was pretty mediocre too start with but I ran pretty good playing this style in the party 15/30 game. When the winter rolled around I started running bad, playing really long hours, and waking up late in the afternoon just as the sun was going down.

Every time I would begin a session, I would bring all my frustration about my bad play and bad results to the table. I would give away 10 BB pots for 1 bet on the river and immediately go on tilt, knowing it was a big leak in my game but feeling helpless to stop making the same error over and over.

I was setting myself up for failure by allowing my happiness, confidence and sense of accomplishment to be so closely tied to my poker play and results.

It is an interest paradox that while poker is a job that allows one's work ethic and intelligence to be compensated accordingly over the long haul, in the short run it can fail to satisfy our ingrained need for tangible progress. I know there are tons of dead end jobs out there in corporate management positions on down to service industry jobs but you can always find pride and accomplishment in doing your task well, even if you are not getting paid accordingly.

After 4 months straight months of breakeven poker in a dreary Seattle winter last year, I made the decision to stop relying so heavily on poker for that pleasurable yet fleeting reinforment that running good gives you. When you are making tons of money (especially if you're young like me and making this kind of money for the first time in your life), you can neglect all those things in life that used to keep you happy; friends, family, diet, sleep, excercise, school etc because the euphoria is so overwhelming and addictive.

I cut down on the amount that I played and stopped playing during the day after I woke up. I made the effort every day to do something productive that I could feel good about, whether it was going indoor rock climbing or simply cleaning my room and doing errands. During this time I improved my game and my results immeasurably but I also found a real balance in my life for the first time since I had found poker, and for a compulsive guy like me, I feel this is a much bigger accomplishment for my poker game in the long run than incremental improvments in my postflop play. Of course, finding balance in ones life is an accomplishment in itelf.