Utterly embarrassing and honest confessions of a 1 year pro

[TStoneMBD]

that is not enough? i dont know what is. after reconsidering, those estimations are a bit high. i could run bad over the next few months and not feel comfortable spending money on a vacation. i could meet my future wife and feel obligated to stay here.

[Stuck]

[ QUOTE ]
i could meet my future wife and feel obligated to stay here.

[/ QUOTE ]

How? Online mail-order bride?

j/k [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[TStoneMBD]

Why thank you, Captain rain on my parade man.

[B Dids]

Again, speaking from experience, this kind of bet hedging and excuse making is what keeps you from doing stuff. You can't say "I'm planning on doing xxxx". 'Cause you won't, no matter how much you plan.

You have no reason whatsoever not to get on Expedia and plan a trip somewhere right now, so do it. You're young, have money and are pretty obligationless. Go book a flight, as you can tell from this thread, there's probably somebody you know in a lot of places and they'd be willing to do [censored] with you (although you may want to avoid Brooklyn).

You have this great advantage of life not limiting you in what you can do, and you should work with that before you find yourself a grown-up who has those limits placed upon them.

[ThreeMartini]

Great post. Here's my $.02

Buy a Harley. Join the country club. Don't sleep more than 8 hrs a night. Get up early. Exercise. Get some sun.
Eat healthy. Basically take some time off, your in an enviable spot.

[TStoneMBD]

i dont understand why people are doubting me when i say im going to take a vacation soon. just for that, IM NOT GOING SO THERE HAH.

i do get your point though concerning the general scheme of things, but i am going to take a flight somewhere shortly. i still dont have a laptop and wanted to wait on the trip until i got one so i can play there during downtimes.

and for your info, i have spent alot of time on expedia.com researching travel options and how much plane tickets cost to where.

[B Dids]

[ QUOTE ]
i still dont have a laptop and wanted to wait on the trip until i got one so i can play there during downtimes.


[/ QUOTE ]

That is not a vacation.

Seriously. Go somewhere and don't talk or think poker. No playing, no reading 2+2, be something other than a poker player for a week.

[imported_stealthcow]

first, i'm not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn't do, because i realize that i have no right to. but i've always respsected the honesty of your posts and your play, and i hope in exchange you'll respect my advice.

this summer i went on a trip with 3 other twoplustwoers (drgutshot, caneman08 and rakein) to europe for 3 weeks. other then seeing family in switzerland, and a stop over in london once, i hadn't seen much of europe. we're all 19, and other then a small road trip to look at canadian universities, i had never been traveling with just friends.


i'd highly recommend going on a trip, and going before the summer is over. there are tons of travelers, tons of poeple to meet. i'd recommend going to places like florence, and looking at a cathedral door which a man spent 20 yrs reguarly working to make a door panel which is 8ft by 3ft. when he finished that one door, he won the right to build the design on a door next to it, spending another 20+ years to work on that one.

climb st. pauls catherdal. see the mona lisa. if you want to party all night, go to citys like amsterdam (which i didn't visit) or barcelona (which i did and highly recommend). go to the louvre, go to the arc de triomphe or see the roman ruins. or, if you want something differnet, go to the middle of the countryside. go to a small fishing village on the coast of italy, or the southern countryside of france (another thing i didn't do but want to). find out what you want to do, maybe tentative plans. if you fall in love with a place, stay- hostels are cheap, flexible and plentiful.

europe was awesome in that there was way more to see, way more history, more culture (or maybe just a different one) then i have seen.

this trip taught me more about the idea that i want to travel more whenever i have enough money saved up, that when regarding places i want to live when i'm older, the US isn't on the top of the list anymore. that i need to learn at the very least one other language. that i spend too much time on the computer, that i should continue to try to get into better and better shape, and there are things that i should do while i'm still young. (currently wanting to do the running of the bulls in spain, go hang gliding ).

during the trip i spent maybe 3 hrs on a computer. i called my parents 3x i think* and in some ways would've preferred that i had spent 0 hrs on teh computer. my friends, while i was really happy to have them there, i will travel without the next time i travel. they talked a little bit about poker, but i put in a full effort to never mention or discuss it. i just didn't want to.

you're young, you have money and a stable form of income. you can live wherever you want. you should travel around canada, around california, around anywhere on the map that interests you, and see if you want to live there.

spend time there and find out what you want to do now. money's great, and pokers fun, but come on. you're too young and judging by how you've engulfed yourself on 2+2, probably too ambitious to let yourself spend all your time multi tabling.

you could get another job, do volunteer work, learn another language etc etc. but obviously, the choice will (and should) lie with you.

ian

[Prelude008]

Hey Tstoney stone :-)

Good post. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, know and have thought out reasons for doing what you are doing as well as an awareness of things that you want to and/or are not doing.

You decided to go pro at an early age. You said that you would study for 30-40 hours a week to prepare for the bigger games, it seems to have paid off. You realized
that you needed to know more and did what you had to do. My props for you for doing what you needed to succeed.

Right now, poker is your job. IMHO, jobs are boring. Sure there are people who truly do what they love (w/ good compensation) - but I think this is rare - not the norm. I went to college, "fell" into a job that I've been doing for a long time. It's boring, unchallenging,
advancement-challenged, but it's "comfortable" and pays the bills. I know I've become complacent. I guess I am trying to say that since poker is your job, then I think the burnout you are feeling and the lack of passion seem normal from my perspective.

I agree with the many posts about finding another hobby. It will be a fun way to spend your time and break up the monotony.

Also, people have been giving lots of opinions about your friends and social situation. Some people need lots of people around them while others (myself included) have a small circle of really close friends. You may fit
in the latter category, so having a large number of friends for the sake of having them might not be any more fulfilling for you.

Also, you've gotten a lot of college advice. If you watched the Apprentice, Donald had two teams college educated and street smarts. The street smart (non college) team had a higher net worth collectively than the college grads and they performed equally well on all of the tasks and challenges. While I think college is important, it may not be for everyone.

Lastly (not meant in a negative way) , you said yourself "The one liners usually consist of me correcting people, putting people down, making humorous posts that may be insulting to someone else". Reflect on this and ease up when posts made to you that you may not agree with or like.

Congrats on your success! Keep winning.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

[ QUOTE ]
You should make a list of goals that you want to accomplish for the year. Make it totally personal and tell nobody. Prioritize them and then write down steps and measures you will take to achieve them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wholeheartedly agree, except on the part about seeping them secret. I have found that sharing my goals with others does two things:

1. Makes them real and helps motivate me to achieve them for fear of looking like a loser

but more importantly
2. Let's your friends help - sometimes they can do magic!