Wednesday, April 23, 2008
10K Post: Random Poker Thoughts
I have posted a lot here, gotten a lot of help from a lot of posters, and Ive never made a milestone post so I wanted to do something this time. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything worth doing a whole post on that hasn't been done so I just sort of ended up typing random paragraphs about a bunch of different things. Ive tried to organize them into something intelligible, hopefully I succeeded. Not that much of this will be that helpful to a lot of you since this is a SNG forum, but I know a lot of you either have switched to cash, are currently switching, or are thinking about it/will one day relatively soon, and this forum is pretty much my internet home so it's going here whether you like it or not.
Thank You's and such
Pasterbater- Obv. I owe him a ****-ton. He taught me to play cash games, but more importantly how to think about poker in a way that allowed me to make myself better.
Irieguy- besides just making this forum more fun to read, he picked me to be one of the reporter's for the ultimate SNG at his house in vegas, where I met a lot of really sick players and good people, paster being one.
Bones- also makes the forum fun to read, and he hated Phil Gordon, whose book cost me my first bankroll. **** Gordon.
Bobbofitos- Probably won't read this as it's in a donkament forum, but living with him in Vegas last year was like having one long "AHA" moment for 30 days. Such a good player and poker theorist, and he explains his thoughts more coherently than just about anyone Ive ever talked to.
Wiggs73- Doesnt post much anymore, but he taught me a lot about SNGs, and staked me once when I was busto. Ive also learned a lot talking Cash with him on AIM after we both switched.
\
Everyone else I talk to on AIM about poker, + those who lived w/ me last summer in LV+ anyone else I forgot. This forum has taken me from 1-tabling $5 sngs to making bank at upper MSNL, so in return I give you some confused ramblings that may or may not be coherent enough to help anyone.
Switching from SNGs to Cash
There probably isnt a whole lot I can offer most people on this for two reasons: I was never that great at SNGs and I had Pasterbator teaching me when I switched. That said, there a couple of things I will say on the subject. If you have no experience playing cash games, then stick to the basics. It sounds simple and boring (it's both) but it's also important. I see way too many posts in the SNG>>>Cash thread along the lines of "trying out some cash games for the first time, should i 3-barrel/cold-4bet/check-raise bluff this river. No, you shouldn't because most of these things are unnecessary at low stakes anyway, and you definitely don't have the experience to recognize the rare spots where they might be OK.
Game and Seat Selection
Game selection is probably the most important thing that nobody does at cash games. In SNGs you guys just register for 25 tables and wait for them to fill up. At cash games, you are making money directly from the fish (i.e. not from mistakes that the fish makes against other players as in SNGs), so if you are not on a table with a few fish, you aren't going to be making as much money as you should. I like to look for people sitting with stacks between 40-80bbs. Virtually every player who is even decent will reload before getting this low, and shortstackers leave the table at 40bbs, so all of these stacks are horrible players. Same thing goes for seat selection. Being OOP vs a good player should not be your main concern. I would rather have CTS on my left and a huge fish on my right than the other way around (slight exaggeration). The only exception to this is when stacks get really deep (200+bbs), then you should either tighten up drastically with a good aggro player on your left or just leave and find another table. Having position on the fish is huge, you have the best chance of taking their money when you are directly to their left, and most fish leave after they get stacked so give yourself every advantage you can.
Megatabling
I don't do it except during double VPP promos, and i think it's generally a bad idea. Spend some time playing very few table and make yourself explain everything that you do, and you will be able to correct a lot of mistakes on your own. Learning how to formulate these thought processes will also lead you to recognizing when a non-standard play might be best. I play 4 table sessions at least 4-5 times a month for this reason, and generally play 6-8 the rest of the time. I personally can't see how anyone playing more than that is playing their A-game, but Im sure some can.
Be a nit in EP
Seriously, this is important! You aren't going to have the kind of edge you need to play a hand like 76s, QTo, etc vs most players when they have position on you. Even if they are terrible, as long as they are remotel aggressive you are hurting yourself playing ****ty hands OOP vs them. I would rather open 52o on the BT than 76s UTG. You make your money in position, so play more pots in position and less out of it.
Value betting
This is probably the main difference between someone marginally beating the games and someone killing them. If there was a way for you to look at how much value you missed every month it would make you cry. The reason a lot of people struggle at low stakes is because no one ever folds. You can't bluff them, and you can't make TP or better every hand, so how do you win? STOP WAITING FOR TOP PAIR! If someone is calling you down w/ 3rd/4th pair every time, for ****'s sake don't bluff them, and start treating 2nd pair like it's top pair. This goes for flopped 2nd pair as well, but even more for a flopped overpair or TP that turns into 2nd pair by the river. If they've already called 2 bets on a 9 high board, the K on the river changes nothing, keep betting. Your absolute hand strength rarely matters. All that matters is whether you have the best hand often enough and whether they can feasibly call with worse often enough. An overcard doesnt have to be a scarecard if the action is such that it rarely hits there hand. It might make them less likely to call, but it can also make them bluff-catch more b/c overs are good cards to bluff. Do not assume, ever, that someone can't call with worse just because you wouldn't. Who cares if they fold every time? Ive never been given a bonus for showing down the best hand vs. winning w/o a showdown. At the very least they now have less information about you than if you check behind. Stop checking turns for pot control with TPTK against bad players. Just stop it. Why do you want to control the pot with the best hand? The days of not putting money in with 1 pair are gone, it's time to catch up. Check 2nd pair decent kicker for pot control, bet top pair every time you can. If you're making a thin value-bet, dont bet 1/3 of the pot. Besides being obvious, it takes away a lot of the value in betting. You might say "but they will call more often." Probably, but they wont call twice as often as they call 2/3 pot in most cases (which makes 2/3 pot bettter).
Bet sizing
Ill keep this brief, but it is definitely important. Im going to focus on the turn and river here. If you're playing well, you have a plan for the river before you do anything on the turn. If your plan is to bluff-shove certain rivers, you should size your turn bet so that you have very close to full-pot behind for the river, even if that means your turn bet is only 1/2 pot. The reason you are planning to bluff-shove the river is b/c you think you have more FE there (I hope), so maximize it. If you are planning to value-shove on the river, leave yourself a decent bit less than pot behind so it's easier for them to call. Although i really only touched on a couple situations, the general idea can be applied on all streets in all situations. Size your bets in a way that fits your plan for the hand, whether that plan is to put in 30bbs or 100 or 200.
Folding
Learn to fold! Just because someone is bad doesnt make TPTK the nuts (ya i know what i said earlier just shut up and listen!). If im in a pot with a fish, Im betting the hell out TP all the way of course, because TP IS the nuts when they are just calling. If they raise me at any point, it loses it's nuts status and I have to re-evaluate what kinds of hands they are likely to be raising. If a 50/5/0.25 min-raises your river bet, you can fold top pair pretty quickly. Part of value-betting enough is betting a lot of hands for value that you have to fold to a raise, and if you don't make those folds you're better off never value-betting in the first place. Just keep in mind that not all fish are created equal, and some of them will raise trash post-flop while some will call all the way with bottom pair and only raise the nuts. You make a lot of money in the long run by folding in the right spots.
3-betting
Everyone loves to 3-bet, and for good reason (its fun obv). But almost everyone is doing it completely wrong. I posted a hand in the **** thread the other day where i 3-bet A7o OTB vs a CO raise. This isn't standard and i had my reasons for doing it, but when someone questioned the 3-bet it got me thinking about the fact that if I had posted the hand and given myself 98s or QJs, no one would have said anything, when both of those 3-bets would have been worse than A7o IMO. When I'm 3-betting, I'm doing it with hands that are almost good enough for me to flat-call with but not quite, and obv also with hands that are too strong for me to flat-call. I think you show a much bigger profit by flatting hands like 98s and JTs in position than by 3-betting them to win a few bbs pre-flop. Out of the blinds I will 3-bet a lot of suited broadway cards vs someone who calls 3-bets really light and bluffs a lot/stacks off light post-flop. But I'm not turning them into a bluff, Im turning them into AK (stacking off when i flop a pair or big draw). The most absurdly horrible thing that I see from regs on a regular basis is squeezing SCs/gappers and off-suit connectors when a TAG opens and a fish calls in between. WHY?!?!!? These hands play so well in position in multiway pots, and the fish plays so badly post-flop! Why in the ****ing **** do you want to risk 16-18bbs to win 8bbs pre-flop when you can make so much more by flatting. Basically, if a hand makes a big profit post-flop by flatting, stop 3-betting it all the ****ing time. The air in your 3-betting range should consist of hands that are almost good enough to flat with, thus you aren't taking all the value away by 3-betting it and you can still win a decent pot b/c its better than having 32o or w/e.
Shot Taking/Fish Chasing
This is an important part of developing as a player, and I have always done quite a bit of it. Please understand that I am not talking about putting your whole roll on a 25/50 table. Say you're a 50NL player w/ a $1500 BR, and you see someone you know is a fish sitting at .5/1 or even 1/2. Don't be scared to sit at that table. When taking a shot i generally sit out or leave most if not all of my other tables to make sure I am giving my full concentration to that table. Note that you shouldnt do this every time you see someone who might not be a great reg sitting. Make sure it is someone bad enough to make the reward worth the risk. There are a few things to keep in mind when sitting at a table that is 2-4X your normal stakes.
A) You only need to cover the fish. If he has 60bbs, buy in for 60bbs. There is a good chance he is the only player there you have a significant edge against, anyway.
B) Make sure you have position on the fish- otherwise the $EV you gain isn't going to be worth the risk
C) Tighten up- there is no shame in this. You're playing over your bankroll so there is no reason to take unnecessary risks. You're there to stack the fish, not to flip coins with regs for >10% of your BR.
D) The regs are not playing back at you as much as you think- Seriously. They just aren't and you're being paranoid the majority of the time. Honestly though, assume that they are for a second. WTF are you gonna do about it? If you had the skill and the BR to combat their aggression you would be a regular in these stakes already, so don't waste your money trying. In all honesty, if the regs are spewing it's probably a good thing for you since you're playing tight like I told you to and will eventually have a big hand you can felt comfortably vs them, if the fish doesn't pay you first.
E) Leave when the fish leaves- if you want to wait for your BB fine but seriously if you're left w/ a table full of regs at 4X your normal stakes just fold everything but big hands, take your free FPPs and get out.
F) Leave when you get stacked- if you lose a stack for >10% of your BR, chances are you're gonna be slightly tilted, so let's not make it 20%. Even if you're not tilted, this isnt the best way to make your money back and you can still get coolered again. Just leave.
Life as a Pro
This profession makes it very easy to end up hating life. Even lots of ppl who are killing much bigger games than I play are miserable. There are obviously multiple reasons for this but a few common things that would make most people much happier are listed below.
A) It is bad (horrible) to keep 95% of your net worth in a poker account. If you have to do this to play the stakes you need to play to make a living, you shouldn't be playing poker for a living. There are exceptions to this, but mostly college students who don't need that much money to live so they can still function daily and be a pro while using most of their net worth as a BR.
B) Along the same lines as A, you don't need 100 buyins in your account to play cash. Take out half of it and put it in an INTEREST BEARING account. You can always put it back online if you need it, but to have it just sitting in your stars account is burning money.
C) You have to have balance. Find some sort of hobby, read books, go out with your friends regularly. If you are playing/browsing 2p2/studying poker 24/7 you are missing the forest for the trees. Online poker as a job lets you work on your own time, make great money, and do something you (hopefully) enjoy when you are working. If you don't have a life outside of the internet, you're doing it wrong.
D) Most people starting out as an online poker pro are young. We are lucky, We have time on our side if we choose to take advantage of it. We can watch the interest on our investments compound over and over again for a long time. Invest. Constantly hoarde your money away when you have a decent amount laying around that you dont need. Max out IRA's every year, when you start making substantial extra money look for good ways to invest it. You won't even miss that money now, and it will huge for you when you're older. This isn't to say you shouldn't spend any money, I spend a good bit on traveling and such and I greatly enjoy it. I have nice things. But Im investing as much as Im spending pretty much every month, because the quickest way to end up hating life is to spend every dime you make from poker and then go on a long downswing and end up broke, when you could have had enough put away for your life to not change a bit.
E) Realize and accept how much variance there is in poker, cause there's a ****ing lot of it. You can run bad for 100K hands or more, and it sucks bad. Of course it's rare to do so but CTS has said before that he has 100K samples w/ a negative ptbb. Downswings happen, bad beats happen, coolers happen. They happen every day to everybody. You arent special, and they don't happen more to you than they do to everyone else. This is why you shouldnt play poker professionally if you are depending on your results each week/month to live on, you have to have case money to make it through the rough patches.
I'll wrap it up pretty quickly cause this is already longer than any post should be. Life is about being happy, not about being rich (although is never hurts). One thing I feel lucky to have learned at a very young age is that time is far more valuable than money will ever be. Life is extremely short, and every year goes by faster than the one before. My goal for my poker career when I first started out was to 12-table HSNL all day and make a billion dollars every month and buy everything on the planet. Now, my goal is to put away enough money to have a passive income as fast as possible, and to play as much as I can without ever sacrificing anything from my personal life for poker. The extra time I get to do things I enjoy, namely spending time with my wife, friends, and family, is a far better reward for me than the money is.
Thank You's and such
Pasterbater- Obv. I owe him a ****-ton. He taught me to play cash games, but more importantly how to think about poker in a way that allowed me to make myself better.
Irieguy- besides just making this forum more fun to read, he picked me to be one of the reporter's for the ultimate SNG at his house in vegas, where I met a lot of really sick players and good people, paster being one.
Bones- also makes the forum fun to read, and he hated Phil Gordon, whose book cost me my first bankroll. **** Gordon.
Bobbofitos- Probably won't read this as it's in a donkament forum, but living with him in Vegas last year was like having one long "AHA" moment for 30 days. Such a good player and poker theorist, and he explains his thoughts more coherently than just about anyone Ive ever talked to.
Wiggs73- Doesnt post much anymore, but he taught me a lot about SNGs, and staked me once when I was busto. Ive also learned a lot talking Cash with him on AIM after we both switched.
\Everyone else I talk to on AIM about poker, + those who lived w/ me last summer in LV+ anyone else I forgot. This forum has taken me from 1-tabling $5 sngs to making bank at upper MSNL, so in return I give you some confused ramblings that may or may not be coherent enough to help anyone.
Switching from SNGs to Cash
There probably isnt a whole lot I can offer most people on this for two reasons: I was never that great at SNGs and I had Pasterbator teaching me when I switched. That said, there a couple of things I will say on the subject. If you have no experience playing cash games, then stick to the basics. It sounds simple and boring (it's both) but it's also important. I see way too many posts in the SNG>>>Cash thread along the lines of "trying out some cash games for the first time, should i 3-barrel/cold-4bet/check-raise bluff this river. No, you shouldn't because most of these things are unnecessary at low stakes anyway, and you definitely don't have the experience to recognize the rare spots where they might be OK.
Game and Seat Selection
Game selection is probably the most important thing that nobody does at cash games. In SNGs you guys just register for 25 tables and wait for them to fill up. At cash games, you are making money directly from the fish (i.e. not from mistakes that the fish makes against other players as in SNGs), so if you are not on a table with a few fish, you aren't going to be making as much money as you should. I like to look for people sitting with stacks between 40-80bbs. Virtually every player who is even decent will reload before getting this low, and shortstackers leave the table at 40bbs, so all of these stacks are horrible players. Same thing goes for seat selection. Being OOP vs a good player should not be your main concern. I would rather have CTS on my left and a huge fish on my right than the other way around (slight exaggeration). The only exception to this is when stacks get really deep (200+bbs), then you should either tighten up drastically with a good aggro player on your left or just leave and find another table. Having position on the fish is huge, you have the best chance of taking their money when you are directly to their left, and most fish leave after they get stacked so give yourself every advantage you can.
Megatabling
I don't do it except during double VPP promos, and i think it's generally a bad idea. Spend some time playing very few table and make yourself explain everything that you do, and you will be able to correct a lot of mistakes on your own. Learning how to formulate these thought processes will also lead you to recognizing when a non-standard play might be best. I play 4 table sessions at least 4-5 times a month for this reason, and generally play 6-8 the rest of the time. I personally can't see how anyone playing more than that is playing their A-game, but Im sure some can.
Be a nit in EP
Seriously, this is important! You aren't going to have the kind of edge you need to play a hand like 76s, QTo, etc vs most players when they have position on you. Even if they are terrible, as long as they are remotel aggressive you are hurting yourself playing ****ty hands OOP vs them. I would rather open 52o on the BT than 76s UTG. You make your money in position, so play more pots in position and less out of it.
Value betting
This is probably the main difference between someone marginally beating the games and someone killing them. If there was a way for you to look at how much value you missed every month it would make you cry. The reason a lot of people struggle at low stakes is because no one ever folds. You can't bluff them, and you can't make TP or better every hand, so how do you win? STOP WAITING FOR TOP PAIR! If someone is calling you down w/ 3rd/4th pair every time, for ****'s sake don't bluff them, and start treating 2nd pair like it's top pair. This goes for flopped 2nd pair as well, but even more for a flopped overpair or TP that turns into 2nd pair by the river. If they've already called 2 bets on a 9 high board, the K on the river changes nothing, keep betting. Your absolute hand strength rarely matters. All that matters is whether you have the best hand often enough and whether they can feasibly call with worse often enough. An overcard doesnt have to be a scarecard if the action is such that it rarely hits there hand. It might make them less likely to call, but it can also make them bluff-catch more b/c overs are good cards to bluff. Do not assume, ever, that someone can't call with worse just because you wouldn't. Who cares if they fold every time? Ive never been given a bonus for showing down the best hand vs. winning w/o a showdown. At the very least they now have less information about you than if you check behind. Stop checking turns for pot control with TPTK against bad players. Just stop it. Why do you want to control the pot with the best hand? The days of not putting money in with 1 pair are gone, it's time to catch up. Check 2nd pair decent kicker for pot control, bet top pair every time you can. If you're making a thin value-bet, dont bet 1/3 of the pot. Besides being obvious, it takes away a lot of the value in betting. You might say "but they will call more often." Probably, but they wont call twice as often as they call 2/3 pot in most cases (which makes 2/3 pot bettter).
Bet sizing
Ill keep this brief, but it is definitely important. Im going to focus on the turn and river here. If you're playing well, you have a plan for the river before you do anything on the turn. If your plan is to bluff-shove certain rivers, you should size your turn bet so that you have very close to full-pot behind for the river, even if that means your turn bet is only 1/2 pot. The reason you are planning to bluff-shove the river is b/c you think you have more FE there (I hope), so maximize it. If you are planning to value-shove on the river, leave yourself a decent bit less than pot behind so it's easier for them to call. Although i really only touched on a couple situations, the general idea can be applied on all streets in all situations. Size your bets in a way that fits your plan for the hand, whether that plan is to put in 30bbs or 100 or 200.
Folding
Learn to fold! Just because someone is bad doesnt make TPTK the nuts (ya i know what i said earlier just shut up and listen!). If im in a pot with a fish, Im betting the hell out TP all the way of course, because TP IS the nuts when they are just calling. If they raise me at any point, it loses it's nuts status and I have to re-evaluate what kinds of hands they are likely to be raising. If a 50/5/0.25 min-raises your river bet, you can fold top pair pretty quickly. Part of value-betting enough is betting a lot of hands for value that you have to fold to a raise, and if you don't make those folds you're better off never value-betting in the first place. Just keep in mind that not all fish are created equal, and some of them will raise trash post-flop while some will call all the way with bottom pair and only raise the nuts. You make a lot of money in the long run by folding in the right spots.
3-betting
Everyone loves to 3-bet, and for good reason (its fun obv). But almost everyone is doing it completely wrong. I posted a hand in the **** thread the other day where i 3-bet A7o OTB vs a CO raise. This isn't standard and i had my reasons for doing it, but when someone questioned the 3-bet it got me thinking about the fact that if I had posted the hand and given myself 98s or QJs, no one would have said anything, when both of those 3-bets would have been worse than A7o IMO. When I'm 3-betting, I'm doing it with hands that are almost good enough for me to flat-call with but not quite, and obv also with hands that are too strong for me to flat-call. I think you show a much bigger profit by flatting hands like 98s and JTs in position than by 3-betting them to win a few bbs pre-flop. Out of the blinds I will 3-bet a lot of suited broadway cards vs someone who calls 3-bets really light and bluffs a lot/stacks off light post-flop. But I'm not turning them into a bluff, Im turning them into AK (stacking off when i flop a pair or big draw). The most absurdly horrible thing that I see from regs on a regular basis is squeezing SCs/gappers and off-suit connectors when a TAG opens and a fish calls in between. WHY?!?!!? These hands play so well in position in multiway pots, and the fish plays so badly post-flop! Why in the ****ing **** do you want to risk 16-18bbs to win 8bbs pre-flop when you can make so much more by flatting. Basically, if a hand makes a big profit post-flop by flatting, stop 3-betting it all the ****ing time. The air in your 3-betting range should consist of hands that are almost good enough to flat with, thus you aren't taking all the value away by 3-betting it and you can still win a decent pot b/c its better than having 32o or w/e.
Shot Taking/Fish Chasing
This is an important part of developing as a player, and I have always done quite a bit of it. Please understand that I am not talking about putting your whole roll on a 25/50 table. Say you're a 50NL player w/ a $1500 BR, and you see someone you know is a fish sitting at .5/1 or even 1/2. Don't be scared to sit at that table. When taking a shot i generally sit out or leave most if not all of my other tables to make sure I am giving my full concentration to that table. Note that you shouldnt do this every time you see someone who might not be a great reg sitting. Make sure it is someone bad enough to make the reward worth the risk. There are a few things to keep in mind when sitting at a table that is 2-4X your normal stakes.
A) You only need to cover the fish. If he has 60bbs, buy in for 60bbs. There is a good chance he is the only player there you have a significant edge against, anyway.
B) Make sure you have position on the fish- otherwise the $EV you gain isn't going to be worth the risk
C) Tighten up- there is no shame in this. You're playing over your bankroll so there is no reason to take unnecessary risks. You're there to stack the fish, not to flip coins with regs for >10% of your BR.
D) The regs are not playing back at you as much as you think- Seriously. They just aren't and you're being paranoid the majority of the time. Honestly though, assume that they are for a second. WTF are you gonna do about it? If you had the skill and the BR to combat their aggression you would be a regular in these stakes already, so don't waste your money trying. In all honesty, if the regs are spewing it's probably a good thing for you since you're playing tight like I told you to and will eventually have a big hand you can felt comfortably vs them, if the fish doesn't pay you first.
E) Leave when the fish leaves- if you want to wait for your BB fine but seriously if you're left w/ a table full of regs at 4X your normal stakes just fold everything but big hands, take your free FPPs and get out.
F) Leave when you get stacked- if you lose a stack for >10% of your BR, chances are you're gonna be slightly tilted, so let's not make it 20%. Even if you're not tilted, this isnt the best way to make your money back and you can still get coolered again. Just leave.
Life as a Pro
This profession makes it very easy to end up hating life. Even lots of ppl who are killing much bigger games than I play are miserable. There are obviously multiple reasons for this but a few common things that would make most people much happier are listed below.
A) It is bad (horrible) to keep 95% of your net worth in a poker account. If you have to do this to play the stakes you need to play to make a living, you shouldn't be playing poker for a living. There are exceptions to this, but mostly college students who don't need that much money to live so they can still function daily and be a pro while using most of their net worth as a BR.
B) Along the same lines as A, you don't need 100 buyins in your account to play cash. Take out half of it and put it in an INTEREST BEARING account. You can always put it back online if you need it, but to have it just sitting in your stars account is burning money.
C) You have to have balance. Find some sort of hobby, read books, go out with your friends regularly. If you are playing/browsing 2p2/studying poker 24/7 you are missing the forest for the trees. Online poker as a job lets you work on your own time, make great money, and do something you (hopefully) enjoy when you are working. If you don't have a life outside of the internet, you're doing it wrong.
D) Most people starting out as an online poker pro are young. We are lucky, We have time on our side if we choose to take advantage of it. We can watch the interest on our investments compound over and over again for a long time. Invest. Constantly hoarde your money away when you have a decent amount laying around that you dont need. Max out IRA's every year, when you start making substantial extra money look for good ways to invest it. You won't even miss that money now, and it will huge for you when you're older. This isn't to say you shouldn't spend any money, I spend a good bit on traveling and such and I greatly enjoy it. I have nice things. But Im investing as much as Im spending pretty much every month, because the quickest way to end up hating life is to spend every dime you make from poker and then go on a long downswing and end up broke, when you could have had enough put away for your life to not change a bit.
E) Realize and accept how much variance there is in poker, cause there's a ****ing lot of it. You can run bad for 100K hands or more, and it sucks bad. Of course it's rare to do so but CTS has said before that he has 100K samples w/ a negative ptbb. Downswings happen, bad beats happen, coolers happen. They happen every day to everybody. You arent special, and they don't happen more to you than they do to everyone else. This is why you shouldnt play poker professionally if you are depending on your results each week/month to live on, you have to have case money to make it through the rough patches.
I'll wrap it up pretty quickly cause this is already longer than any post should be. Life is about being happy, not about being rich (although is never hurts). One thing I feel lucky to have learned at a very young age is that time is far more valuable than money will ever be. Life is extremely short, and every year goes by faster than the one before. My goal for my poker career when I first started out was to 12-table HSNL all day and make a billion dollars every month and buy everything on the planet. Now, my goal is to put away enough money to have a passive income as fast as possible, and to play as much as I can without ever sacrificing anything from my personal life for poker. The extra time I get to do things I enjoy, namely spending time with my wife, friends, and family, is a far better reward for me than the money is.
# posted by bonycamel @ 12:45 AM 
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