im considering doing illegal things to make money - Page 6

On April 09 2009 09:33 Luddite wrote:
All I'm saying is, if you're not even good enough to beat nl50, then you should stop playing poker and they should give someone else the poker icon.

On April 09 2009 09:33 Luddite wrote:
All I'm saying is, if you're not even good enough to beat nl50, then you should stop playing poker and they should give someone else the poker icon.

On April 09 2009 09:31 travis wrote:


I mean that I was awkward and super introverted back in my school years, I never developed much of a sex drive or a desire to have sex, and so it never happened. I have never even had a girlfriend. There have been a couple opportunities the last couple years but really I just am not interested in that sort of thing.

Sex could possibly happen for me if something crazy happened, like a hot girl was basically seducing me, but for some reason I don't think it will.

I am pretty comfortable with being celibate actually. There are certain benefits to it.

On April 09 2009 09:45 d1v wrote:
Travis, you still haven't anwered my question yet. What are your options on the working market besides poker?

On April 09 2009 10:30 Cloud wrote:
Join the army?

On April 09 2009 10:29 PanoRaMa wrote:
You've received a ton of good advice and tidbits throughout this thread, at least with regards to poker. I hope you really take into consideration all of these and try to, as objectively as you can, really evaluate your current situation and make the most out of it. Without going too much into it, I was once approached by people to do network marketing (as they somehow thought because I could be successful with poker that I could somehow be a good network marketer). I didn't go through with it and I know everything associated with it along with the average income, etc. But the most important thing I took out of it was that if everything in my life collapsed, along with my poker abilities/income, I know that if anything, I took solace in the fact that there were careers like network marketing out there for me. While I would absolutely hate the job, the fact of the matter is the world is governed by money and as fifty cent (lol) says "get rich or die trying". i.e. there are a lot of ways to get rich, but in order to take advantage of those you need to shed your ego or be able to tolerate working in undesirable conditions. If everything in my life were to go wrong, I'd devote myself 12 hours a day to network marketing, flipping burgers, whatever opportunity I could get because that's simply what needs to be done. The only other option I have would be blogging about my situation and not taking the necessary steps to not only get myself in a decent spot, but also way beyond that.

Past that, specifically with poker, I think Rekrul has the right idea. You need to come to terms with the reality that pre-leg you dominated the games but you cannot, in your current form, beat the games now. There are tons of people like you, the majority of them have quit. Only VERY few players who dominated pre-leg are still doing well in equivalent stakes (1knl+) these days. Besides them, the ones doing well higher are the ones who were able to figure the games out (which takes 5000x more effort and knowledge than knowing how to beat the games preleg) are the ones that are now winners at those stakes. Rekrul also said you have had many opportunities, this is very true, especially given your history of being staked. If what I understand is correct, you shouldn't really be blaming poker right now tbh - given how much you may have won pre-leg, given how many learning opportunities are given to you being close with so many great players, given the stake(s) offered to you when you needed it, etc.

Additionally, the variance at 50nl simply cannot be that devastating. I've coached several people through these stakes and unless the games drastically changed overnight to mid-stakes difficulty, the variance shouldn't be that high given the low amount of volatile, high-variance spots you can possibly put yourself in playing an near-optimal strategy. Additionally, at 50nl it's very easy to mitigate any severe negative variance by simply playing well and preventing subtle tilt. You blame run bad, but it's very likely that you don't even understand variance in its fullest. I know it doesn't mean much in isolation, but I "ran bad" over the course of more than 6 months in 2008. Of course, anyone can say that and it's hard to validate, so you'd just have to take my word for it. I've spent a lot of time trying to understand statistical variance in Poker, have talked to some of the world's best players (and that means in 2009, not 2006 preleg superstars) with regards to the subject, etc.

I don't know about these "mental derangements" Rekrul mentions, but whatever the case may be, it is simply likely that the way you perceive the game itself may be flawed. The way you understand variance may be flawed. Ultimately, any of these (along with other things) translates to you not being that good at poker. I don't mean to come off as an asshole, so I hope you don't see it that way, but the game has changed. It's become harder, and if there is anything at all that might hold you back, it might be indefinite. Read up on the Peter Principle, as it may be related.

For you I would simply suggest going back to school which seems like the direction you're headed, and owning the fuck out of it. It's not a direction I'm personally going for (I actually have anti-school sentiments, and am not even attending this quarter, so for me to recommend this to you must mean something), but it's simply the only other solid opportunity you have right now so make the best out of it. If you don't, then you don't have any reason to "whine".

On April 09 2009 09:31 travis wrote:


I mean that I was awkward and super introverted back in my school years, I never developed much of a sex drive or a desire to have sex, and so it never happened. I have never even had a girlfriend. There have been a couple opportunities the last couple years but really I just am not interested in that sort of thing.

Sex could possibly happen for me if something crazy happened, like a hot girl was basically seducing me, but for some reason I don't think it will.

I am pretty comfortable with being celibate actually. There are certain benefits to it.

On April 09 2009 11:38 Rekrul wrote:


so you're saying you don't watch porn?

or that you're just totally fine with watching porn and don't need and/or want a female companion?

On April 09 2009 11:53 Rekrul wrote:
fall in love

u'll become ultimate at poker