If you’re a professional No Limit Hold’em tournament player and you know your game is solid there really is no reason to ever complain.
No, not because everyone has downswings. F that. It’s because one day YOU WILL run good in a big tournament. And when that day happens you want people to say, “you know, he deserved it. He always put his hours in and was nice to people. He always seemed to understand this game for what it was.”
You don’t want to look like an ass who is constantly ranting about how the universe won’t realize what an awesome guy he is. No one cares. And everyone will care a lot less when you do get there.
Not to mention everybody has to wait their turn. You might as well not torture yourself during the years you come up.
Don’t envy the phenoms who didn’t have to wait that long. Trust me, I know most of them. They might have reached the mountain top but they didn’t hang around for long. That’s what happens when a helicopter flies your ass up there. You don’t really care about the top. You just look for another miracle transport to another mountain top. God help you if you make it to that one. You’ll be mad then for that peak not making you happy either.
If you cut yourself on the rocks during the climb up and fell back a little, the view looks pretty nice. You probably will learn how to not slip when climb another mountain. You actually climbed the damn thing in the first place.
How well do you think the phenoms climb when they have to make their way back down? If they didn’t learn anything on the way up, or if they stepped on anyone in the process, that path back will not be intuitive to them. They’ll likely never crawl back up again.
Don’t take pride from this. Focus on burying your own boots into the earth.
I didn’t appreciate anything till I went broke. It’s amazing how good a normal meal tastes after you have to the grocery store again with nothing but a twenty. It’s incredible how much you appreciate a good night’s sleep after a few weeks of withdrawal insomnia.
You don’t appreciate your meds till you try to go off them.
I was in Europe when I was 20 living in a condo on the beach. I can’t tell you how little I enjoyed it. I was always stuck in my head, worried about variance, or thinking about money. I do the same thing in Costa Rica now. Really I should be taking more pictures, writing and reading more, taking more time to enjoy things, and enjoying all the struggle poker presents me.
After all, every business person I know talks about how “coming up” was their favorite part.
Starting in this game was a lot more exciting, but there’s still a lot of experiences to be had.
My Plugs: Check out my vids at Pocketfives Training, contact me for lessons at assassinatocoaching@gmail.com, see other stuff I write with my friends at www.pokerheadrush.com, and follow my Twitter at TheAssassinato