[Eddie Winslow]

When Black Friday came along in 2011 (the day online poker was suddenly banned in the USA), I panicked. It was my crutch to survive the outrageously boring life I had built for myself. I had a miserable government job and a shitty, nearly sexless long distance relationship. My girlfriend fucking hated it. It likely was one of the reasons she dumped me shortly afterwards.

I was super depressed at that point before I stumbled upon Roosh's blog. After taking a couple months to rebuild my self-esteem, I filled my time with learning game and pursuing my interests. I began to appreciate life. Eventually I quit that government job, moved right by from DC to just outside NYC, and started my own successful business. It was easy to see that poker was the cause of my boredom, not the solution.

Despite that, around Thanksgiving of 2013, these government fuckers made it legal again in NJ and of course I signed up on day 1. I can count on one hand the days I voluntarily have NOT played since then. Productivity has been down and self-loathing has been way up. I've invested hundreds of hours and have a measly 500 bucks to show for it. Win or lose, it's just another way to put off improving your life, no better than playing xbox or surfing facebook all night.

I was hoping to make this a support group/journal for other RVFers who are sick of wasting their time, similar to no-fap and no-booze threads. I know you guys are out there - let's quit together. Tell me why poker sucks and why you're going to stop. Please no lame "bad beat" stories though, no one cares.

[Dagonet]

Hey man, I used to be the same way and you really hit the nail on the head. It's an addiction and a form of time-wasting, just like playing videogames or doing drugs. It can have its place as a hobby, but if you realize (as you have) that it's becoming an unhealthy addiction, you need to cut it completely out of your life until you know you can approach it with control and balance.

For me, once I learned Game and started getting laid a lot, spending hours at a poker table just seemed like a giant waste of time I could be using to meet girls. Maybe focus more on improving your Game (which you might be resisting doing by playing poker). If you really push to improve and start seeing results with girls, poker will NOT seem as appealing.

[buko]

I hear you man.
In 2006 i started playing poker, the first two years everything was fine, but then i realized how much you can make and i got addicted to it.

From 2008-2010 i was in a similar situation like you, these were my wasted years. I made a ton of money but was totally degenerated.
The thing was that i got lazy after i made a specific amount and just stopped playing. I was watching stupid videos on youtube, reading on forums, eating frozen food only and so on. I was sitting in front of my computer day in, day out. During these 2,5 years i did literally nothing. I didn't do anything for university either.

In 2010 i decided that something needs to change and i started traveling. I made a few short trips first, a few weeks each. It was so much fun that i wanted more of it. At the end of 2011 i moved to Southeast Asia and stayed until 2013.
It was a great time. Poker got less and less important for me until i played just for fun to make a few bucks and had a good work-life balance
I started to study again for university and finished my degree.

Last September i came to Canada on a work visa and i'm trying to make a career here in the Oilsands.
I'm not playing poker anymore.

My advice for you is, find a hobby that you love. So that you start concentrating on this instead of poker. You will find new friends and then spend time with them and on and on. One will come to the other and you won't think about poker anymore.
Go traveling, join a sportsclub, start tuning your car.

I was so addicted one time then when i was lost my internet for a week because i changed the provider, i wasn't sleeping at all. I just wanted to play. Don't get to this level.

The good times of poker are over, it's not as easy to make money as it was 8 years ago. The competition got a lot better and it's not so popular anymore, so there is less fish.

[Afarang]

nice thread, I stopped playing about 5 months ago, after being kind of "semi pro" in Thailand. I dont see much of a future for it unless your the top 5% of poker players who make good money. I was staked so I felt no losses.

Not too long ago I interviewed a poker player in Thailand, not sure if you guys are interested it in but w/e.

I would start playing again at 50nl if the rake was lowered, but way too high. I sometimes have an urge to put some money on full tilt, but never do it.

[shanked]

Poker began to be problem for me when l turned 17 and started playing online. Losing alot of money and spending way too much time. I hit rockbottom a few times. I started getting alot better and went on some insane runs like $10k profit in 11days from $400, and this only made me want to play more. I won alot of my money back but I reached a point where poker just became boring for me. I dont have the patience to sit at a computer and put in 5+ hours and have likely nothing to show for it. Havent played in over a year now and the last time I played I played in two tournaments cashed low in one then was too bored to play anymore.

So yeh ive overcome my poker addiction. Still got a video game addiction though but its nowhere near as bad as my poker one, still can live but waste way too much time. I put it down to having too much time on my hands. I need to find a hobby I am passionate about and with it comes a lifestyle. I was thinking of taking up learning a latin dance or a martial art like krav maga.

[Pinocchio]

used to play full time when i finished uni until the games got too tough. now i just grind daygame on the streets of london.

[not_dead_yet]

Poker is a good hobby to have in moderation. That said, if you're looking to pull six figures a year playing it, you've got to realize that ship has sailed. Since the Feds made it illegal, the steady stream of fish has dried up and the average level of play for those remaining has gotten steadily higher. Like Nate Silver has pointed out, you're not making money playing poker unless you're the best player at the table and most of the time you simply can't know if you're the best player at the table or if you're just suffering normal variance.

[FrenchCanadian]

I was a poker pro from approx 2008-2011. I started at NL25 and moved up to be a full on NL200-400 regular. Back then the poker community was pretty tight, guys helping each other out, staking, coaching... and the games were way softer than they are today. I loved the intellectual, the statistical and mathematical aspects to the game. It's a special privilege to be able to "own" people for a living. I fucking loved it.

The day black friday hit, I had just over 20k seized from my FTP account... that made me think. Made me depressive, since that was a large chunk of my bankroll (and net worth lol) so I started taking university classes. I started getting into economics, business. I started reading about game. (I actually discovered RVF through 2+2 poker forums.)

I realized that spending 50h a week infront of a computer, even though I was making like 50$/h doing it, it just wasn't a life. I was disconnected and had a fucked up relation with money, I was also living a degenerate gambler's life, ordering food 10x a week and as much as I could make money I loved spending it like a fucking idiot. (strippers, blackjack, clubs, prop bets ect)

There are some fundamentals I learned from poker that I know I'll carry with me for the rest of my life... (not being result oriented, recognizing value, taking risks with positive equity, statistical analysis, being able to think ahead, to strategize, to plan... to manage a bankroll). These are all things poker have taught me and I'm grateful for them.

However, I am now making just as much moneyn (if not more) as I used to, I am banging all kinds of beautiful women, I am eating well, I'm investing, I am fit. I'm still keeping my mind sharp, and I have a balanced lifestyle. Compared to before, it's not even comparable.

This is mostly due to learning about game, and business.

[2014]

wow,

surprised to see so many others like me.

i played poker for about 3 years very seriously, then I lost everything, including my stake, around the time black friday hit.

I play occasionally for fun now, but looking back it was a big waste of time.

There are a few I know who crush it, 6 figures a yeat, but they usually bumhunt and have to sit around waiting all day..

sometimes i wish i had that freedom again, but rather than pursuing poker, which is really hard now, location independent business is where I am focusing on...

SEO and web development etc.

[Eddie Winslow]

(03-31-2014 08:49 AM)FrenchCanadian Wrote:  

I loved the intellectual, the statistical and mathematical aspects to the game. It's a special privilege to be able to "own" people for a living. I fucking loved it.

This is what drew me in also. Not that I was ever a pro, or anything close to it, but I got a high out of outsmarting others and keeping score with money. Unfortunately, people spend most of the 3+ hours in a $5 MTT bragging about their decision making skills and VICIOUSLY criticizing the weak players that are supposedly giving them their edge, even when they win. It's the only thing that makes them feel good about wasting night after night in front of their laptop and making $2/hr. After Black Friday forced me to quit playing, I realized there's so many better ways to feed my competitiveness.

Props for being able to make a legitimate income from poker, that's really cool.

[FrenchCanadian]

(03-31-2014 08:09 PM)americanbk Wrote:  

Props for being able to make a legitimate income from poker, that's really cool.

i had the chance to have the support of a small yet great poker community (french canadians) and get some elite coaching.

poker in 07-08 was good money at mid stakes.

I wouldnt recommend it as a career anymore, but if you were quick enough to jump the boat, back then, it was do-able. Not only did players get better, coaches got better, & the coaching industry as a whole, got better. US legislation turned something great to sour. Americans were the biggest net losers in online poker.

[jamaicabound]

(03-31-2014 01:02 AM)americanbk Wrote:  

When Black Friday came along in 2011 (the day online poker was suddenly banned in the USA), I panicked. It was my crutch to survive the outrageously boring life I had built for myself. I had a miserable government job and a shitty, nearly sexless long distance relationship. My girlfriend fucking hated it. It likely was one of the reasons she dumped me shortly afterwards.

I was super depressed at that point before I stumbled upon Roosh's blog. After taking a couple months to rebuild my self-esteem, I filled my time with learning game and pursuing my interests. I began to appreciate life. Eventually I quit that government job, moved right by from DC to just outside NYC, and started my own successful business. It was easy to see that poker was the cause of my boredom, not the solution.

Despite that, around Thanksgiving of 2013, these government fuckers made it legal again in NJ and of course I signed up on day 1. I can count on one hand the days I voluntarily have NOT played since then. Productivity has been down and self-loathing has been way up. I've invested hundreds of hours and have a measly 500 bucks to show for it. Win or lose, it's just another way to put off improving your life, no better than playing xbox or surfing facebook all night.

I was hoping to make this a support group/journal for other RVFers who are sick of wasting their time, similar to no-fap and no-booze threads. I know you guys are out there - let's quit together. Tell me why poker sucks and why you're going to stop. Please no lame "bad beat" stories though, no one cares.

Pretty much anything is okay in moderation but like you said, sometimes you gotta sit down and ask yourself is this improving myself and my life or not?

Now granted to some extent we all need some downtime and leisure. You could say what does reading do for me in terms of novels? Really nothing but we all need some downtime and leisure time and in many ways being relaxed makes us more productive and more balanced.

That said I definately know what you are saying. I pretty much gave up video games. A game costs $60, buy a few a year and your into your games for several hundred a year people who are really gamers probably more like a grand or more. How much time is wasted gaming which could be spent working out, gaming, going out, seeing the world.

Props to you man good to hear things are going well

[KeepMovingForward]

(03-31-2014 01:02 AM)americanbk Wrote:  

It was easy to see that poker was the cause of my boredom, not the solution.

Despite that, around Thanksgiving of 2013, these government fuckers made it legal again in NJ and of course I signed up on day 1. I can count on one hand the days I voluntarily have NOT played since then. Productivity has been down and self-loathing has been way up. I've invested hundreds of hours and have a measly 500 bucks to show for it. Win or lose, it's just another way to put off improving your life, no better than playing xbox or surfing facebook all night.

You come off as one step above a recreational player, if you dont treat it professionally of course you won't be making decent money...

[Eddie Winslow]

(03-31-2014 10:46 PM)KeepMovingForward Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 01:02 AM)americanbk Wrote:  

It was easy to see that poker was the cause of my boredom, not the solution.

Despite that, around Thanksgiving of 2013, these government fuckers made it legal again in NJ and of course I signed up on day 1. I can count on one hand the days I voluntarily have NOT played since then. Productivity has been down and self-loathing has been way up. I've invested hundreds of hours and have a measly 500 bucks to show for it. Win or lose, it's just another way to put off improving your life, no better than playing xbox or surfing facebook all night.

You come off as one step above a recreational player, if you dont treat it professionally of course you won't be making decent money...

I am - and so is 95% of the rest of the world. Even if I had the patience or talent to pull in $100K a year, as the other pro on this thread confirmed, you need to strap yourself to your computer chair for 50+ hours a week and cut yourself off from the rest of the world. Additionally, the best hours to play are also the best times to socialize (weeknights after dinner time and all day on the weekends). What kind of life is that