Day 8 - 200/800 Played

Smooth sailing so far. Although I'm only about a week into April, I have felt comfortable with the volume. If I continue living my life balanced/healthy/motivated, I can see 800ish/month as a realistic longterm expectation. My guess is you guys that commented on the original post can be expecting a video at the end of the month =). We'll see.

The most important aspect of playing poker for a living is consistency. You don't have to be the best handreader, the most adaptive player, or the highest level thinker to make a great living player poker. Being proficient in each of these aspects is certainly important, but even more important is bringing a successful lifestyle and consistency to the table day in and day out. Tilting, lack of focus, and ego-driven mistakes can all be overcome, but they are all setbacks and cut into your bottom line. They are the ruin of many good/great poker players. By my definition, the most successful professional poker players are the ones that have the fewest setbacks and reach their maximum level of potential as quickly as possible.

There is a difference between playing poker and playing poker for a living. When we play poker, we are competing against our opponents. When we play poker for a living, we are competing against ourselves. In the short term, sitting at a full 9 person table, we correctly begin comparing ourselves to the other players at the table to determine how we match up versus each of them. When we play poker for a living, we should only be comparing our current version of ourselves to what we consider to be the most successful version of ourselves.

Opponents come and go. The guys that give you trouble now will probably have enough self-defeating habits to destroy any chance of playing for a living. In the end, when we look back on our careers, the only person we should compare ourselves to is that best version of ourselves. Did we reach that version? Did we surpass our expectations?

I'm still on my journey to becoming the most successful version of myself. The ups and downs of this blog are a testament to that struggle.

Every time I reach a new level of success, new expectations will be created. It's a never-ending process.

That is playing poker for a living.

April: +5059