The fact that there is only 1 person is truly happy out of thousand's of players in a given tournament just makes playing MTT's on a regular basis incredibly frustrating. After Cal's shitty loss to Maryland on Thursday, I was trying to explain to my friends why I don't take Cal's loses hard like I used to and my reason was because of poker. Basically I said that I have encountered so many frustrating and disappointing situation that directly affect my bottom line, that I have become numb to a lot of minor to medium dissapointments in life. This may seem like a good thing on the surface because things don't bother me as much as they used to, but in order to get to this point I had to unnecessarily suffer so much frustration and disappointments.
All jobs have negatives, and the frustrating and disappointing nature of playing MTT's is the main negative of a full time job playing MTT's, this negative is off-set by the freedom, not having a boss and the money. But hobbies are supposed to be fun and are not supposed to have this much negative associated with them. I'm not quitting or anything, just realizing that playing MTT's really doesn't make me happy and that I will be playing a whole lot less of them in the future. I know that a lot of players have come to this same conclusion as me and have quit or started playing cash. Messing around in a super turbo MTT before I go to bed is fine, staying inside all day on Sunday when my friends are at the bars is not. I'm not knocking anyone who plays MTT's for a living as it is a job with a lot of good aspects to it, just saying that as a hobby, it is not really worth it for me anymore.

MTTs are the devil. So fun, and so painful at the same time.

they make my head explode

I hear ya man. My friends and I discuss every day how gay/frustrating MTT's are. At the same time, when you finally ship one it's a great feeling. Quite the love hate relationship.

 

Originally Posted by swd805

ok mr ftops 1k winner.

I'm certainly not complaining about my overall results, i have been very lucky to run this far ahead of my expectation. Even with me being very lucky and having more positive experiences then my play would dictate, there is still too much negative to make it worth it. Overall poker has been positive for me and if I had to do it all over again, I would do the same thing, but now at this point when the games have become more difficult, I feel that in the future I there are more negatives to playing MTT's then positive one's. So basically what I'm saying is my expected RIO is not good enough to make the pain of MTT's worth it. And even if my expected RIO was as high as some of the top players, I'm still not sure it would be worth it because I have another source of income, so anything else that I do that is not work, should be fun and MTT's are not nearly as fun as they used to be.

You want to hear dissapointment? I went out 234th in the 1/4 Million Gtd and made 110 bucks. I beat 29,400 people. I mean..that's like winning the main event...and I made squat. I play so perfect and then matusow blowup :(

 

Originally Posted by CalBandGreat

The fact that there is only 1 person is truly happy out of thousand's of players in a given tournament just makes playing MTT's on a regular basis incredibly frustrating. After Cal's shitty loss to Maryland on Thursday, I was trying to explain to my friends why I don't take Cal's loses hard like I used to and my reason was because of poker. Basically I said that I have encountered so many frustrating and disappointing situation that directly affect my bottom line, that I have become numb to a lot of minor to medium dissapointments in life. This may seem like a good thing on the surface because things don't bother me as much as they used to, but in order to get to this point I had to unnecessarily suffer so much frustration and disappointments.
All jobs have negatives, and the frustrating and disappointing nature of playing MTT's is the main negative of a full time job playing MTT's, this negative is off-set by the freedom, not having a boss and the money. But hobbies are supposed to be fun and are not supposed to have this much negative associated with them. I'm not quitting or anything, just realizing that playing MTT's really doesn't make me happy and that I will be playing a whole lot less of them in the future. I know that a lot of players have come to this same conclusion as me and have quit or started playing cash. Messing around in a super turbo MTT before I go to bed is fine, staying inside all day on Sunday when my friends are at the bars is not. I'm not knocking anyone who plays MTT's for a living as it is a job with a lot of good aspects to it, just saying that as a hobby, it is not really worth it for me anymore.

cal i have never agreed with you more. This is something ive been struggling with as well. Sure ftops was great for me and uboc was awesome too but other than that ive had limited success... and inbetween the good cashes its just an unreal amount of frustration. I 100% agree that because of poker nothing really pisses me off anymore lol... im numb to bad shit that happens in life unless its rly bad obv. Its such a brutal game and when its bad it makes me not wanna even consider doing it for a living. The one thing i do have to say tho is that when its good its better than like 99% of other jobs when they are good. The money comes in so fast and its such a rush almost makes all the losing worth it. MTTs are definately a mental strain though and arent for the weak hearted ppl.

 

Originally Posted by bef99hwk

people like Lil say they run below

this is one of the funniest and saddest things ever

 

Originally Posted by doubledave22

 

Originally Posted by CalBandGreat

The fact that there is only 1 person is truly happy out of thousand's of players in a given tournament just makes playing MTT's on a regular basis incredibly frustrating. After Cal's shitty loss to Maryland on Thursday, I was trying to explain to my friends why I don't take Cal's loses hard like I used to and my reason was because of poker. Basically I said that I have encountered so many frustrating and disappointing situation that directly affect my bottom line, that I have become numb to a lot of minor to medium dissapointments in life. This may seem like a good thing on the surface because things don't bother me as much as they used to, but in order to get to this point I had to unnecessarily suffer so much frustration and disappointments.
All jobs have negatives, and the frustrating and disappointing nature of playing MTT's is the main negative of a full time job playing MTT's, this negative is off-set by the freedom, not having a boss and the money. But hobbies are supposed to be fun and are not supposed to have this much negative associated with them. I'm not quitting or anything, just realizing that playing MTT's really doesn't make me happy and that I will be playing a whole lot less of them in the future. I know that a lot of players have come to this same conclusion as me and have quit or started playing cash. Messing around in a super turbo MTT before I go to bed is fine, staying inside all day on Sunday when my friends are at the bars is not. I'm not knocking anyone who plays MTT's for a living as it is a job with a lot of good aspects to it, just saying that as a hobby, it is not really worth it for me anymore.

cal i have never agreed with you more. This is something ive been struggling with as well. Sure ftops was great for me and uboc was awesome too but other than that ive had limited success... and inbetween the good cashes its just an unreal amount of frustration. I 100% agree that because of poker nothing really pisses me off anymore lol... im numb to bad shit that happens in life unless its rly bad obv. Its such a brutal game and when its bad it makes me not wanna even consider doing it for a living. The one thing i do have to say tho is that when its good its better than like 99% of other jobs when they are good. The money comes in so fast and its such a rush almost makes all the losing worth it. MTTs are definately a mental strain though and arent for the weak hearted ppl.

One reason why I won't give up imo....or I need to go play more live where it's not computer animated/weaker opponents

 

Originally Posted by doubledave22

 

Originally Posted by CalBandGreat

The fact that there is only 1 person is truly happy out of thousand's of players in a given tournament just makes playing MTT's on a regular basis incredibly frustrating. After Cal's shitty loss to Maryland on Thursday, I was trying to explain to my friends why I don't take Cal's loses hard like I used to and my reason was because of poker. Basically I said that I have encountered so many frustrating and disappointing situation that directly affect my bottom line, that I have become numb to a lot of minor to medium dissapointments in life. This may seem like a good thing on the surface because things don't bother me as much as they used to, but in order to get to this point I had to unnecessarily suffer so much frustration and disappointments.
All jobs have negatives, and the frustrating and disappointing nature of playing MTT's is the main negative of a full time job playing MTT's, this negative is off-set by the freedom, not having a boss and the money. But hobbies are supposed to be fun and are not supposed to have this much negative associated with them. I'm not quitting or anything, just realizing that playing MTT's really doesn't make me happy and that I will be playing a whole lot less of them in the future. I know that a lot of players have come to this same conclusion as me and have quit or started playing cash. Messing around in a super turbo MTT before I go to bed is fine, staying inside all day on Sunday when my friends are at the bars is not. I'm not knocking anyone who plays MTT's for a living as it is a job with a lot of good aspects to it, just saying that as a hobby, it is not really worth it for me anymore.

cal i have never agreed with you more. This is something ive been struggling with as well. Sure ftops was great for me and uboc was awesome too but other than that ive had limited success... and inbetween the good cashes its just an unreal amount of frustration. I 100% agree that because of poker nothing really pisses me off anymore lol... im numb to bad shit that happens in life unless its rly bad obv. Its such a brutal game and when its bad it makes me not wanna even consider doing it for a living. The one thing i do have to say tho is that when its good its better than like 99% of other jobs when they are good. The money comes in so fast and its such a rush almost makes all the losing worth it. MTTs are definately a mental strain though and arent for the weak hearted ppl.

One big difference between us is that you continue to get better and I continue to care less and do stupid things. I have been watching you play the other day and you seem to play even better then you did a few months ago. I flat called a min-raise from the small blind yesterday with like 18 big blinds because I simply wasn't paying attention and was watching the NCAA tourney, u were at my table I hope you didn't notice :). The point is you are not letting the bad runs affect your play and I am. You will come through the down streches much easier and quicker because you simply just play your game. I'm confident that you will be able to make a living in poker regardless of how the climate changes, but get that degree, you may not want to do this forever.

Well, I know this drives me nuts as a hobby player. I can only play 4-5 a week, so I've basically given them up, since I can go months without doing anything.

Yet, I think it's just a mindset. If you work are a tax accountant, you know that March/April will be hell month's hour wise for you.

If you are a MTT player, you will play many games without getting deep. Its just something you accept, so I think you just brush it off. If you can't do it, then it isn't for you.

Easier said than done. Heck, the variance on the 45 man events annoys me sometimes, I've only started replaying them again.

hey cal...
your money + me playing all day/dealing with beats = you and me very happy...
how about it?

lol,,jk...
..oh, and i agree with what ur saying- poker players end up having no feelings..=P

this is like one big sad story. But I'm agreeing with everyone. I've been putting in way more volume lately, and with volume comes more hands seen(yays) and more bad beats (poop). It's definitely a struggle in adjusting one's mentality and in trying to stay positive. Granted, with volume comes more deep finishes, and thus can be equally rewarding. Often after a long bad run, I'll feel like escaping poker, and I'll take like 2-3 weeks off. It's tough not to become apathetic towards the game, esp. if you're a high volume player. Playing online poker for a living consumes your whole life and all of your time.... you think about it when you're falling asleep, and in the shower. And when it goes poorly, it seems to consume you. It makes me question innate luck. It makes me question my beliefs.... like... karma or something... maybe I did something bad to someone and this is punishment etc etc. I don't have the answer as to how to increase your desire to play, or how to keep level while dealing with coolers... cause it's all shit we've all ready heard...."keep playing"..."variance"...."we all go on bad runs".....

It's like we're complaining constantly about the same things to the same people and get the same responses every time. We complain to our friends who we feel are better than us or luckier than us... so that maybe they can give us some insight on how to make it all better, even though in the end we'll still attribute our losses mostly to "bad runs". So what's the point?
I don't think any player really has an answer. Those who run better or above expectation will likely never "understand" what others might go through who are running well below. And in the end, all we're all gonna end up doing is either keep playing due to that deep love and lusting towards the game.... or we give up because it's just too much, or is no longer a good fit.

Q.

Is it better to burn out than fade away?

I agree with cal with everything he said except the comment about the friends being at bars on sundays

I honestly think poker has saved my life as far as staying out of trouble. Too many negative things going on in the real world. Me being 21 and from a major city like Dallas, there is no way my ass would not be in serious trouble if it weren't from poker. I'm a smart person and avoid negativity as much as possible, but even then, it's hard to escape some of the trouble I could be getting into.

But yeah, mtt's suck 99% of the time.

this has nothing to do with the thread.... just wondering if u ever play at winstar lockdown, im near fort worth and get too lazy to drive but the play is pretty bad from what ive seen