Poker Articles

I have written a few articles for Pocketfives.com before, but I have never written an article more important than this one.

Since my last article, a lot of things have happened to me in the poker world. I have had some of the most amazing months of my life and have met some members of this community that I really wanted to meet. The last month of my life, however, has really made me analyze the life I've been living.

My New Years Resolution was to not only succeed in poker, but also to succeed with my life. I am two semesters from graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a major in Financial Management Services and a minor in Business Management, so school has become a large focus for me. I also wanted to put more effort into my relationships with friends and family.

The New Year started off great; I attended the PCA event in Nassau, Bahamas. I had not qualified for the event prior to the trip, but I was able to win the third satellite I played to receive my seat into the event. It seemed that I was destined to be in this tournament, and my New Years Resolution was well on the way.

It took about 5 levels and some awful play for me to exit this event before Day 1 had even concluded. I was very upset with this result, but I was in the Bahamas and staying at one of the most beautiful resorts in the world, so I figured I could deal with it. I spent the rest of my trip playing the credit card game (non-successfully, I might add), laying on the beach, and hanging out with some of the nicest guys in the poker community.

When I returned home, my life took a very odd turn, and it really made me rethink the lifestyle I was living.

First off, I was running worse than I had ever run in my life. I believe I came close to losing 42 straight buyins in a row. During this span, I became a pretty angry guy. I wasn’t excited about going out and was not enjoying my one of my last semesters of college. Then I received a phone call that I will never forget.

I was informed that someone extremely close to me at home was in the hospital and not doing well. I wanted nothing more than to head home and take care of her.  However, I was told to finish up my school work for the week and come back when I was done. The entire week seemed like a nightmare; I had 4 tests and could not concentrate on anything but the fact that the person I cared most about in the entire world was at home and in the hospital. I finally was done with my test and rushed home for the weekend.

I spent the majority of that weekend at the hospital, just sitting and waiting. For the first time in my life, I was completely helpless, and all I could do was sit next to her, holding her hand and letting her know that I was there for her if she needed me. As the weekend progressed, she became more and more responsive, and by the time I left, she was ready to get out of Intensive Care. This was some of the best news I had received in my life.

On my way back to college, I am always faced with a 2 hour drive, so I had a lot of alone time to analyze what had been going on in my life. I realized that for the past two years, poker had really blinded me to real life. Winning money is absolutely amazing, and the trips have been some of the most amazing times of my life.  Meeting people from all over has taught me a lot of things about myself, but when I received that dreaded phone call, I realized that no matter what I do, FAMILY and FRIENDS outweigh anything that is going on in my life.

In conclusion, I'm not going to tell anyone that poker should not be important to them, but at the same time, try to remember that it isn’t everything in the world. Losing to a few one-outers may hurt, but there are much bigger things you can lose.  Keeping that in perspective is something that will improve your performance at the tables, and more importantly, you'll have a much more clear picture of what's really important in your life.