At the beginning of the month, I had decided to take an indefinite break from poker. I feel like there are a lot of reasons why I came to this decision. Ultimately, I realized that whether I was running well or poorly effected my mood to a significant degree. For example, if I were to play a 2 hour session in the morning and lose $1,500, I would be in a bitter and unhappy mood. The opposite is true as well.
I understand that most people have jobs that are mentally bothering while "off the clock." From a poker player's point of view, there is a saying that you should try to "take the emotion out of the game and not be results oriented." My argument is that it's only natural to feel a certain way in any given situation and to mentally block it out is impossible.
If I do decide to quit completely (which is unlikely), I would look at these past 4 months as a success, having won 30k in that time. Ideally, coming back to a clean slate and moving down in stakes a month from now will help immensely.
Never in my life have I had more free time on my hands. I have a few ideas as to what I can do with it. First and foremost, I'd like to get in shape and get some use out of my YMCA membership. The thought of having a personal trainer crossed my mind, but I'm way too stubborn to have some gym rat yelling at me to "GO HARDER" (something I witnessed today), although it would definately hurry along the process of losing weight. Putting together a healthy diet is difficult for me, but stringing together an efficient list of gym tasks is impossible. I have been active in the Health and Fitness sub forum on twoplustwo but it only helps so much. I could mimic someone's routine, but it obviously won't fit my needs perfectly.
Ideas are constantly flowing through my head for a short story of the life of a typical poker player, elaborating on social experiences and glorifying actual events that I took part in. As I began to put the pen to paper, I discovered "Broke: A Poker Novel." Brandon Adams, a Harvard professor and pro poker player whom I have played with a couple times, wrote a fictional story on the life of a poker player. It hurt my confidence at first, but my ideas are far different than the ones that he portrays in his book.
Studying a more robotic form of poker, where a correct decision is usually clear and not dependant on information gained in previous matches. At Heads Up Limit Holdem, the player pool is very small and it is necessary to make certain plays specific to a certain player's tendencies. When playing Sit-n-gos, it is a lot easier to put in a ton more volume and play on auto pilot. I plan to do this, but wouldn't be suprised if I ditch the idea.
Wish me luck.
