I said I would a post about elite for me, going for it, quitting and some stuff in between etc etc. We will be using some pictures to help explain and to hopefully make this post lest depressing and more fun!
So to be honest and can't even really remember what sparked me to go for elite this year. If anyone can remember what got me going for the first time or what I said I'd like to know
haha. I guess after reading the posts on 2+2 and stuff, seeing all the rewards and thinking "hey I can do this". I remember being very excited about poker, elite and just everything in general especially since I had just got married to my awesome wife Brigitte! Love you!, and getting back from LA.
The year was going to be great!
So back from a wedding and a trip to LA, I was excited and ready to get rich.
I remember the first few weeks were going quite smooth in my mind. Whether I was winning or losing at the time didn't matter yet, as I was going to make so much in bonuses remember? I soon realized how hard it was going to be to win and things never really got better after that. A month or so in, I was getting tired, bored with it, and just missing having social life. I mean for those who know me, for me to miss a social life
that's huge considering I really don't care to be around people that much and would in most cases rather keep to myself. But I started to miss going golfing, movies, bar etc etc. I mean I could have still done this, but after taking
basically a month off in
January I was already quite a bit behind.
Fast forward to Vegas, as I don't really remember
alot of the year anyway. After playing over 1.5 million hands of poker and basically playing everyday things start to blend together. I remember thinking the 100,000
VPP's I was getting to be there, I can take as much time off as I want. Well, I took to much time off and was starting to really hate playing poker. The month of July would be the worst of my poker career not all my money as selling action etc etc, but I would still lose in the region of $20,000.
But despite losing
alot of money on the trip I still had a blast. I mean it was
Vegas with my friends. Met lots of people, got to eat at the best
restaurants go to awesome bars and amazing shows. I mean how can one complain.
Getting back is when things started to go bad or worse I should say. I was behind before, and now I was really falling of pace.
I wouldn't say I was exactly depressed or getting depressed but I was
definitely not feeling like I once did about elite. I now hated it. I went to bed tired, I woke up more tired, it became so
repetitive and annoying that I just no longer wanted to do it anymore. I was at about 620,000 points but
wasn't ready to quit yet. I just had to re-energize myself. So I came up with a new plan. I would make 3490 points a day with about 10 days off for the rest of the year. This was at about the start of September but soon after having a few horrible days that plan started to look pretty bad as well.
Sorry this is becoming a very
emo post
haha. It's not meant to be all depressing and poor me blah blah. This was how I was feeling and I was starting to really hate my life. I remember laying on the couch watching a 1hr show and at every commercial I
would hit the guide just to see how much more time I had to relax.
So after a few more days off and on playing here and there. I had tried to come up with one last plan to see If I could continue. But that never worked out so here I am. Done with elite, and back to the normal grind.
So overall yes I failed as the goal was to make it and I didn't. But thinking back I'm pretty happy with myself, I stuck with it through some very rough patches and for a person who played like 5 hrs a week the previous year, It was a big leap. There are days here still that I actually miss it as crazy as that sounds. The first couple days after quitting I actually missed playing that much, and was very bored. I had way to much free time and really didn't know what to do. I had thought maybe I come up with one last plan to make it, I felt I had come to far to quit. But then thought back, I've done these before, made new plans over and over, It's time to quit. I mean I still cleared
probably $70,000-$90,000 in bonuses I'm not really sure. But I got everything but the $8000 milestone and the packages, so not a total fail. I learned quite a bit this year, as far as
dedication and hard work go for this, so going forward I def feel good about myself with poker. I must really love this game after all that time and things going so bad to want to play and just continue to learn once I had quit. That's the great thing, can always get better, learn more and different games and just continue to do different things with poker.
I got to lay on the couch all day
Saturday and
Sunday watching College and NFL football and to me
that's one of the things I enjoy the most. Man I love football. I mean one of my friends said to me, "
that's the whole perk of this profession, is to make your own hrs". I
definitely had lost that.
Would I ever try again? Yes.
PokerStars has sent out applications to high volume players, to become online
PokerStars Pros. They are selecting 30 people to do this and represent them. Were not suppose to discuss the terms of the deal so I won't. But if I'm selected I will def start on Jan 1st so I don't get behind. If I'm not selected then no, I won't try again.
So now I think I will continue to play
alot. I figure if I can play that many hrs each day while things are going bad I should be able to turn that into a ton of money. If I play the same amount of hrs but focus on 4-6 tables, should be able to get:
RICH!!!!!So I guess that's it as far as elite goes. I know I skipped
alot of time but this quick recap
hasn't been so quick. So sorry for the long post and most likely sounding depressing post. It wasn't meant to be and I def feel good about everything now. Will go home and spend some time with the family for thanksgiving, continue to hit the gym hard. I'm up to 205lbs from original 182 and go pretty much everyday. I also think I will go to Regina in November for the
CPT, and ship a tourney.
Thanks for everyone who
followed the elite chase and for all the support I had gotten along the way. I really
appreciate it. Back to the normal grind now.
Gl all...and thanks again!
PS.... GO COWBOYS!!.....My new team
