I recently put a thread out on my career in poker
I love the game & competing so much!

I’ve learned so many awesome life lessons from this great game!!

This thread is about my biggest winning day ever, $72,240

And the lessons it taught me.

Buckle up

I dropped out of college at 20 to play professional poker
(much to my parents dismay :)

By 23 I had won 700k playing 24 tables at a time of mid-stakes No Limit Texas Holdem!

Although I partied extremely hard during this time,
I studied & grinded even harder!

Poker was life!!

I ran poker like a business.
Excel spread sheets to track daily wins/losses.

I studied software of hands played & how profitable each hand was from each position.

I studied opponents in my game when I wasn’t playing to pick off tendencies so that I could gain an edge on them.

I was very serious about poker.

My attitude was always I may not be the smartest guy in the world,
but I’ll outwork you!!

I grew up playing sports.
I was the annoying guard picking you up full court & jawing in your ear all game!

I brought this same intensity to poker!!

I created rivalries in my head about opponents I had never met.
I hated these guys & wanted to win more than anything!!

It fueled me to:

study more
wake up earlier
log more hours honing my craft
always work on my mental game

And then it happened....

Each Sunday there was a tournament on poker stars called the Sunday million.
It was a $215 tournament with 8,000 plus players in it.

Tournaments were never my thing,
but this Sunday I decided to play it while playing my usual 20 cash games.

I RAN HOT!!

The third hand I tripled up flopping a set in a 3bet pot vs two over-pairs!
(If you don’t play poker, I was hitting everything & walking on water!)

I was in 1st with 100 or so left & it was $202,000 for first!!

I continued to play ok & run great with 3 left I was in 1st!

They offered me a deal take 160k & the tourney would be over
It was:
-72k for 3rd
-125k for 2nd
-202k for 1st

I was an ego maniac back then & thought no way I’m the best I’ll win!!

I had over half the chips in play, but after I declined that deal I’m not sure I won another pot.

I busted out in 3rd place collecting 72k

This should’ve been awesome & a huge extra blessing.

It ended up being the absolute worst thing that could’ve happened to me.

The next day I messaged buddies let’s go party, after the biggest score I wanted to celebrate.

The day after I was hungover & didn’t feel like playing or studying...
no harm right— just one day.

The next several I wasn’t in the mood either, after playing for such a large amount of money in that tournament, the cash games buy in of 500-1000 didn’t seem like much.

I continued to slack off & wasn’t sticking to the routine & discipline that had brought me results.
I wasn’t adhering to my own standards or rules anymore.

It was February & I was up 100k for the year, I’ll turn it back on later I thought.

The next few weeks I barely played.

To clear my head I decided to book a 3 week trip to Italy with my GF at the time.
Normally travel was for poker & fun, but this trip I didn’t play or study once.

When I returned from that trip the weather was getting nice.

I had recently picked up golf, so I played daily.

Many months had gone by & I was beginning to notice I wasn’t the best or most feared in my games now.

One tough opponent called me
“the unsinkable ship” before & good players didn’t want to play me which allowed me to play with weaker players & win more!!

Now, that wasn’t so.

New guys I’d never seen were playing new strategies I couldn’t solve.

The thing about poker is if you are as good as you were 6 months ago you suck!

To stay winning you must keep improving!

I didn’t.
I made excuses.
I was getting unlucky, It would click again soon.

Ego :(

I was in denial until my best buddy Steve was man enough to tell me a few of the best regulars WANTED me in the game, they knew they had significant edges over me now.

This was humbling.
I had let success & ego go to my head.
I had no choice from here but to drop stakes.

I started over again.
I went from playing games where I bought in for $1000 at a time to games I was buying in for $200 at a time.

I wasn’t even the best at those now.

I’m proud & happy to say within 5-6 months I was THE winningest player at $200NL.

I got my discipline back & created routines & systems that kept me improving.

I had a ton of success as a pro after that but mostly at lower stakes online & some higher live.

It was a HUGE lesson for me & one I’ve taken into other areas of life.

Takeaways:
You are either getting 1% better or 1% worse every day! There’s no neutral in poker or life!
If what you did yesterday looks big, you haven’t done enough today!
In poker & life, you can’t go on auto pilot! You must wake up on mission to win every single day!

I believe these lessons apply to
-fitness
-relationships & marriage
-finances
-job
-faith

Anything you want to WIN at you must
1) remove ego
2) pay the price each day to get better, or you will get worse by default.
3) always look & move forward!

It’s the reason at 37 I’m in by far the best spot ever in my life.

highest net worth
Promoted 2x at work
Best shape of my life
Faith is bold & on fire
Marriage is full of passion & unity

I won’t relax.
I won’t let up 1 minute.
Ill be grateful, but won’t celebrate.

I pray out loud daily,
LESS of me MORE of you Lord,
Remove my ego.

I write my wife love letters & date her more fiercely than ever!

I work my 9-5 then grind at night when my family goes to bed from 830-1030.

I wake before them to
-train
-journal
-pray

Each morning!

I’ve hired the best coach in the world @ZachHomol to push me & seek out ways to get better in my faith, marriage & fitness.

I recently felt myself starting to lose a bit of an edge,
I immediately started
-cold showers
-cold swims
-breath work in the cold because I hate the cold!

So if you taste some success,
Don’t let your ego tell you to let off the gas!

If your marriage is in a good spot, always ask yourself how you can improve!

If your in good shape keep looking for ways to get stronger!

If you crush poker, meh, slack off so I can win more :)