I will have to say that for someone who lost a sweet endorsement deal, watched U.S. sales of his books go in the tank and completely lost their ability to do a high income producing job, I am pretty darn happy! Post black Friday has been pretty sweet for me. All of a sudden I am sleeping better and feeling more freedom than ever before. For years now I have spent countless hours in front of a computer screen and while I am sure when poker comes back I will be spending some more before I hang it up, it feels pretty good to not be online all day. I am getting tanner and steadily losing weight as opposed to getting paler and fatter which is nice! Man, when you sit on your butt playing poker all day, it is sure hard to keep the weight off. I actually have had a better diet as a poker player than when I was 165 pounds (I am about 195 now) and playing golf all day. Hopefully before poker becomes legalized I can get back to to a decent weight through keeping the same diet and getting out on the golf course often.
Yeah, overall things have been great. I went to Las Vegas for the WSOP primarily to play cash games. I went there with a few buddies and we were playing deep stacked (10k buy in) 5/10 and 10/20nl games in Vegas. Unfortunately we weren't the only online pros who decided to do that. Not even close. After playing in Vegas for over 2 weeks and rarely sitting with any bad players, I decided to come home. The games were very beatable, but only relative to the online games I am used to playing. As live games go, the games were pitiful. I decided that my hourly rate probably wasn't super high in those games and since making money is not a huge priority right now, I decided to pack it in and head home. Playing cash games line ups with 7 pros and 2 decent amateurs was not something I was willing to give up my summer for. And to make matters worse, I realized quickly that being away from my family (my wife is pregnant and my daughter is not even 2 yet) was not easy for me. When you call home and hear your daughter crying your name in the background, it tears you up inside. So I decided to head home and enjoy the Portland, OR summer, which is arguably one of the best you can find anywhere in the world.
Having a bunch of time away from the game has also allowed me to reflect on my poker career. In fact, I am kind of looking at my pre black Friday career as a sort of trial run for my (hopefully) post U.S. legalization career. I have done a lot of things well, but have also made my fair share of mistakes. I know one thing for certain that I will NEVER do is be involved in the business side of poker. I hate it! I learned that I just want to play poker. And if for some reason an amazing situation comes along for me to be a part of the business side of poker that I just can't turn down, then I will not take my own poker game seriously. It has to be one or the other because I will never again do both. Trying to do both is in my opinion one surefire way to suck 100% of the fun and perks of being a poker pro.
I have learned many other valuable lessons as well and feel like when poker comes back (and I am incredibly confident that it will within the next 6-36 months), I will know EXACTLY what to do to have a rewarding career as a player. I've had several buddies from the PGA tour tell me that the hardest part about your rookie year on tour is that you are at an incredible disadvantage to the veterans because you don't know what hotels to stay in, what the golf course is like, what restaurants to eat in, airports to fly into etc. In poker I think it is not too dissimilar in the sense that I have made a thousand mistakes in my career and I will not repeat even one of those when poker comes back. I feel I will be at a tremendous advantage when the games return because I think I have as much or more experience in online poker than anyone else and I am looking forward to that day. And not because I am dying to get back to grinding online poker games, but because I know I will have a highly rewarding career when it returns.
Many of you are familiar with my mental game coach, Jared Tendler. Back in 2007 when I was on the verge of my first losing month, I called Jared for help. At the time, Jared was working with golfers on their mental games, but I convinced him to try helping a poker player because there were so many parallels between the two games. We gave it a shot and the rest as you could say, was history. I escaped my first losing month and put together what may be the best run ever in online mid stakes (3/6 to 10/20nl) games winning over $600,000 in a 100 day period after implementing his concepts.
Jared has gone on to help hundreds of professionals all around the world including many of the very best players in the world. It has always been a bit pricey (but definitely worth it as hundreds of poker pros will attest) to work with him directly, but now you can get his philosophies for relatively little cost. Jared self published his first book called "The Mental Game Of Poker," and it is now available to the world. I am not completely done with it and when I am I will write a review, but I am far enough along with it to know it is unquestionably going to have a significant impact on your poker game. Shoot, honestly I didn't even need to open the book to make that statement. I have worked with Jared for nearly four years and know enough about him to know that there was literally a 0% chance his book wouldn't be exceptional. If you would like to pick up a copy you can do so http://www.dustyschmidt.net
I want to say thank you to all of the folks at http://www.pokerstrategy.com. Just 2 weeks ago I started working for them as a video producer. I am very grateful for the opportunity to coach at the largest poker training site in the world and have had a great experience there so far. The videos are getting a tremendous number of views and comments. It is a lot of fun to put your work out to such a large number of people and to be able to interact with people all around the world. I have been getting to member questions and it is a lot of fun. It also helps keep my poker brain working properly.
While I am enjoying my "retirement," it is important to stay sharp so my plan is to take it easy until passes in congress. When a bill passes, I will then be doing everything in my power to be sure that the day we all start playing again that I am at the absolute peak of my abilities at the tables. I wouldn't miss that opportunity for the world. Until then, however, I am going to enjoy the sun. Shoot, I am 30 years old and don't have to go to work. I wake up each morning and think about what would be a fun way to spend the day and then do it. I don't think a human being can ask for a better situation than that.
) let me know in skype