You’re not deep.

You’re not an intellectual.

You’re not an artist.

You’re not a critic.

You’re not a poet.

You just have internet access.

I’m leaving for the airport in one hour. I’ve basically been away from home all summer,  but now it’s time to go back home.

There is so much stuff I’ve missed, and it’s just a flight away.

In my opinion, that´s actually the first question one should ask yourself before even considering going professional. Think about it. Like, really think about it.

I guess some people play for the built in chemical sensation humans get from gambling, others for prestige. Some play for the money, others to prove themselves. The feeling you get after crushing someone fair and square can be quite thrilling, allthough the sinking feeling of getting your ass handed to yourself can be quite devastating.

When I started playing poker, it was all in good fun. I loved the complexity of the game, especially the psychological part. There was no better feeling than getting inside someones head and exploiting it fully. Today, poker is so wrapped into my everyday life I’m having a hard time imagining how my life would be without it. It’s an important part of my self image, and therefore my well being and self esteem is somewhat connected with my poker results. I’ve played poker for six years now, at least four of them professionally. Realizing that I’ve devoted six years of my life to playing cards feels a bit weird, that’s for sure. Some people seem to think poker is all about luck, but when you think about how much effort and time people put into their games – you realize that such a statement is way off.

I’m having trouble figuring out exactly how much time and thought I’ve invested into this, and I can’t help wondering whether it’s been worth it or not. I think it is, but if i one day end up bust I will definitely think otherwise. All the stress that comes with such a high-variance game as poker sometimes tears me apart, and other times make me feel like the king of the world. It’s not the healthiest way of living, with all those ups and downs, but it’s  something every grinder have to deal with.  But still, why do i still play? Here’s a small list I just put together. This is why I play poker.

• Money.
• The flexible lifestyle.
• Being my own boss makes me feel good.
• Being able to work from home. In my underwear.
• It’s the only thing I feel that I’ve become really good at. Why stop now?
• To prove some people wrong.
• The bright lights of Vegas.

Ongame finally got rid of the professional shortstackers with a raised minimum buy in of 35 bb. Great news!

When it comes to me,myself and I, not much is happening over here. We’ve had two nights out and found out that Shanghai has an outstanding nightlife. Great service, trendy settings and awesome DJs who actually play real music. The hotel we are staying at is decent, but not great. They advertised having a gym and wireless high speed internet. Well, the gym doesn’t even exist. And the internet? -It never works. Chinese people…

Shanghai itself is pretty wicked with tons of skyscrapers, clean streets and übercheap taxi. I’m getting more and more accustomed to living here, but there are still some cultural clashes (Try eating with chopsticks drunk, all the weird food, people not knowing a single word in english etc etc). Anyway, we are having a blast and I’m also starting to enjoy not grinding a bit more. At first, I got this awkward feeling that I was a lazy son of a bitch all the time but it’s slowly going away. I mean, one should be able to have a real vacation at least once a year, right?

I also bought myself a new computer that should be waiting for me when I come back. One of the perks of playing professionally is that you can rationalize all the unnecessary stuff you buy as “investments”. I’m a tech-freak, so getting a new computer is comparable with christmas, sex,  room service etc. In other words, awesome as hell.

Ni hao Shanghai!

There’s been some rumors floating aroud concerning ongame’s problem with the shortstackers for the past couple of months. Fortunately, it got confirmed (via twoplustwo) that the minimum buyin is soon to be raised. People are not really sure what soon means, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of monts. Die shortstackers die.

Another great thing is betfair merging with our beloved network. With so many high stakes games going on both networks it could get totally awesome. Apperantely, I’m currently missing some insane action since these new regs joined in. Nobody knows who is who and which guys are good, so right now it seems like everyone is testing each other out to find some kind of hierarchy. Usually it’s kind of transparent which guys won’t play which, and who’s the biggest shark currently online – but at the moment it’s supposed to be some constant games running as high as $50-$100. Great job of me timing in my first pokerfree vacation in years these weeks… :-S

Oh well, I guess I can’t complain in any way. Beijing is amazing with all the culture and friendly people. I’ve never seen so many people smile in my entire life. The city is a bit crowded but that’s something you easily adapt to. We’ve mainly been sightseeing all days and so far we’ve been able to check out the Zoo, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and the Emperors Summer Palace. All of them were amazing, but I have to say I liked The Summer Palace the most. Even though I’m “only” 22, I could say I’ve done my fair share of traveling thanks to playing poker full time and having a somewhat of a flexible lifestyle. Still, nothing I’ve seen beats the Summer Palace when it comes to the scenery. Beautiful isn’t remotely enough to describe it. The chinese really knew how to build stuff -that’s for sure.

Oh! I almost forgot. Bwin and PartGaming just announced a merge aswell. It seems to be unclear what will happen with the networks when it’s all done, but we might see a big merge there aswell. Like, big big. Any thoughts or rumors on that? I’ve only been reading the threads on twoplustwo, so i can’t really say I’m that informed on what’s really going on.

Take care,

WalmartBrat

Just woke up in Beijing. I’m really tired since I got karatekid behind me on the flight over. I spoke with his parents several times, but somehow they couldn’t keep their kid from kicking the back of my chair several hours straight. Having a screaming and kicking kid behind you in the airplane definitely qualifies for my top10 most annoying things ever.

Well, at least we got here safe and sound. The hotel is decent, but it’s nowhere near Vegas. This is one of those trips we are doing backpacking-style, and I absolutely love it. July was my worst month of poker ever, so I guess the timing of this trip couldn’t be better either. Vacation for the win.

We are going to Beijing Zoo and the “Silk Market” today. I´ll post my thoughts on that tonight.

Time for some $2 chinese breakfeast. Laters!