I can't stress enough how many hours of hard work, studying, bad beats, and hands you play it takes to be a great poker player.  Its not cut out for alot of people.  Alot of people see Poker is a get rich quick skeme, and sometimes it is.  You could hit a big tournament score like Darvin Moon, or a nice sunday tournament like some many of the online players out there.  For the players who have been stable and had the opportunity to make this a living, this could bring your game to another level.  Or at least I hope you take into consideration what I'm trying to preach.

Im really eager in the next couple months to see what Team DE and Diego have in store for the 3 players lucky enough to have these guys in their corner.  I often say that the people we as poker players and gamblers can relate to are other people who have the same profession as us.  ITs like an athlete consulting with another.  The greatest lessons you can get in poker are from other players who have been in your shoes.  Other players who know what it takes to become profitable, but what they can't teach you is how to act off of the felt.  Noones going to hold your hand away from the felt, noones going to cater to you the way people do to Phil Ivey, but that dosn't mean you can't have that dream.  The greatest lessons in poker are often self taught, not by hours at the table, but by hours away from the table reflecting on your poker game. 

Lessons 1: "Hard work only breaks you even."  A great baseball player, coach, and someone I'm lucky enough to call a friend once told me this and I haven't forgotten it.  Mickey Brantley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Brantley was a kid from Catskill NY, a childhood friend of Mike Tyson, and one of the greatest competetors not just in baseball but in life.  He invited me down with my college coach TR (TR played baseball with him at coastal Carolina Uni.) and I was really excited to talk baseball with him.  Once down there I realized he didn't wanna talk about ball, he wanted to talk about life.  He told me about growing up in this shit hole, how he never once! went to school with lunch money.  He could of took the easy road like so many other young kids do, but he was inspired to make himself better.  A better person, a better friend, and last a better athlete.  When he told me "hard work only breaks you even" I told him I understand completely! I got to get in the gym more, get more hours on the ball field!  He said I was an idiot. "Kid you don't think everyone works hard? Everyone don't have the same dream as you?" "Its what you do beyond the diamond that make you the player you are!"  He told me about surrounding myself with good people, surrounding myself with people who dream, people who strive to make themselves better in every aspect in life.  Envy and jealousy are people and parts of life, don't be afraid to cut the people out of your life who bring you down.  But don't drop them out of your mind completely, think about them from time to time to inspire youself. 

Lesson 2: "Finding inspiration" Finding inspiration at the table can sometimes be hard.  Losing pot after pot, the corky kid sitting next to you asking what you had every hand.  The slow rolls, idiot dealers, Aces on the river, where the hell is the waitress with my drink? fuck man sometimes i just want to run away.  After a bad session or two or a week its often tiresome to think I have to go back!  I don't care what you do for a living, you have to find inspiration in other things to go back day after day.  I find inspiration in the easiest ways.  Listening to music, looking at pictures, writing a blog, reading your blogs, making a stupid funny video about all you wacked out Coinflippers.  Writing on facebook, talking with my buddy farley about highschool and how we got arrested in the subway lol.  Whatever it is, it makes me realize no matter how big a bitch life can be at the tables, life really isn't that bad!  I get to wake up in the morning on my own schedule, I have no 9-5 job, I can quit when I want to, and if I don't feel like punching the time clock...I don't.  The tables will always be there, and if I have too much on my mind, I know its going to affect my game.  Find balance between the felt and life.  Once you feel the urge to play poker because you have to, its time to step away for a little bit and find inspiration to sit down at the poker table because you want to.  Sometimes a line in a move, or a line in a song can make you dream once again.

Have dreams and aspirations, find inspiration, and surround yourself with good people.  Your right Erik, "Mickey Mantle dosn't care about me" but he played a game that reminds us as kids, all that was once good in life. 

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today

BSlice