Thanksgiving was yesterday, and I was thinking of all the things I am thankful for when I figured it would be a good idea to make a blog post.

Everyone in the poker community is very, very lucky. There are a few types of players, but everyone should be very thankful:

1) Bigtime winning players - They take advantage of the opportunity to make a ton of money
2) MSNL/SSNL grinders - These guys also make tons of money, especially compared to the real world averages.
3) Breakeven players/microstakes grinders/losing players - If they are reading this, or know about communities such as 2p2, they know there is an opportunity to significantly improve their ability to play poker and win. Most of this group thinks they aren't lucky, but having the opportunity to make a ton of money, and simply needing to put in a lot of hours constitutes a very lucky situation.


Poker has changed the lives of so many people who have put lots of effort into the game. It provides the opportunity to change lives for the rest of us. Of course, there are obstacles along the way. One of biggest pitfalls I would like to talk about is spewing away money, for people who have it, or don't. One of the dumbest things I always read on 2p2 etc is the posts about people being "ballers" and throwing away money. That's dumb, but it's more dumb when you are doing it at an online poker table, in the form of tilt or not caring about the money.

If you are playing $5/$10, and you do something dumb that you know you shouldn't (tilt, really bad call, etc) you just gave away one thousand dollars. Stop and think about that for a second. You just incinerated one thousand dollars. That is a ton of money, and it really is inexcusable to lose that amount over something that is in your control.

Think about all the people that would kill for $1,000. Now think about how you threw it away over your computer. From this example, it becomes obvious that:

1) Poker players are lucky (they are in this situation in the first place
2) We need to regain a respect for the money we play with.

This weekend, spend some time to reflect on your values, and what is really important to you. My life is very hectic, and one of the most effective exercises I have done was evaluate the aspects of my life, and eliminate the junk and inefficiencies. I suggest you do the same, it the results have been very effective.

Have a fun and safe weekend,

Greg