Chasing pipedreams, souls getting crushed and gravity.

Joey Knish from Rounders : Stones? you little punk, I'm not playing for the thrill of ****ing victory here, I owe rent, alimony, child support, I play for money, my kids eat, I got stones enough not to chase card actions of ****ing pipe dreams of winning the world series on ESPN.


I have noticed a trend of thought among friends.. people of my age in general who opened their eyes on MTV, ESPN, media, movies..etc in the words of Tyler Durden; They believe to one day be movie gods, rock stars... I'll add Poker millionairs. Everybody wants to live the Dan Bilzerian life style. Chase Pipe dreams of winning a poker bracelet and scoring a 10+ million in a poker tournaments. How often does gravity pull them back to the ground? How often does someone really making a decent life from 50NL for example gets bored and cocky and jumps into a much bigger buy in and lose all his bankroll in the thought of making 3.000 or 5.000 a month instead of 500 or a 1.000?
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
Rounders sets the example of Joey Knish, unlike Mike who is ''the hero'' of the film. Joey doesn't want any of what Mike wants. He found a stake he can beat and be profitable from and stuck to it, no ego involved, doesn't care about being famous or vainly rich.
While Mike has a dream of sitting alongside poker legends and winning WSOP main event, a dream of becoming rich and he's always chasing, chasing. First couple of scenes he risked 3 stakes of high society to should I say..burn the process, go on a short cut.
Often, when losing a couple of buy ins, people go to the highest buy in and play hope and despair instead of Poker and the result is: Bankroll gone, I've been guilty of it too and I hope that I've learned from it. Everyone wants to get rich and quickly. There is a lot of ego involved. Joey Knish is the real hero of Rounders, he gets the essence of poker. Someone like Mike who would put his whole bankroll on the line in one game is going to be broke over and over...
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
If you can make a decent living out of a certain limit/stake. Stick to that. Be the best you can be at that and continue what you do. Nothing comes quickly, you gotta be patient, trust the process and Dont chase, don't have pipe dreams. BE LIKE JOEY KNISH.

its not a choice of one way or another like you make out. you dont have to choose between grinding the same stakes and making a basic living from the game for the rest of your life or taking a shot at the higher stakes risking everything or broke.

in rounders it was set at a time before internet poker where games were hard to find and you couldnt just load up the internet and fire up whatever stakes you want.

you make out about someone playing 50NL and suddenly making a jump to much higher stakes which you do not define, but if your a consistent strong winner at 50NL for example you dont then have to choose between 50Nl forever or taking a shot at 500NL or 1000NL or higher etc.

instead you take gradual steps okay you can consistently crush 50NL in your example then you build up your bankroll and eventually you try 100NL you may succeed or run bad if you succeed you continue and hopefully eventually 100NL becomes your limit you crush and then one day you try 200NL and continue etc and eventually as you improve one day you might truly find yourself at 100,000NL and living the rock star live so to speak but it will likely be a long grind before that. maybe you dont succeed at 100NL due to bad luck or been outplayed and you need to go back to 50NL and recoup your loses and build up again and take your shot again improving and adapting, then maybe you need to go through the same again when you hold your own and eventually you fight for 200NL and finally get to that standard.

or if in tournaments maybe you start playing $5 tournies and winning consistently and work your way up to $10 and then $20 and eventually one day you find yourself playing $10000 buy ins.

poker is consistently 2 steps forward and one step back. The vast vast vast majority of players will never get good enough to be a regular winner at $5000 NL or $10000 buyin tournaments but many of those who try and work their way up could still find a very nice comfortable income if they get somewhere between.

I guess you want to avoid been the reg who constitantly yoyos up and down stakes and never cashes out and is basically only winning money to hand it to others at the higher stakes you need to cash out along the way and make sure your still always grinding a profit. but nothing wrong in taking shots at higher stakes just do it sensibly, doesnt have to be a choice between grinding 50NL forever or risking it all online for glory or busto their is a balanced middle ground between these two extremes.