Poker is often an ‘all consuming’ project. We forget to eat. We forget to drink. We forget to take care of basic hygiene for 20+ hours at a time….it’s a rather unhealthy lifestyle.
You have to take breaks from the game, and make yourself do something else. For those of us that are winning players it often feels as though we are ‘losing money’ everytime we aren’t playing. And in some sense, we are…there is an opportunity cost related to not playing poker over a given time. If you make 10bb/100 hands and you miss 2000 hands that day, well you just cost yourself 200bb in equity.
In my opinion, there is a more important perspective: the opportunity cost of life. I meet a lot of young, well off kids, who have done extremely well playing online poker – but at what cost? And what cost moving forward? Some have spent their entire college time, chained to their computer to grind out MTTs or SNGs or whatever…I think that’s sad. Go outside, meet some girls, drink a few beers, go snowboarding, paint a picture, go on a hike – whatever it is that you like doing, do it. Time is short, and you won’t be young forever. If you are good enough to make money online, you will always be able to make a little money doing something, somewhere along the line. So don’t let the money chase be your downfall.