Good Blog- Paul Wasicka

[DanielNegreanu 141]

http://www.pokerroad.com/_/authorpage.php?...mp;type=proBlog Good read. I read it and understodd exactly what he struggles with and it's common among many young players who have early success and have to eventually ask the question: what next? Enjoy.

[showstopper24 0]

I'm reminded of Shannon Shorr. He was a 20 year old college student who took time off to play in the Aussie Millions. He made the final table and had some more success later that year so he was in great shape. Then he continued to play well but couldn't win no matter how well he played. He eventually asked "what should I do?" and he went back to college.

[NickZepp 0]

Gotta respect Paul for his honesty. Great blog.

[Kaveros 0]

Paul is a terrific person. I emailed him, inviting him for a drink at the Millions in Melbourne.He accepted, and I found him to be a blast to hang around with. He will go very far in the poker world. He hasalready shown incredible talent, both on the table, and the way he manages his funds off the table, and himself as a person.He can and will get through these issues that we all go through as pro's.

[nutzbuster 7]

Good read, but he actually sounds sad/unfulfilled/unhappy to me.Depression? Appreciate the honesty though. It ain't all roses and honey, is it.

[stevel999 0]

A very open and honest blog. As someone who also fits into Paul's first category, I agree that he sounds very depressed to me.

[MrJohn 0]

PW most definitely sounds unhappy or he's going through some emotional deep stuff. Definitely shows that money doesnt buy happiness - like how he says he buys most materials to satisfy his life only to still not be fully and truly happy and having the materials sit there.

[Balloon guy 158]

Isn't this the reason Barry Greinstein began giving his tourny winnings to charity?

[Johan 0]

Isn't this the reason Barry Greinstein began giving his tourny winnings to charity?

Yeah, I think he felt he had more money than he needed, so he gave some to people who work with kids. 1000 people or something like that, and they all sent him cards to thank him and explained what they did with the money and how happy it made the kids. He said it was the best feeling he could possibly imagine.

[Southern Buddhist 1]

That's definitely not clinical depression. I've had too much personal experience with that to believe it is. He's just being honest and introspective.I've generally been the first type of person, too -- the one to whom things come easily (intellectual things, that is). But I've become the third person (things come easy, plus I'm motivated), because I've realized that if I'm not motivated, I'm wasting the gifts that I've been given. I learned this in college, from a great professor. He always reminded his students that we were choosing the shape of our own minds. Everything I chose to learn, chose to read, chose to watch on TV, chose to invest my time in, was a choice that shaped my mind. And I would get exactly the mind I chose, so if I chose sitcoms over documentaries, I'd have a mind that worked at the level of a sitcom. He taught me to question my own choices and to consciously choose only those things that most challenged me and took me beyond my comfort zone. I am eternally grateful that he was my professor, because that was a great lesson to learn for life.As someone who's spent most of my career in the non-profit field, giving money to charity is a great way to feel good about life. There's nothing like knowing that you're making a difference and making lives better.

[albasuna 0]

Thanks for the heads up, great topic and great blog. I need to realize that happiness is not always handed to me.

[potatoman 0]

"Lately I’ve been playing to make money. Obviously I wouldn’t play if I didn’t still enjoy the game, but the primary focus of each tournament and each cash game has been to make as much money as possible. This mentality is not healthy for a few reasons."If I've taught myself anything over the last couple of years it's this. Of course, learning this lesson and then following through are two different things and I still struggle with it sometimes.If you play to own fools or concentrate on making the best plays, the money will show up all on it's own. But if you get too much into the mindset of following your winrate, making final tables, building your bankroll as fast as possible, etc, it can lead to a lot of problems.First, if I'm concentrating on just making money, I get too aggressive/loose in situations that don't require it. Why focus on making big bluffs or tough calls when all I have to do is value bet my made hands all night and pick up easy pots. I can outplay my opponents in ways that don't require so much risk on my part. I can still make the occasional big bluff/ tough call, but when I'm focused solely on money, I find I do too much of this.Secondly, when I put too much value on making money, I get very upset when things don't go my way. Maybe I'm still playing my A game, but if it's not producing significant results after 3 hours/days/weeks, I will tilt in a number of ways - get mad, depressed, or start changing my game in ways that are not ideal for me in the long run (well maybe if I start opening pots for 8X, people will stop calling me with Q9s and hit str8 flushes on me...) If my game has lead to so much past success, I have to question whether it's truly failing me, or if it's just a spot of bad luck. Usually it's a combination of bad luck and a couple of bad habits that have crept into my game without my notice.However, if my goal every session is just to play great poker, I will only get upset when I make a mistake, not when I get sucked out on or run my kings into aces. And, since I'm usually in a good frame of mind going into a session like this, I can also be honest with myself when I do make a bad plays, and quickly make the proper correction.If I'm in a money-making frame of mind, I'll be too focused on results to make any significant improvements to my game or plug any recently developed leaks. I'll just curse when I get unlucky.If you focus on your play, and your opponents play, you can increase your edge over your opponents and feel great after every session -win or loss.I liked PW from the moment I saw him at the final table of the ME (pretty easy to like at a table with Jamie Gold). It's great to see he's not just a nice guy who got lucky, but someone who's serious about taking an honest look at himself and working hard to improve. A great read.

[Tyler Tesla 0]

Honestly, I seem to find that obsessively controlled but passive personality temperaments are usually the kind that get depressed. Perhaps their passive personalities make it easier for them to slip suddenly into depression when they accomplish their goals, because all of a sudden they don't know what to do with their lives, while a more active funloving & aggressive type of person wouldn't sit around and ponder about life all day, and just go ahead and live it. Aggressive types also tend to build on their success instead of losing motivation when they gain a semblance of success because they realize that once you've attained success the only thing left is to gain more. I think people put too much emphasis on being perfectly happy all the time, or thinking that other people are happy all the time. Part of what got me through some rough times last year (I just had eye surgery - a keratoplasty, and I'm about to have the next eye done, I also had a septoplasty, tonsillectomy, & uvullectomy to correct breathing problems) was that I realized that yeah times were rough, but there's kids out there in the world that don't even have a bite to fukkin eat, there's people being slaughtered in the world everyday, & there's people that have my eye problems that can't even afford the surgery. I was one of the lucky ones despite all the pain, and so what if I had to go through all of that, big deal. I used to be that obsessive controlling passive type, but when things went bad years ago, I realized that you only have one life to live, so just go ahead and live it aggressively & boldly. Who cares if people think you're nice or not.I guess that's the problem that Wasicka's having is that he can't figure out how to do that, to be naturally aggressive & motivated. Daniel Negreanu probably benefited from never winning a WSOP main event (or placing second like Paul), where your life is ENTIRELY changed by one win. Even when he won the 200000 dollars for his first bracelet he went broke quickly. He went broke a number of times, so he probably learned to appreciate the good times better than most. Probably why he's such a fun guy. Anyway gaining motivation is a personal thing, so maybe doing some thinking would do him some good. Maybe he should do some steroids . If you can be motivated to become a human hulk on the juice, then maybe it will help you stay motivated through a measly week long poker tournament . Hey Paul, I hear cocaine's a hell of a drug (Just kidding ).