I think I can... I think I can

MOTIVATION (verb, n., adj.)- Something that is hard to get, keep, and want, but we all eventually want it.

History
Motivation has been hard for me lately to keep. I remember the first time I played poker. I was at a house in Oregon on a lake for vacation my sophomore year and heard that the house I was staying at was owned by a person who played poker as a job. This first blew my mind. How the hell could someone do what others do for their high point of their day... as a job?! I pulled out my BS card. I didn't think this was actually possible. Poker is luck.. EVERYONE knows that! They had party poker installed on their computer so when everyone went to sleep I started playing some play money. I learned that 27 wasn't good but couldn't understand how K5 was in any way a bad hand. I became addicted as I always do since I have that kind of personality and soon reached 12 million in play money starting from 5k. I knew I had something others didn't.

Real Money
I started to play small 5 dollar tournaments with my friends and it gave me such a fantastic rush. I felt red in the cheeks with my heart pounding 100 times a second everytime I got a good hand. My hands start to shake even now as I'm typing this.

One day I decided to play a 30 person 20 dollar tournament at some strangers house. I took first. Again, I felt like this was more than just coincidence.

Party Poker
I love this game. A game I loved doing I could turn into a job. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about this. I asked my parents if I could cash 50 dollars into party poker for 3 months. Those sons of bitches wouldn't let me. My own money. Rediculous.

I started to ask people playing 25nl if they needed any help. I was determined to play poker online by finding a backdoor. A couple people answered my spam. I would get their aims and they would tell me their hands and I would tell them how to play it. Fold, bet .75, call, all in. Pocket pairs just hit sets and AK or JJ and better bet big preflop cuz they WILL call you.

It was genius. I made 1 person 100 and he gave me 50 but I lost that. And another gave me his account and password and let me play on his account. I made him over 300 total and he gave me 100 total. I almost felt like giving up losing 50 dollars 3 different times. A week later 1 guy who I just gave advice to gave me another 50 dollars because he went on a good run. What a guy.. really. From that I went up, reinvested in myself and played higher limits.

Tournaments
Exactly 1 year ago I played a 6 dollar rebuy tournie (I know its tourney) and took first in it for a 5.6k cash prize. I was thrilled. Every moment of every playing poker. Ever rush I have even had. It all came to me in one moment. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about how happy I was. Damn that was sweet. Anyway, I again felt like I had something most others didn't.

Present day
After that I won another tournament with a 44 dollar regular buyin and took first for a 5.4k first place prize. I won 2 out of 5 big tournaments I played in and cashed in 4. Coincidence or skill? I say a shit load of luck but I for sure was better than 99% of the players in those fields. I've probably made around 32k total from starting playing poker and have spent more than 10k.

From 50 dollars that wasn't even mine, I did this. Moral of the story: Don't listen to what your parents tell you to do. Do what you want to do and think is best for you. Don't doubt yourself because they don't know what you know.

Motivation
Going back to the subject of motivation. Since I haven't played that much for a full semester I have really wanted to play poker again. Taking breaks are very good for you but they make you rusty. Try not to gamble at all and you'll soon learn how much you're taking for granted. The main reason that I think I wanted to play poker so much was to show my parents wrong. This negativism by them really helped me out which is so ironic. I actually don't have a high regard for money. I have a high regard for its symbolism... I guess you can say... even tho they still give me a lot of shit for playing poker. :) (I wrote an article about this once)

Prove everyone wrong... do what everyone else believes is luck and enjoy what you do.

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Full tilt: +2200