To be successful, you have to live a balanced life. All of those players who just sit in front of their computers all day long, seven days a week, will simply burn out and not really enjoy what life is all about. To succeed in today’s poker world, you must be disciplined enough to separate your social life form your poker life.

Matthew Hilger – 07/2009 – in CardPlayer

 

Poker is closest to the Western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents, and where — at least in the short run — the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.

John Lukacs – 1963 – in Poker and the American Character

 

Deep down inside, poker is what I do, and it’s what I live for, so if I knew I wouldn’t be able to win another poker tournament again, I would quit and my life would have no meaning anymore.

Annette Obrestad – 11/2009 – In PokerNews

 

Does poker rule your life? Or does it exist in the context of a conscious, well-balanced, self-aware existence? It may surprise you to learn that the less obsessive you are about poker, the better your game will be. Why? Because if poker is all you have going on in your life — if getting that money is the only thing that matters to you — you’ll be so hooked on outcome, and so dependent on a positive outcome, that the pressure of performance will cripple you.

John Vorhaus – 07/2009 – in CardPlayer