Matt Stout's Separate Lives

I'm going to interrupt my WSOP Main Event story because there's just no need for me to write about something that sucks that much right now. I'd rather focus on the positive at moment...after just a couple more lines...

As I write this, I'm down to one table after another brutal Sunday session. I lasted a grand total of eight hands COMBINED in two of the biggest tournaments of the day: the Warm Up and the $750k guaranteed.

This was partially due to something that was such a statistical anomaly that I have to share it. I busted out of three different tournaments by running into quads, twice when I had boats...all on paired boards, not ones with open sets.

To be fair, I also flopped quads once during the session. And a note to all of the people who think juice cards all online poker is rigged for action: I've never seen quads this many times in a session (25-35 tournaments), let alone hold or be up against them that many times!

But despite being on another brutal, six-figure downswing, I've managed to remain positive and still be pretty happy overall. It's probably partially due to my move to Las Vegas, which I'm very happy about so far.
Another thing that has really helped is my conscious efforts to keep my poker and my *real* life separate. Now, this is an easy thing for most people to do...but at some point after I learned how to play hold'em, I became so engrossed in the game that I did almost nothing but grind for a couple of years.

Although this helped me cut my teeth, it was often not healthy...physically or mentally.
I lost touch with friends and some family for a while, lost track of current events and politics (partially due to the Bush Reich making me want to pull my hair out), and wasn't even watching my favorite sports team in the world, the New York Rangers.
Over the past couple of years, I've gotten back to living a relatively normal life, for a poker player.
Although I've spent most of my time living in casino towns since I was of age, I haven't played any table games at all since I turned 21 and started playing poker for a living. That's not to say I wasn't playing blackjack at the Taj when I was 19, but that's another story...

A friend was asking me about a hand right after I had just finished a particularly brutal online session on Tuesday, and I replied something to the effect of "Pleasssse don't ask me about poker right now. I'm done for the night, and trying to get back to my other life so that I won't feel like crap."

In response, he asked me to teach him how to do that. I thought he was being sarcastic, but then he said he was dead serious. It made me think of how many poker players must get stuck in the same grind and mentality that I was once in.

It's a bit of a stretch to call it a separate life, but I guess that's a good way to describe it in a sense. Many pro poker players seem almost manic-depressive based on their short-term results.
This is no way to live, especially when you play tournament poker for a living. You will be losing in the short run a vast majority of time when you play tournament poker!

I spend a lot of time going out with my girlfriend Aimee (yes, AllInAt420sGirl/AllIn420Girl is really my girlfriend. She must get that question every session she plays). We go to the movies, shows, tons of restaurants...all the normal stuff. I'm also getting back into some of my old interests, the next of which is hockey.

I played very seriously in high school and college, but basically stopped when I started grinding so much.
I recently checked out the rink that's here in Vegas, and am going to start playing some pickup games and eventually get back into leagues. I really can't wait, especially since it's the only way that I can really stick with an exercise regimen.

I've also recently begun to pursue some new hobbies, which are shooting and boating/tubing. Much thanks to Paul Wasicka for being the one to finally dragging me out to do both of these things, and training my newb arse at both.
I hadn't shot a gun since I was 8 years old and my Dad helped me hold a shotgun while we shot cans at my Dad's friend's campsite atop the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY. We went to a local firing range in Vegas and shot 9mm and .45 handguns, then decided to try out "Little Dragon."

"Little Dragon" is a FULLY automatic HANDGUN that fires off 25 rounds in under two seconds. The kick makes it very difficult to keep it under control, though. I still managed to hit the target with at least 13 of the rounds, and actually performed quite well overall despite marked cards lenses being such a rookie.

We also went down to Lake Mead with a group of people, which is 40 minutes from Vegas. It's the artificial lake that's held in by the Hoover Dam. We rented a speedboat and a "party boat." We just go out there and have a party on one boat, and use the speedboat to take two people tubing at a time.

Let me just say...trying to hold down your lunch after a few beers while friends try to fling you off the the tube at ~40-50 MPH is good times. Such good times, in fact, that I've rented the boats again for tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep up my streak of never being flung off the tubes!

I just went from ninja mode to a pretty good stack in the $215+rebuys, so I guess I should probably get back to focusing on that instead of continuing to ramble...
Editor's Note: We received word that Stout went on to finish second in this event for $28,500 and has thusly retracted his statements about the brutality of this particular Sunday.
- Matt Stout

PS - While writing this blog, my friend jfiiue4/Petit just busted deep in a $50 freezeout while across the table from me, said "good game me," and ripped his shirt in half like he was The Incredible Hulk. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I nearly choked!