With 10 days left of the WSOP tournament grind, I’m currently on pace to have my worst summer ever. This is only my 3rd year grinding a full summer of tournaments and these have been my results for the past 3 summers…
2023: -$100K~
2024: +175K~
2025 (as of 7/7): -$85K~ (x2 with fade)
I give the utmost praise and have an immense amount of respect for professionals who are able to play this format of poker for a living - the variance in large field tournaments are insane, the hours spent can be brutal, and staying sane throughout the daily emotional rollercoaster ride is impressive. One day you can feel on top of the world bagging chip lead with the dream of winning first place; and then the next you can be out with a min-cash after losing 3 all ins in a row. And that’s just the path tournament professionals have chosen.
My mindset this summer was to be as present as possible during each tournament entry and exercise gratitude for the opportunity to compete. After 5 long weeks and some of the worst poker results I’ve experienced, it’s easy to be down on myself and lose confidence. I’ve put a fairly big bet on myself and abilities to perform this summer with the anti-sweat bet and taking more action in my tournament buy-ins - the beauty of this was to double my wins or the flip side, fail epically. With double the amount of pressure on myself, I’ve sadly failed epically. But there’s 10 days left of the summer and anything can happen down the stretch - but it’s going to take some magic to run hot near the tail end of the grind here.
A few days ago, during a post-bustout tilt raged mindset, I told myself that this might be one of the last time I grind poker tournaments this hard for the foreseeable future. And now with a clear headed mindset, I can confidently say that slowing down this grind makes the most sense for me personally from a sustainable career choice. I’ve quit poker countless times in my head, my results have been lackluster at best, and as much as I try my best - I’m not competent or built for this grind. There’s a lot of exciting ventures I can spend my time pursuing like continuing to improve the content creation side of the business and it’s something I’m genuinely excited and passionate about.
So with 10 days left of the summer, I still have a massive tournament prop bet to grind out and try my best in. There’s just 10 more days living the dream that I always wanted - grind hard in a competitive arena. So for me, I’ll try to make the most of it and transition back to the harsh reality after, which is that this life and grind isn’t made for me. But until these last 10 days are up, I’m putting my head down and going to war against the players at my table and the faders who have doubted me. GL me and to everyone on the grind
Thanks for reading,
Ethan (Rampage)
Hey bud,
Followed you for a while. Im sure you have a lot of haters along with people who really support you. Im on the support side of yours. I never really comment or text anyone on social media but I would like to say a few things that you already know.
Thats just how poker goes. For sure right?
I mean obviously Im not gonna lie, its easy to tilt when you’re down but “you” tilt more than the average people that I know. And also, obviously people only see and say you really punt ONLY because most “online” keyboard warriors see your hole cards lol.
I love your content, you inspire a lot of people out there to start out the poker journey - and I was one of them. The only difference between you and I is I own a large business and I use extra money to play poker rather than playing poker for living. I cannot fathom or at least I dont think I can personally handle the variances tournament pokers put out - not a chance.
So kudos to you for winning - and losing - but you are looking at it as a learning curve. Noway what throws at you, all I gotta say is - dont give up. You’re young. You have a long way to go. You just “seriously” need an assistant or some kind of risk manager who can help you bankroll properly and you’re okay. Wish you the best with your endeavors bud. You are awesome. Dont let anyone change that.
Hey bud,
Followed you for a while. Im sure you have a lot of haters along with people who really support you. Im on the support side of yours. I never really comment or text anyone on social media but I would like to say a few things that you already know.
Thats just how poker goes. For sure right?
I mean obviously Im not gonna lie, its easy to tilt when you’re down but “you” tilt more than the average people that I know. And also, obviously people only see and say you really punt ONLY because most “online” keyboard warriors see your hole cards lol.
I love your content, you inspire a lot of people out there to start out the poker journey - and I was one of them. The only difference between you and I is I own a large business and I use extra money to play poker rather than playing poker for living. I cannot fathom or at least I dont think I can personally handle the variances tournament pokers put out - not a chance.
So kudos to you for winning - and losing - but you are looking at it as a learning curve. Noway what throws at you, all I gotta say is - dont give up. You’re young. You have a long way to go. You just “seriously” need an assistant or some kind of risk manager who can help you bankroll properly and you’re okay. Wish you the best with your endeavors bud. You are awesome. Dont let anyone change that.