Well first I applaud your choice to keep VP a hobby, I never had that choice, as I was working as a pro from day 1.
Second: yes I am happy now, but that is largely because I'm helping others and sharing my knowledge. When I horded it, the only thing it brought me was money, and no one to spend it on.
As to bathroom breaks, I can answer that exactly. I deliberately dehydrated to avoid breaks and only took 11 five min breaks in the 72 hour tournament. I treated it exactly like an Olympic event and I was going for the gold. I put winning before my health and comfort.
Recovery time was around 2 weeks.
It is also interesting to note that I did my tournaments drug free and apparently beat out the folks that were popping bennies, with ease. A lot of the other pros that did Marathon tournaments used chemical "enhancement", and I proved that this was a poor substitute for hard work and determination.
I'm quite proud of all that. It was just too much effort for too little gain. If you add up all the money I made on MTs it's less than I could have made in a single year as a Violinist.
It was absurdly safe. If I participated, I won. I did do a 24 hour MTs, took first place and only cleared $280. That was my worst result.
~FK
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "camwellcam" <camwellcam@...> wrote:
>
> Frank,
>
> Most people are mediocre at most things. Its rare that someone becomes "world class" at anything. There are very few things that I excel at (for instance, I probably play at 600 hands an hour with no intention of getting faster - this is hobby and entertainment). I make excellent macaroni and cheese, am a bit above average at my day job :)
>
> When you say you regret becoming "world class" at something, it seems sad. Look at it this way. Many people would envy that kind of skill! In the past few years, I've lost my mother, my father and my cat and yet, I am probably happier than most people and I think that its perspective more than anything. I have NO regrets. It doesn't mean that I have not made bonehead mistakes, done things that I wish I didn't and that all in life if perfect. However, all those things have lead me to today, and changing any one thing, even small would have led me to a different "today" and I'm blissfully happy. Married for over 20 years to my best friend, have a good job, have a good life. I've got very little to be unhappy about.
>
> Now, I know people who have it all and are miserably chasing what they don't have.
>
> So the question is. Are you happy today? If so, then regrets and recriminations have no place. If not, figure out why and fix it :)
>
> And hey, those kinda VP stats are amazing to me (whoohoo to you!) If it were me, I'd be patting myself on the back thinking I'm all that. Instead, I'll go back to my measly 600 hands per hour.
>
> I gotta know, did you take bathroom breaks?? :)
>
> cam
>
