Start of with telling us what ur interests are? :P

Skates, you made sick money on Poker.. what made you quit?

Hi Skates
could you write to me on AIM ( Shazer0 ), we were talking on 2+2, you told me u will send me sth and than dissapear ;/

how much money did you make? ^^

 Shad0, I thought I sent you what you wanted.  Can you PM me here (not 2+2) with what you wanted?  I'm sorry I don't remember too clearly.  A lot of people were asking me things as I moved to Chicago/quit poker.

I quit because of my new job,  and I'm not going to share how much I made through poker.

I don't really have many interests.  I like rock climbing, prop betting, having my head scratched, angsty music, soup, chicken salad, ice cream, and jigsaw puzzles.

Skates...

I made the decision to play HUSNG's (from MTT's) back in December due to my new job, since HU matches take minutes not hours.  After some research, I visited this site.

I joined husng.com immediately.... and Skates I mean immediately.... after watching your free clip... the one explaining your A high call down.   Since then I've downloaded a number of your videos, learning a ton.   So for selfish reasons, I hate to see you go.   Weeks ago, I did a similiar "hero call" with A high... calling down a mult-street bluff from a tilted opponent.  The villian chatted "OMG".  But it was easy.  Scary... but easy... because I went through the same type of analysis that you did. 

My hope is that you might take some time off, live life, and re-evaluate your decision to retire entrely from poker.  Perhaps do a "semi-retirement" in which you return now and then to do coaching/sweat session videos.... whenever you up for it.  

I work for a living.  My liferoll is set but like most jobs, it gets mundane at times.   Poker is fun for me... an outlet, an intellectual challenge.  For me it's not a "grind"  It's a game... like when I jump on Xbox Live.  I don't play video games much... I don't have the time.  But I haven't "retired" from playing them either.  I just play when I can. 

I think you'll miss poker 6 months from now.  Semi-retire.  Play when you can

Note: Skates will still be contributing videos to the site.

For the near future, they will almost certainly be "leakfinder" type videos where he reviews the play of another player (likely other coaches to start) or collaboration videos with myself (similar to the last few we both did).

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My vote is to keep the blog up.  You are more valued than you realize.  Use your unique analytical skills to examine every day situations, or situations related to poker.

What advice could you give or share about how people focus on playing the game professionally?  How they handle swings?  How they approach moving up to a new level or playing a higher caliber opponent?  How they learn?

Your experience and skills will lend value in those areas.  It doesn't have to be an article, nor a narrow focus.  Share some stories, I know you have good ones.  Share some advice, I know it's valued.  But keep blogging.

Oh yea, and play Zisimo.  He's still winning, and beating some of the best.

He'll either find out he doesn't belong, and move down, or he'll continue to have success and he will be quite the giant to topple.  Either way, I love your confidence and would enjoy watching you play him.

would be quite interested in hearing about your new job -- even the human interest version of it if you can't talk about the really exciting stuff.

yes, take Zisimo down! =)

Can you post your opinions about the stock market, or will your company not allow it? I'm sure a lot of us are looking at that field.

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I'd read it.

skates i vote for continuation too - keep us updated - liked your articles and blogs so far and will def read non poker topics too

greetings from bavaria !!

yea wtf... lead a more interesting life

[X] graduated college at an obscenely young age
[X] raped only poker to be one of the top HU SNGrs
[X] made SNE
[X] got a baller job motivating enough to quit being a poker baller
[X] moved to a new city

.........

.....

just blog about whatever, we <3 skates

edit: wow wtf, when I posted this it showed me as first poster, must have been a cached page or something, tons of responses, I feel less cool now =/

keep blogging bro

personally idk why u would quit altogether man, u hav depeloped a skill with hard work and commitment, it seems a shame to me to let it go to waste... OBV now ur in a baller job u dont want high stakes stress or whatever, but I would still keep ticking over with lower games with real low number of games. Oh well, gl anyway :)

yeah skates, we <3 you

Regarding ZISIMO7:  I've made it clear to Ryan that I am interested in playing him if he will multi-table me.  I'd be more than happy to get money online and spend a Saturday multi-tabling him at 2k or 5k until one of us is stuck 50k.  I don't want to wait for him at absurd hours to just play one game, then have him quit me like he has done over and over and over again in the past.  He also loves to "grim" people, including me, at 25/50.  If someone is in touch with him and can get him to guarantee to play multiple tables with me up to some amount (maybe... escrows of 25k each?), I'll play.

Regarding anything about my job:  I will not discuss it here.  I am sorry, but it will stay that way.

Regarding wasting a skill-set:  Yea... I was going to write a book about 15-30BB play, but there was a pretty big uproar about it on 2+2 and I decided not to.  Yes, I am pissing away a skill-set.  Yes, I could just coach people for $300/hr and still make good money with my skill-set.  Yes, I could just put money online and play ZISIMO7 and make even more money with my skill-set.  I just don't care.  Money isn't a motivating factor for me.  The intellectual challenge alone is what matters to me now.  If I log-on to play some low-stakes, I'm going to be playing idiots and just running through the motions.  If I want to have to think, I have to play against great players, and great players only exist at high stakes (note: this means players that are exceptionally talented at poker, not players that are exceptionally talented at making money at poker or playing poker for a living... these are entirely different concepts).  For me to want to continue playing poker, I'd want to continue playing at a high level, and that's just not something that I truly desire all that much.

plz plz plz~~~~~~~~~don't stop
I'm a new member from Jan, I'm new to poker and love play husngs, I'll get my BA of math this June from an European Univ.
After watching your video and reading this blog I become a big fan.  I'm really interesting in whatever you want to talk about. XD

Keep going mate :)

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Goats!!! MORE GOATS!!!

Skates!

Keep blogging!!

edit: realized the above was kind of pointless...Articles like this:

http://www.husng.com/content/optimizing-growth-not-bankroll-article

are why I hope you never stop posting.