Poker is stressful. I usually play shorter sessions which means you get less "roll out", a chance for the percentages to work in your favor. You young guys are hardy and do not noitce the stress poker causes and the toll it takes on your system if you are playing high enough to matter.

I went to Las Vegas once and won every single sit down for several days. I was getting increasingly irritable and having trouble getting any sleep. I was really stressed out. I was aware of the good winnings and needed the money. When I got back to Texas, I went to the Doctor because my blood pressure was soaring. This indicated to me that winning is stressful like losing.

If I lived where poker was legal, I'd play more often but I'd play where no win or loss made any huge difference like I do now. I wish I liked poker more like some of my friends. I have known people like Johnny Moss who played cards almost every day all their lives. Doyle is like that. He loves to play cards. Two of my friends are top bridge players traveling all over the world to play in tournament. They have done only that for forty years. I wouldn't want to just play cards.

People are stupid, I hate them. I couldn't imagine working a job for some idiot making 1/5th of what I could make playing poker, probably even less given my lack of credentials. I'm inherently introverted and not an overly social person. Playing online poker is basically a dream job for me. I am my own boss, I choose my own hours. I make more money than I'd ever dreamed of making. And I don't have to deal with the politics of a 'regular' job.

I can play from my own home and don't need to force myself to be friends/act civil around people I really wouldn't otherwise like to be around but have to because of my job or whatever. When I go out at night I spend time with friends and family and people I enjoy spending my time with.

Burning out is not really an issue for me. If I don't feel like playing, I don't play. I've just come off a basically 2 month hiatus from poker and it didn't affect my quality of life at all. Poker is sometimes a grind, yes, but usually it isn't. The game isn't the same. You're playing different opponents, every hand you have to adjust based on what happened the hand before, and the hand before that. Sure you can ignore these things and still win at a 'decent' rate but you'll never be spectacular and your game will improve very slowly. You will also burn out.

Another good counter to burning out is moving up in stakes. Move up to where the money means something to you. Whether it be losing $200 in a hand at 1/2 or $5000 in a hand at 25/50, it will make you feel something about the game again. The thrill of getting aces, the pain and sinking feeling when you get set-over-setted, etc.

For the higher stakes players who have moved up as high as they wish to and are at the point where money essentially means nothing to them - I can't comment on. I can say that when I get to that point I will certainly be investing my money in stocks and real estate, I will attempt to get businesses up and running and have an enormous amount of passive income. Then I will play poker as much as I wish to, travel as much as I want and do whatever the hell I want. I'll eat really great food every night. I'll visit family and friends all over the world; make new friends. Eventually I'll settle down and get married, have kids, etc. This may happen along the way or after I've accomplished what I want to in terms of monetary goals and securities or it may not happen at all but it's what I would like to achieve in life. And poker is, by far, the best possible means that I have of achieving these goals.

Not sure if that directly or indirectly responded to the OP but I imagine this point of view is shared by many of us young online pros. I know for a fact that a lot of the middle-high stakes players invest their money wisely in stocks and many are also into real estate (of course there are idiots who go busto because of poor money management, but there are also a lot of success stories) and they must be pretty damn pleased with their lives right about now.