The downswing continues for Brian ’sbrugby’ Townsend

Rags to riches and … back to rags? While it’s unlikely that high-stakes online pro Brian Townsend will be in the literal poorhouse anytime soon, the onlinepokernet is abuzz with stories of his rapid bankroll descent.

Towsend, who made a reputation as one of the most feared no limit players online, built his multi-million dollar bankroll from some of the smallest no limit games available online, progressing through limits until he became a fixture at the 300/600 HU NL tables at Full Tilt poker, and was seen regularly crushing known pros at these stratoshperic stakes. Now, as detailed with no small amount of smugness in this thread on 2+2, Townsend is tumbling.

On his blog, where he’s provided blow-by-blow accounts of his downswing, Townsend most recent post drips with a borderline-existentialist sentiment that will ring all too familiar for most poker players:

I am concerned that my motivation may never be what it once was. I feel like there arnt any more goals for me in poker. At 25 I have played in the biggest game that has ever run. I know this has happened to many very sucessful players. I have talked to some of the best young players, who are up to 10 years my senior, and they say they dont play as well anymore because it doesnt hurt to lose. I have noticed this about myself as well. I play amazing poker when the money I lose really hurts if I didn’t have it. I dont know a good way to solve this problem.

If that’s not a lesson in a paragraph, I don’t know what is.