OK, so however you play winning online poker, here’s how NOT to play it. Don’t play it until you burn out. That’s what happened to soon-to-be flash-in-the-pan online poker star Shaun Deeb who, after delivering a series of depressing shows, announced that has decided to quit playing in poker tournaments indefinitely.

This is the same Shaun Deeb who turned an initial deposit in an online poker site of $30 into a $33,000 bankroll within just a couple of weeks. Under the uncomplicated username ‘shaundeeb’(PokerStars) and the less obvious ‘tedsfishfry’ (Full Tilt Poker), Deeb has won millions in online poker, with his biggest win being $81,812.50 in a January ’09 PokerStars Super Tuesday.

Possibly part of the reason Deeb burnt out is because he was known to play in as many as 30 tournaments at the same time, averaging 20 tournaments a day some days.

OK, now here’s the fine print at the bottom you’ve all been waiting for: he’s not quitting poker entirely; just poker tournaments. Ah, that makes much more sense.

Here’s how you play winning online poker, to the tune of $8 million, as per Joe Cada, the newest World Series of Poker Main Event champion.

First, as a teen, you watch Chris Moneymaker make poker history coming from an online poker satellite (PokerStars in his case) to win the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event and become inspired to follow in his shoes. Then you join a top poker site, like PokerStars (hey, why not? it worked for Moneymaker, right?) and start playing every day, honing your game for 5 long years until the day you hit 21 and can finally register for the greatest poker game of all time, the World Series of Poker Main Event. Then you win it, beating a logger, a former Wall Street rich guy, a nice grandfatherly man, and 5 poker professionals, including two former main event final tablers, one of whom is reputed to be the greatest poker player alive, and about 6,000-plus others for the $8.5 million grand prize and fame outlasting a lifetime.

And that’s how you play winning online poker. Thanks, Joe, for showing us how it’s done.