A poker debate

fade2black

This probably won't strike a chord with anyone here but sure I'll run it up a flagpole and see if someone salutes it.

I haven't played a hand of poker in about 10 months and I can't identify and single reason why. I know a few of the regular posters here and I have played with them in regular games throughout the south east, but one day I just stopped and since then I haven't had the desire to go back. I only ever played tournaments so it wasn't a loss of money that made me pack it in. I think I just got bored of the game. Let me try and explain further.

Every day I see threads on this about various hands of poker that went this way and that...and they bore me to tears. Everyone wants to tell their good and bad beat stories but the truth is, nobody cares, not one bit. They may humour you or they just won't listen at all...the thing is, when they're done not listening to you they'll meet someone else and give that person a chance to not listen to them. It's a natural thing, everyone wants to tell the story, but no one wants to listen.

Too many times I'd get into good positions in tournaments only for someone to pull off an amazing bit of luck on me...This would happen time and time again and it's true to say that in order to benefit from swings and roundabouts you have to be there again when the roundabout comes full circle....that means playing a helluva lot of cards, and having a helluva lot of patience. I guess I wasn't prepared to do one, and wasn't able to do the other.

I've made a lot of friends and contact from the game, and I certainly miss the social aspect of it but I've turned down so many games in the last few months and each time I've been at a loss for a proper reason to give.

My own personal conclusion, which many will not agree with, is that poker is not just a game for Christmas, it's a game for life and if you're not prepared to put the full time effort in, then you must be prepared for the bad beats and maybe more annoyingly, the bad beat stories.

BobSloane

I only started playing again recently after a hefty break too. I am a casual player though. Like the people you describe in the post, I'm not particularly interested in bad beat stories - everyone has their own and they're all similar enough.
However I do find alot of the hands posted here interesting as I feel at every juncture(pre-flop,flop,turn,river) in a hand there is a correct and wrong thing to do based on many factors - the OPs position,the relative stack sizes, the opponent, the cards that the OP is holding etc. I only started playing cash games online in the last month and feel that this is really where its at in terms of poker skill. At the business end of a tounament the stacks are usually too shallow to allow anything much more than picking a spot and taking your chances.
Maybe you should give cash games a shot(with money you're prepared to lose) if you are looking for a reason to get back into poker

fade2black

Too many cash games were ruined by people with deeper pockets than myself...100 quid before I even see a flop. No thanks.

ditpoker

interesting post. what you're saying about the game makes alot of sense, you're either in for the long haul or your not. You often hear things about gamblers who bet on horses, roulette, poker etc because they want to lose to feel the hit it gives. Also the losing makes you appreciate the wins. I used to STRICTLY only play 5 euro games, then i think after my birthday or something i had a few quid on me and took to a Dublin cash game, sat down with 120 euro (alot of meoney to me then) and after about 5 mins i got all my chips in on a 7 high flop with QQ, i got rivered by an open ended straight draw but it wasnt the beat i was talking about after... i was talking about how i had played a 250 euro pot, HUGE money. Soon after i took a free $25 dollars on one of the online sites and fluked my way up to $240 after a nice tournament finish, i sat into a cash game and lost my stack in one hand, three handed, i wasnt talking about my bad beat, i was telling stories how i lost a $720 pot. These losses make the wins all the more tasty! if you never lost, the win wouldnt feel good.

Then, there is the challenge of it. I like sitting at a table and playing better that someone else. If i get a bad beat I know i played the hand better than the other guy, but he got lucky... he needed luck to beat me, I relied on skill. Be this in a €5 home game or a €100 freezeout, there is a buzz from outplaying someone, even if it is as simple as having the patience to wait and wait for the right moment. I played a game in the SE a few weeks back and a guy lost a huge pot with QJ when it was horribly clear he was behind but he complained how he "had to play QJ, they're the first picture cards ive seen all night" ... all night!?!? the tournament was 25minutes old... i hadnt played a hand, but i had more chips than this guy cos he didnt have the discipline to wait.

As for telling and listening to bad beat stories, its all about empathy. I know some people who hate hearing them, i suppose i do too, but i know i do love to tell them, so i listen too. I do like hand stories that can be learned from. If you want to improve, reading how good players think through hands is great. When someone like Fuzzbox, HJ, flipper, pillowtalk etc posts a hand history you know there is a reason and that you can learn something, if only from the post that follows when the original poster explains what he thought as it happened.. this information is valuable to anyone who wants to learn.

pok3rplaya

Sounds like you finally came to the realisation that you werent a winning player. Judging from this post, you are probably better off not playing poker.

fade2black

pok3rplaya wrote:

Sounds like you finally came to the realisation that you werent a winning player. Judging from this post, you are probably better off not playing poker.

You see that's just a lazy reply. I won over 10 fairly large tournaments and got to the final table in the majority of the rest. This thread is not about being a good or bad player. But thanks for your invaluable contribution.

Bandara

I think poker can consume people a bit too much, a lot of the people who play seem to have nothing else in their lives excepot poker (I'm not being critical here, its just how I see it). so naturally after a while they get a bit bored/disillusioned as they have nothing else to balance out their spare time and therefore keep their poker interesting.

Poker is a hobby/pasttime for most people, yes we all try to win money etc but in reality its just like playing football (or whatever your thing was when your a kid), its the best sport in the world but if you play it 5 hours a day every day its getting a bit boring. The advent of online poker now means that so many of us play everyday wihtout any breaks that we just don't enjoy it as much. Remember when your mum have called you in at night when you were out playing football, you went in grumbling but dying to get up the next day to play. If we are a bit less consumed by poker I think we'd enjoy it more and play it for the next 40 years....

ok I'm rambling now, anyone get the point I'm trying (badly) to make?

BobSloane

fade2black wrote:

Too many cash games were ruined by people with deeper pockets than myself...100 quid before I even see a flop. No thanks.

100 quid to see a flop is nothing....if you are playing of a 50,000 bankroll.
Like i said it must be money you are prepared to lose. Are you looking for a reason to get back into poker or a reason to stay away?

fade2black

BobSloane wrote:

100 quid to see a flop is nothing....if you are playing of a 50,000 bankroll.
Like i said it must be money you are prepared to lose. Are you looking for a reason to get back into poker or a reason to stay away?

The 100 to see a flop is based on the 100 table limit that was in play in one of the rooms I was playing in. IT dramatically takes the skill out of the game.

At the moment I'm happy enough not playing poker but that may change in the future, either way, I'll know when the time is right.

ntlbell

Another lazy reply.

But it really dpends what you want out of a "game" which is what poker is.

It can be something the familiy sit around to do once a month or once a year after xmas dinner.

It can be like going to dogs once a month with friends for a drink and a flutter.

A day at leopardstown races.


You must decide what you want from the game and if you can't get what you want from it be it fun or money then don't play it.

I'm not really sure what your post is about, maybe you're looking for people to give you a reason to play again.

pok3rplaya

Well I'm sorry but I struggle to understand exactly what this thread is about?

I haven't played a hand of poker in about 10 months and I can't identify and single reason why. I know a few of the regular posters here and I have played with them in regular games throughout the south east, but one day I just stopped and since then I haven't had the desire to go back. I only ever played tournaments so it wasn't a loss of money that made me pack it in. I think I just got bored of the game. Let me try and explain further.

OK so you player some poker and met some people and then you stopped.

Every day I see threads on this about various hands of poker that went this way and that...and they bore me to tears. Everyone wants to tell their good and bad beat stories but the truth is, nobody cares, not one bit. They may humour you or they just won't listen at all...the thing is, when they're done not listening to you they'll meet someone else and give that person a chance to not listen to them. It's a natural thing, everyone wants to tell the story, but no one wants to listen.

OK, poker bores you. Bit of an odd post for a poker forum but anywho...

Then you go on to say that nobody cares about listening (or reading) about poker and it has no value. This paragraph is wrong. People do listen to poker stories if they wish to learn about poker. That is how I learned about poker. People activly debate about poker hands and win lots of money for it. You say nobody cares. Thats wrong. I care, lots of people care. Wen someone I believe I can learn from posts a hand, I listen and I argue and I learn constructivly.

Then you make some broad swwpind statements about humanity in general which are pretty off base.

Too many times I'd get into good positions in tournaments only for someone to pull off an amazing bit of luck on me...This would happen time and time again and it's true to say that in order to benefit from swings and roundabouts you have to be there again when the roundabout comes full circle....that means playing a helluva lot of cards, and having a helluva lot of patience. I guess I wasn't prepared to do one, and wasn't able to do the other.

All this paragraph does is show that you are without an understanding of the concept of variance and it's application to the game of poker.

My own personal conclusion, which many will not agree with, is that poker is not just a game for Christmas, it's a game for life and if you're not prepared to put the full time effort in, then you must be prepared for the bad beats and maybe more annoyingly, the bad beat stories.

Now you imply that people who put a lot of time into poker dont suffer bad beats. This is also wrong.


Now, I ask you to explain the reasoning behind this post. I don't understand. If you are bored of poker then don't play. It's that simple. Also, you should realise that poker, like most things in life, becomes far more rewarding if you put a little effort in. Try reading some hands and thinking about the things people say about them. If you don't want to do this then move on with your life. Do something else.

fade2black

First off, all the thread is, is a couple of thoughts written down...I didn't realise, especially after reading a lot of threads on this forum, that every post had to be black or white. Most of you are very protective of the game and you love your little clique...God help a non regular try and contribute something to the forum.

pok3rplaya, you just come off as a poker snob and there's no point in talking to someone like you about a subject like this. You just want to belittle everything that's said that either don't understand or don't agree with. Go away and grow up and then come back to the conversation.

NTLBELL, you seem to have totally misunderstood the post. I'm talking about poker as it is in Ireland today...the daily tournaments, cash games casinos etc.

HAMMERTIME makes a very interesting point about people becoming too consumed in the game, they play the tournaments, go home, play online and then sleep for most of the day. It's hard to talk about that side of the game without narrow minded people just coming back at ya with stupid replies like "you were obviosly a crap poker player".

I thought, after reading some good posts in the past by Mr Pillowtalk, Devore, NickyOD etc, that people could discuss there own feelings about the game.

Hawk Eye

Anyone else find it funny that this was create by the horse racing mod.
He can't deal with the hits in poker but (presumably) will gladly hand over money to a bookie where he is never going to have an edge.

fade2black

Hawk Eye wrote:

Anyone else find it funny that this was create by the horse racing mod.
He can't deal with the hits in poker but (presumably) will gladly hand over money to a bookie where he is never going to have an edge.

Ya see what's this all about? Surely you're not all this shallow? First off, I can't remember my last bad beat but I had no more or no less than anyone else who sat down at a poker table...I can safely say I won a lot more from poker than many others though.

I have an interest in horse racing but how do you know what bets I do? Seriously, is this a level of the intelligence on the poker forum??

HiCloy

Hawk Eye wrote:

He can't deal with the hits in poker but (presumably) will gladly hand over money to a bookie where he is never going to have an edge.

Classic Poker Player only view on those who bet on horses - the OP is very knowledgable on racing and could well be making a profit at it (I don't know him personally, just judging on his posts in the horse racing forum)

Bandara

Why are people attacking this guy?

I can't see what he did wrong in his post to get barracked?

pok3rplaya

Heads-Up for bankrolls?

Hawk Eye

Where exactly are you coming from? Is there a question you want answering?
Or was your opening post just some random vent that you wanted off your chest but didn't know how to express it.

ArmaniJeanss

OP,
'You used to enjoy the game, and then you got bored by it' pretty much sums up your original post.

And thats perfectly fine, it happens all the time in real life.
At various stages of my life I've been hooked on Lego, ActionMen, Roy of the Rovers comics, Panini sticker albums, snooker, darts, SmashHits magazine, tennis, etc. and I've given them all up.

So move on, find another hobby, enjoy the rest of your life.:)

Bandara

ArmaniJeanss wrote:

OP,
'You used to enjoy the game, and then you got bored by it' pretty much sums up your original post.

And thats perfectly fine, it happens all the time in real life.
At various stages of my life I've been hooked on Lego, ActionMen, Roy of the Rovers comics, Panini sticker albums, snooker, darts, SmashHits magazine, tennis, etc. and I've given them all up.

So move on, find another hobby, enjoy the rest of your life.:)

Panini Sticker Albums, sniff sniff

wipes tear from eye......

breadmonkey

Hammertime wrote:

Why are people attacking this guy?

I can't see what he did wrong in his post to get barracked?

Agreed, people are just being knobs, particularly pok3rplaya.

fade2black

Not many conversationalists among you is there?

I don't have a poker blog or anything like that so I used this forum for a retrospective "blog", I suppose you could call it. Every day on boards somebody will start a thread about any number of subjects and people will add to it with their own views and opinions. Not sure why this forum should be any different but it looks like you people like to keep it to mutual back slapping and abusing the new comers. (Apologies to the genuine posters on this forum who will embrace all types of conversation)

luckylucky

Hammertime wrote:

Why are people attacking this guy?

I can't see what he did wrong in his post to get barracked?

I agree with Hammertime, the guy has made a reasonable post imo, and yeah he wanted to get this off his chest, so what, isn't that what most our posts are about after all, give the guy a break ffs, tbh the slagging off here looks tight imo.

Poker like any hobby can get boring, for me i'm doing it more or less for a living for the past 5 months and I certainly get fed up with it from time to time. I play different poker formats to keep my interest up, some of which like mtts are not exactly value stuff for me.

And i think the Op's point about poker not being just for Christmas is probably getting more true all the time, sure you can play for smallish stakes online for fun and win or lose a few quid and have a bit of fun, but if you are even playing even low medium stakes you better have your homework done or you're brown bread.

As Aj says poker is like most other activities sometimes we just have enough and are bored regardless of whether we're winning at it or not. anyways gl with the next hobby.

Any tips btw?

roryc

breadmonkey wrote:

Agreed, people are just being knobs, particularly pok3rplaya.

nothing unusual there


Not bothered writing a long reply but suffice is to say i agree with a lot of the OP points. Im playing less and less and can see myelf giving poker up soon enough... the thrill isin't really there anymore and Im not bothered putting in the time needed to improve my game

One piece of advice, youv lasted 10 months without a game, why go back?

Doc Farrell

and you weren't have bad either Rory! of course you are right, I was gonna post a defence earlier on but whats the point, either you've played for a while and have experienced the downside or you haven't.

Last night I made the final table in the silly omaha game in the fitz and had a great time. downstairs people i know were frowning and whining and just putting too much of everything on the line.

I've tried to break the 20 grand a year mark playing upwards of 30-40-50 hours a week for 4 years and I know that I can't unless I play at limits that are no fun for me. so I've cut back to a couple of nights a week playing at limits that don't sting at all.

as others have said, like any hobby one can get sick and tired of it. take a long break, go to lots of great music gigs and if you decide to do something else to make money then why spend time in the company of some that you would otherwise avoid.

I guess all I'm saying is that like the OP and anyone else whose opinion is worth a damn, if its not fun then why bother?

i'm listening to Frank right now and as the Chairman says 'it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing'. baby.

Lafortezza

About 6-12 months ago I was playing alot online, grinding out a profit on party, putting in alot of hands (for me), about 40k over the summer, and another maybe60k hands since Oct 05. I was enjoying it and it wasn't a hassle to spend 3+hours in a day 6-8 tabling.

I signed up to GJP less than a month ago. To clear the $500 bonus I'm going to have to play alot over the next week-10days. So far I'm running well showing a nice big profit for the last 2 weeks, but I'm not enjoying it at all. It's an effort to put in the hours/hands and I agree that Tribeca could be a little more user friendly, Party was so quick and easy with table mods and PAHUD, I could play on autopilot for most of my time there.

If it wasn't for the free $500 from GJP I probably wouldn't play more than 8 hours a week.

fade2black, take any perceived negativity towards your OP with a grain of salt, we're a weird bunch in this forum.

DeadParrot

Fade, I was in a similar spot to yourself a while ago. Interest for the game can ebb and flow and sometimes wane into complete apathy.
To be honest, reading of hand histories and books has dramatically increased my understanding of the game and give me a greater appreciation poker as a skill game.

I suppose I could draw the comparison of your knowledge of horse racing against someone who has a random flutter and sticks a pin in the selections.

Anyway, I do feel with a basic grip of the game, as by your results in tourneys you obviously do, it can be something that you just dip into time to time.

Or don't, whatever makes you happy

fade2black

roryc wrote:

nothing unusual there


Not bothered writing a long reply but suffice is to say i agree with a lot of the OP points. Im playing less and less and can see myelf giving poker up soon enough... the thrill isin't really there anymore and Im not bothered putting in the time needed to improve my game

One piece of advice, youv lasted 10 months without a game, why go back?

__________________


You're right right, and thanks for the reply...(EDIT: And all your replies while I was replying!)

Before I stopped playing I did some dealing for a while (with the lads at Big Slick) and saw up close and personal how good players were seemingly doing nothing wrong but getting busted by loud mouthed semi-drunken amateurs. Of course this is just a generalisation but we've all seen it happen tons of times before. To many, it's part of the attraction the game, I guess it all depends on how serious poker is in your life.

This may sound silly, but I've never looked at poker as gambling - obviously this is because I almost soley played tournaments. I saw my 20 bucks entry as an entry into an entertaining couple of hours ahead. Consequently, I don't see my giving it up as being a positive thing (gambling wise)...let me put it another way - it's not something I had to do. If I won 600 quid in a tournament, I might bank 4 of that and then use the other 200 for entries into upcoming tournaments.

To answer your question rory, I have no desire to go back, but part of the reasoning into starting this thread was that I could pinpoint exactly why the game had lost its attraction to me. I was hoping that by reading some similar replies, or indeed contrasting ones, it would click with me the exact reason why I don't play anymore.

Another thought struck me...a lot of the people who have posted on this forum since the beginning have put a lot into poker, and definitely done a lot for the game's reputation in this country...I think it's become a lot more social and that certainly is a good thing. It is these people...who travel miles to games, write blogs, reply to posts asking for help, live and breath the game...these people have probably lost count of the number of times they've been hard done by poker (not only bad beats) but still come back for more. That's a dedication, maybe passion, that I don't think I ever had but is essential to keep going in a game that is becoming busier and busier as the days go by.

Hopefully that makes even a little sense.

LuckyLloyd

This post has been deleted.

pok3rplaya

I guess I cannot comprehend the mindset of a person who is wise to, but has no interest in poker. It's like someone saying to me 'hey do you want a handy job where you can earn 150k/year if you make a reasonable effort' and me declinig their offer. Makes no sense to me.

I gave my thoughts. I backed them up. I used a tone which I thought was appropriate to the post. I stand by most of what I said. Now I'm done.

ntlbell

fade2black wrote:

Not sure why this forum should be any different but it looks like you people like to keep it to mutual back slapping and abusing the new comers. (Apologies to the genuine posters on this forum who will embrace all types of conversation)

Just to clarify I wasn't trying any "back slapping"

It was a a genuine reply.

I think you missed the point of my post.

Poker is many different things to many different people much like horce racing.

You have people that spend their lives in bookies pi$$ing their last few bob on some long shot in a hope of bringing home some pudding, and there are exactly the same type of people playing poker.

You also have a person who will have the odd flutter on saturdays football or have a go at the grand national play bingo once a week or play poker in the local pub once a week.

People can become obsessed and consumed by both and it takes over their lives.

One man tells a story of his 20-1 shot falling at the last fence while another talks about how he lost his chance at the big one to a one outer.

Again it's all about what the game is to you and what you want from the game.

Maybe I'm still failing to see or understand your point, but I'm certinaly not trying to be dismissive.

Doc Farrell

ntl i think the thread name was a misleading one. rather than a debate i think the OP just wanted to discuss how one's enthusiasm can ebb and flow through experience.
how dare you mislead us fadetoblack!
and how dare you spell certainly so bady ntl! how very dare u! (see your final sentence)
congrats pokerplayer on earning 3 grand a week! the tournies in Drogheda have improved a lot since I last haunted the place!

CoD

fade2black wrote:

Everyone wants to tell their stories but the truth is, nobody cares, not one bit.

sums it up

ntlbell

Doc Farrell wrote:

ntl i think the thread name was a misleading one. rather than a debate i think the OP just wanted to discuss how one's enthusiasm can ebb and flow through experience.
how dare you mislead us fadetoblack!
and how dare you spell certainly so bady ntl! how very dare u! (see your final sentence)
congrats pokerplayer on earning 3 grand a week! the tournies in Drogheda have improved a lot since I last haunted the place!

Making nasty slurs about my dyslexia is pretty low DOC what next??

ntlbell

CoD wrote:

sums it up

It sums something up, but it's not exclusive to poker.

Doc Farrell

well, you try to pronounce certinaly!
you made me sound like one of the 3 stooges!
try it! certinaly!
the only way you make up for it is with some clever photoshoping. get busy!:mad:

CoD

ntlbell wrote:

It sums something up, but it's not exclusive to poker.

i was refering to his original post, thought it was quite funny he said no one wants to read other peoples stories, then preceeds to tell us his poker quitting story...

ntlbell

Doc Farrell wrote:

well, you try to pronounce certinaly!
you made me sound like one of the 3 stooges!
try it! certinaly!
the only way you make up for it is with some clever photoshoping. get busy!:mad:

Do you read boards out loud?

Doc Farrell

are u mocking my reading abilities?
i think you certinaly are!
your post has been forwarded to the relevant authorities!

(btw, I like honest posts about how crappy poker has been, they add flavour to the otherwise 'look at how great I am even though I've only just started to shave my chin' posts)

hotspur

I think the OP made a good post which has been inadequately understood by some of the posters who attacked him, particularly pok3rplaya.
I think the OP shows a very good understanding of the essence of what playing poker seriously is all about. The points he made were well made when he said:

fade2black wrote:

in order to benefit from swings and roundabouts you have to be there again when the roundabout comes full circle....that means playing a helluva lot of cards, and having a helluva lot of patience. I guess I wasn't prepared to do one, and wasn't able to do the other.

Meaning that in order to be successful at poker you not only need to be good strategically or understand variance as pok3rplaya seems to insist on, of actual more importance is the willingness to devote an unreasonable amount of time to game *and* have a disposition to not get emotional or pissed off about the injustice of the game at times. This is quite rare. The majority of people are not emotionally designed to handle the vicissitudes of poker. I believe most who are designed to handle it emotionally are lacking in some aspect of healthy normal responses. Of course many players are not designed to handle it but play it excessively anyway due to a benefit they derive from the immersiveness of it which is problematic for most people.

As for the time devotion aspect, it is my belief that almost any intelligent and talented person who has been playing professionally online for around 3 years and doesn't have massive reservations about it probably needs their head examined. There are a lot of young people now who could be forging interesting, contributive, and personally rewarding careers who instead are playing top pair top kicker for the 50,000th time in a room on their own. Money is easy to get, only the immature or sucker thinks that gambling is the best way to get it, if you're clever and talented then money will come with effort in whatever field you're interested in. Respect from others, self-esteem sense of achievement, sense of belonging, and sense of importance to the world are more difficult to attain, ultimately more important to happiness than money, and a whole lot more difficult to get from playing pro poker.

I'm rambling again (rambly mood), I wish I didn't tend to come across as down on poker as I sometimes do because I'm not. I play almost every day of my life and have made a lot of money from it, but I have serious reservations when young people come out with statements like:

pok3rplaya wrote:

I guess I cannot comprehend the mindset of a person who is wise to, but has no interest in poker. It's like someone saying to me 'hey do you want a handy job where you can earn 150k/year if you make a reasonable effort' and me declinig their offer. Makes no sense to me.

Now to quote Bill Hicks I don't think we're losing a cure for cancer here with this guy, but I hope you see my point.

Doc Farrell

careful hotspur, you'll get a name for yourself as a trouble maker!

nothing to see here folks, move along, accidental honesty, won't happen again, move along...

hotspur, you seem to be someone capable of seeing the bigger picture. what do you make of NTL's spelling? pronounce certinaly out loud, awful isn't it?

Ardent

Nice post fade2black. Never mind the dicks on here who are afraid to acknowledge the sentiment of your post.

Poker is a hobby for me, I don't have any illusions of grandeur, ambition to make money at it etc. I enjoy the competitive aspect of it and I play mostly low ball multi table tourneys. The bad beats don't bother me.

But I have to take a break from the game from time to time. It's a very emotional game at times and if you're running bad it can have a knock on affect on your game. You can get sick of the whole thing eventually, feel like lady luck is out to get you etc.

The donkey plays I see time and again though make me wonder sometimes if it's a worth while game. It seems like most players are long term losers, their dead money is recycled and only a minuscule percentage of players actually make decent money from the game. It seems the only winners are the online operators or casino owners.

For the rest of us mere mortals, I think it's important not to get too wound up about the game. I hope you come back to the game in time with a new outlook as a result of your sabbatical, I have feeling you'd probably start playing some of the best poker of your life.

5starpool

Slightly off topic for a min. Look, a couple of people have been annoyed at the content/tone of the OP, and I can sort of see why. Others agree with the sentiment and content of the OP and have expressed similar thoughts about their own poker past, and again I can see why. Because a couple of people agree and a couple disagree I fail to see the point of calling this place a damn clique as so often happens when some posters who are not frequent ones (and even occasionally ones who are frequent posters) fail to get everyone wholeheartedly agreeing with their posts. You have been around enough boards blocks f2b to know that even if you post the most perfect post ever with irrefutable evidence to back it up someone somewhere will still want to disagree with you.

/end rant

On topic, I mostly think your post was something that most of us have felt at one stage or another, and moreso those of us who play more live than online. Playing perfectly and getting creuly rivered in a tournament is a horrible thing that loads of people can identify with, and if I said I have never wanted to quit poker due to a run of these then I would be lying. You took the course of not coming back to date which for a social player is an understandable thing. The sad thing about poker is that the best players don't always win. That is also the good thing though that keeps the mugs coming back as well as the good players.

Good topic though, it has got people talking, and hopefully not too heated.

redzerdrog

do you play in the star and crescent or the casino pok3rplayer??
just wondering do I know you

pok3rplaya

redzerdrog wrote:

do you play in the star and crescent or the casino pok3rplayer??
just wondering do I know you

No I pretty much never play live.

mewso

Interesting thread. I think people have different feelings about the game obviously. I first played poker for serious cash in college many years ago (1990) but it wasn't poker it was pure gambling and I had no idea what I was doing. Years later LNP appeared on TV and again I found myself at the odd home game playing yet again without a clue. I can understand how others might be the same because I felt the thrill of the win and enjoyed playing but walked away most of the time without any wish to play anytime soon. It always amuses me when players are interviewed and asked when they started playing and they say something like "well I always played poker growing up" or "well I watched LNP and was hooked" despite the fact that at that time they probably weren't playing poker at all in a real sense.

So yet more years later a friend mentioned online poker and I signed up with the site he played on Racing Post Poker (my firend was a horses man). This time I don't know why but something clicked and I knew immediately I wanted to know how to play the game properly and once I learned about the game I knew I would never really tire of it.

The thing is my ability as a poker player has improved very slowly because I work for a living and never seem to have the time or the energy to invest as much into the game as I would like. I don't read all of the hand discussions or get involved in many of them because I'm just not playing enough to provide any real experienced input. I do think that if I was playng day and night I would value those posts alot more. Poker has become one the few things I will probably love for the rest of my life, along with computers, good music and drinking.

So how does this relate to the OP's post. Not sure but I can see how someone might not love the game the same way I do (or not feel as strongly) for example and theres nothing wrong with that and that point of view is just as valid in a poker forum because it propably accounts for the feelings of just as many players as it doesn't. I won't pretend to understand how someone could walk away and never play the game again. It's just different strokes. On the flipside seeing as Horse Racing is a love of Fade to Blacks it's interesting that despite that sport flowing like blood through my family it has never really appealed to me in the way poker has. Maybe something about being in control of your own chances of winning.

ntlbell

This is pretty much the way the OP comes across to me.

I took up cricket...met some jolly aul chaps on the cricket feild the cigars and brandy was delightful.

I got ok at cricket but while playing some other jolly aul chaps who were pretty bad at cricket and didn't know how to bowl correctly I often got a smack of the cricket ball in the boll*x.

After getting the boll*x knocked off me one too many times I decided to stop playing. it's not that good of a game anyway.

I realised that if you want to be anyway good at cricket and play with the big boys you have to put far too much time in.

So I don't play cricket anymore.

Am I reading the wrong thread?

horsebokks

fade2black wrote:

This probably won't strike a chord with anyone here but sure I'll run it up a flagpole and see if someone salutes it.

I haven't played a hand of poker in about 10 months and I can't identify and single reason why. I know a few of the regular posters here and I have played with them in regular games throughout the south east, but one day I just stopped and since then I haven't had the desire to go back. I only ever played tournaments so it wasn't a loss of money that made me pack it in. I think I just got bored of the game. Let me try and explain further.

Every day I see threads on this about various hands of poker that went this way and that...and they bore me to tears. Everyone wants to tell their good and bad beat stories but the truth is, nobody cares, not one bit. They may humour you or they just won't listen at all...the thing is, when they're done not listening to you they'll meet someone else and give that person a chance to not listen to them. It's a natural thing, everyone wants to tell the story, but no one wants to listen.

Too many times I'd get into good positions in tournaments only for someone to pull off an amazing bit of luck on me...This would happen time and time again and it's true to say that in order to benefit from swings and roundabouts you have to be there again when the roundabout comes full circle....that means playing a helluva lot of cards, and having a helluva lot of patience. I guess I wasn't prepared to do one, and wasn't able to do the other.

I've made a lot of friends and contact from the game, and I certainly miss the social aspect of it but I've turned down so many games in the last few months and each time I've been at a loss for a proper reason to give.

My own personal conclusion, which many will not agree with, is that poker is not just a game for Christmas, it's a game for life and if you're not prepared to put the full time effort in, then you must be prepared for the bad beats and maybe more annoyingly, the bad beat stories.

knowing you personnally,over the past year your priorities changed & passion for poker changed with them....but,if you became really bored with hold'em & wanted to keep playing you could always try omaha for a different buzz

fade2black

CoD wrote:

i was refering to his original post, thought it was quite funny he said no one wants to read other peoples stories, then preceeds to tell us his poker quitting story...

ntlbell wrote:

You make a good point here...I was trying not to rant, and tell it like a bad beat and it's a pity it came out like that. Still, point taken.

This is pretty much the way the OP comes across to me.

I took up cricket...met some jolly aul chaps on the cricket feild the cigars and brandy was delightful.

I got ok at cricket but while playing some other jolly aul chaps who were pretty bad at cricket and didn't know how to bowl correctly I often got a smack of the cricket ball in the boll*x.

After getting the boll*x knocked off me one too many times I decided to stop playing. it's not that good of a game anyway.

I realised that if you want to be anyway good at cricket and play with the big boys you have to put far too much time in.

So I don't play cricket anymore.

Am I reading the wrong thread?

You're one of the guys that I like reading on the forum so I will take your opinions with more than a pinch of salt. Believe me though, that is definitely not the point of this thread. It was more of a 9 or so months on and why I didn't miss the game. I didn't have any more or any less bad beats than anyone else. I don't think I explained myself properly tbh and I probably made it too easy for the whole thing to come off as one big glorified bad beat. Essentially, I was trying to talk about the low points of the game and how they effect each different person.

5starpool wrote:

Slightly off topic for a min. Look, a couple of people have been annoyed at the content/tone of the OP, and I can sort of see why. Others agree with the sentiment and content of the OP and have expressed similar thoughts about their own poker past, and again I can see why. Because a couple of people agree and a couple disagree I fail to see the point of calling this place a damn clique as so often happens when some posters who are not frequent ones (and even occasionally ones who are frequent posters) fail to get everyone wholeheartedly agreeing with their posts. You have been around enough boards blocks f2b to know that even if you post the most perfect post ever with irrefutable evidence to back it up someone somewhere will still want to disagree with you.

I think I only really developed the attitude and tone that you're talking about after a few negative replies...I think I only did so because as an avid reader of this forum I saw a lot of newcomers berated by regulars that had forgotten that they were one time new comers too. To be honest though, all forums can be like that but you have to admit that this forum, as great as it can be and as sociable as it can be, can sometimes come across as cliquey and intimidating to new comers. Nevertheless, I didn't want to come off as being antagonistic.

fade2black

horsebokks wrote:

knowing you personnally,over the past year your priorities changed & passion for poker changed with them....but,if you became really bored with hold'em & wanted to keep playing you could always try omaha for a different buzz

If you know me personally through poker you're no doubt someone I have a lot of time for...if, or when I play poker again, it'll have to be texas...

cardshark202

I don't get this. You write a post giving you're thoughts on why you no longer play poker. Then some people critique your post, ie pok3rplaya, and you call them 'poker snobs' for doing so?? How silly. There is no real answer to your post. Play poker or don't play poker, its up to you. Pretty mindless thread imo, but then again, I'm probably just a 'poker snob'.