I have had a long
absence from online poker because of major surgery, which drained me
and left my mind very foggy for quite a while after it. Essentially I
got out of the habit of playing poker all the time. Now fully
recovered (touch wood) my head is clear and I am getting the energy
back to return to my hobbies but something has changed in my
relationship with poker, something is missing. I still like
analysing the game, making critical decisions based on mathematics
and knowing the habits of my opponents better than they know
themselves, but I am on the verge of withdrawing my profit and saying
goodbye to the online game.
The period of
reflection during my recovery made me prioritise my life and to cut
a long story short messing about online for fractions of dollars at a
time seems like time wasted. I have reset goals in
my personal and professional life and there is little time left for
daydreams of 'crushing the microstakes.' The lack of any clear and
definable skill edge in no limit holdem has also dampened my
enthusiasm for mastering the game and since winning largely depends
on sitting down with richer but weaker players and also getting
lucky, the most important skill in poker is choosing the right game
to be in and hoping it lasts long enough for the luck to even out. I
honestly do not believe any more that anyone wins in the long run at
nlhe except for websites, casinos and poker publications: Websites
get our money, websites sponsor players, publications sell us the idea
that the websites are a good thing and that the players are winners
who we can aspire to be like. The players do not actually have to be
any good for this cycle to continue, which the real ace in the hole
for the industry. In fact the poker industry routinely promotes
players above their effective pay grade and they become victims of
the Peter principle, gambling away the website's (what used to be
our) money until they are replaced with the next big thing.
Since I love the buzz
of the game, enjoy shuffling, dealing and stacking chips I will of
course continue playing home games. It is all about the banter,
horrible cooking lager, even more horrible turn cards, accidental
glances at chip stacks (revealing intentions) and so much more. Poker
is where you match minds against minds, drop them in a boozy gambling
pit and see who manages to sucker punch the other first. Poker
(holdem anyway) is being dealt two random cards, lifting the first
one to see a glorious A in the corner and lifting the second to see a
heartbreaking off suit 6 (which btw without the straight potential is
arguably worse than A2 in many situations.) I love getting together
with friends, laying out the baize and getting stuck into a poker
session and feeling the evening stretching out before you with such
treacherous and exciting potential. I have just come to the
conclusion that online microstakes poker is a ball busting effort for
too little reward.
I have therefore
turned my continual learning bug to preparing for a guitar exam,
memorising countries of the world, plus scrabble, chess and
backgammon for the gaming itch. The latter has me firmly in the grip
of it's pointed (!) claws and bad beats in poker have absolutely
nothing on the twists and turns of backgammon dice. I also like the
way backgammon seems to be a more refined older person's game and not
so dominated by sports cap wearing teenagers. It is a game where I
feel like I can really fit in, and will probably end up losing the
bankroll I worked so hard to grind up from online poker. Lol
donkaments ;)
