Out Of Love?

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 ;)