another poker thread

[unusualpete]

must admit i almost never play anymore. felt i had to stop. life was untenable as a reg. game got better but at the expense of the relationships in my life. wasn't even a pro. asked myself if it was a fair trade and didn't like the answer.



first grind of 2021.  regged some games online the other night cuz they emailed me a promo that was a good deal and i had nothing else going on as i'm off for the week. if they were all like this session i'd have probably never quit. there was no adversity. was 3 tabling .25-.50 cash and playing a 4th table in a mid stakes 8 max tournament. was a challenge to keep up, but got the tempo good in under half an hour. played from 9:30 at night to 3:30 in the morning.



the cash tables i bi for 60 x 3. kept getting all in on the turn as between a 65 and 80% fav. held up in every single one of those spots. 7 for 7. nobody runs that good. by session's end all three stacks increased to at least 180.



ran good in the 8 max too. final tabled. key hand was a 3 way all in pre that i 3 bet shoved 22 bigs with jacks. cracked aces and queens there. we were itm, but that gave the stack needed to make a run. came into ft 8/8 and laddered up to 5th from 230 runners. good but not great ft. elim by calling an all in vs my bb w ace ten off. villain had kj off and outflopped me.  right there, at the first piece of runbad i instaquit and haven't been back.  helps it was 3:30 and i was yawning.  know this feels like a brag, but realize in my heart and mind that any mouth breather is gonna win running like that.



emptied the account and forgot how much i hate the payout shit they put you through. when you bet races online they pay you direct deposit and it's there in a couple days at no cost to the player. don't use krypto or bitcoin, so i can either pay through the nose for moneygrams or i can wait up to 6 weeks for a check.

[spiderjohn]

Do what pleases you imo—you seem to feel knowledgeable and confident with the game. I play local tournaments once or twice a month and occasionally play straight low limits at a dog track when in FL.

Seems you have more control if your outcome than playing tbreds imo.
Anymore it seems that racing is like pulling he lever on slots

Your other comment reminds me of when I was a serious horseplayer and again when I was a very serious college hoops player. You have to choose between family/friends and watching games/playing races. A lot of interference and relationship disappointments and missed activities. You can ruin relationships forever—people get tired of waiting for you. There will always be another game or race.

I chose career and family—-definitely the right choice

[unusualpete]

imo the best kind of life is a balanced one. that game can be all consuming, keeping me off balance. i used to get obsessed and would work on it even when not competing. my general tenet was 'if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.' i probably therefore have the wrong personality to endure a prolonged era as a reg.

current example, you'd think i'd rest easy after the dream session tuesday night. all i can think about is how exploitable i was once the 8 max tournament got down to 24 runners. w 3 tables left i was 4/24, by the final table i was 8/8. nothing dramatic happened during those 16 eliminations. it's a skill to keep accumulating late stage in mtt's, but it's a perishable one. all i can think about as i write this is 'no way, no how should i have been 8/8.' my blinds were repeatedly stolen and there were good 3 bet fold spots that i didn't go for. i didn't steal their blinds either. 4/8 at worst is where i enter the ft if a reg.

[spiderjohn]

Hindsight is natural, and often difficult to manage. Either you learn from it, get a little smarter and better prepared, or it becomes obsessive and drives you crazy. I might read some of the latter in your posts.... however I honestly don’t know you or anything about you.

If it is what you like and want, go for it. Hopefully you can handle the mental stress and balancing challenges. I view gamblers as stress junkies and selfish.

I play it all occasionally when the vibe is right, taking a serious quick in and out. Gamblers are gamblers because they believe that they are smarter than others. Maybe we are smarter than many, but not everyone. always assume that those you don’t know are extremely capable.

Simply balancing a life in today’s world is challenging enough....