poker is boring

[joker122]

i remember when it was my favorite thing to do. after class i couldn't wait to get home and log a few hours. then i'd rush through my homework so i could play more. nowadays, my sessions usually last 20 minutes and i end up quitting due to the mind numbling monotony. maybe monotony isn't the right word, because i'm still constantly challenged with difficult decisions. but the difference is lately i don't have fun making those decisions.

basically, poker has become like any other job i've ever had, and i hate working. i honestly thought this would never happen.

those of you that have been playing for a year or longer, have you had a similar experience? does anyone have any suggestions as to how i can make playing fun again?

thanks.

[the_rookie]

Do you play any other games? Sometimes I play 7 card stud, omaha, etc. just to change things up. If I really get bored at poker I'll pick up another hobby for a while like chess or something.

[BusterStacks]

This is very sucky to hear. Is this what I can look forward to?

[Reef]

get into day trading and real estate

[greg nice]

play no limit

[theBruiser500]

Me too. Take a break from poker, move up in stakes. I was just bored with the game for a while but now I'm enjoying it after moving up in stakes and taking a break and running well. I think this happens to everyone, no one belives it either when they first get infatuated with the game.

[J.R.]

Stop playing and stop thinking about poker and do other stuff. Play live if you can. People grow up and change, and when you get down to it, poker isn't that sexy, interesting and varied an endeavor, especially when its limit and is online. There so much more to life than money, at least when you have some money.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
basically, poker has become like any other job i've ever had, and i hate working.

[/ QUOTE ]

Come on, this is ridiculous. Did you have as much freedom at any other job as you do with poker? How about office BS? I don't think playing poker for a living, at least as a grinder, is something you do for fun.

Anyway, poker is not a job, it's a business. You are your own boss. If you don't work, you don't make any money, and you can sometimes lose money even when you do work.

[BusterStacks]

Basically I look at day trading as higher stakes slooooooooow poker. How much would you need to invest before you could not work and have positive cash flow?

[Evan]

This depends on a lot of things. Where do you live? How do you need to live to be happy?

[BusterStacks]

what would you need for 100k before taxes?

[AAeyes]

The first day I realized how bored I was playing poker was also the first day I realized I'd gotten pretty good... I think of it like the Matrix... what used to look like action-packed adventure was really just a bunch of numbers flying across the screen. Headphones help a little...

Best Wishes

AAeyes

[Evan]

To make 100K in investments?

If you can return 10% per annum long term you're doing pretty well. That would be $1M to start.

[BottlesOf]

My interest waxes and wanes, although it seems like my fluctuations are of a smaller magnitude. I think you should just take time off. Don't do it if you don't like it. You'll be back when you're ready /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[rewt75]

WE'RE GONNA HURT HIM IN A CASH GAME

[B1GF1SHY]

It's boring because you're not challenging yourself, I'm sure if you went and played higher stakes you'd be interested again. Maybe that's just me.

[Thomsen]

do something else for a while.
Buy a nice mountainbike, some running shoes or something.

play other games - backgammon (loads af people play for real money on the net lots of fun) - or other pokervariations 5 card stud for ex.

download Counterstrike !

play live !!!

[AngryCola]

This happens to me sometimes.

The important thing is to change things up.
Play different games.
If you mostly play sidegames, play in a tournament, or vice versa.
Taking a few days to a week off can work wonders.
Find other hobbies which are still "fun" to you.

It can, and often does, become like many other jobs. No matter what field you are in, once you strat doing something for a living, it becomes more work than play.
Just keep mixing things up to make playing the game more interesting.

[csuf_gambler]

its beats the hell out of having a 9-5 job. i'd rather be sitting at home playing poker on my comp then doing some b1tch work at a "real job".

i have this one friend that works at cofee bean, he works from 5:30am to 2:30pm, everyday. i would never ever want to do that. im making the same if not more money then he is while "working" less hours.

i can be chillen at home, watching tv, sipping on some cognac, surfing the web, chatting, doing whatever the hell i want while "working". now compare that to working at some bullsh1t job at K-mart or something. i make my own hours and im my own boss, what could be better?

[helpmeout]

Poker is boring, of course it is, everything you do over and over and over again becomes boring.

You gotta have goal.

I dont know about you but my goal is to not work, this means I need to accumulate $1million or so to make a relatively easy $50k a year.

How am I going to reach this goal? Its not going to happen working a 9-5 job, its going to happen with poker.

Sure its boring as hell sitting at your computer playing the same damn game day after day. Trying to perfect your game by reading the same old boring stategy books posting on these forums and reading posts which are similar to the ones you have been reading for the last 6 months.

You just have to use it as motivation to work harder.

In 4-5 years I will be free.

Oh yeah, if you are burnt out, just take a few days off and think about the big picture.

[zaxx19]

Um heres a shocker....LIMIT HOLDEM is boring. Ive never played alot of limit its tedious and save for a 3 day stint on Party Poker not even that profitable for me. Try limit Omaha 8 o B or try NLH baby games...STT or MTT. Nothing is more fun in poker than MTT in NLH...just a ton of fun if not overly profitiable for most.

[Trix]

[ QUOTE ]
download Counterstrike !


[/ QUOTE ]

Did this a couple of weeks ago, pm me if u wanna play some.

[fsuplayer]

I went through the same thing during my downswing. it helped to have a gf to keep my mind off it.

anyways,switch limits, games, play live a few times. do all that after taking a couple days off and you should be feeling much better about everything.

i took a week or so off, then switched back to NL and havent looked back since.

gl to you joker.

fsuplayer

[jackaaron]

To me, if you're making money, it's never boring. I'm just starting out, but it was like I won the WSOP the other day when I got to 183 in my first tourney ever. Everone's different, of course, and some will get bored I'm sure. But, winning is never boring.

[Tosh]

Yep this happens to pretty much everyone at some stage.

[AviD]

Take a break, do whatever you feel like doing now, and eventually you'll get the poker bug again and start playing.

Either that, or try a different game or tournaments (if you are playing ring games now). Or play live (which to some is more boring, but its a change of pace) if you are only playing online.

Everyone gets burnt out after awhile, if all else fails, take a break...you'll be back! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Alobar]

sounds like you are burnt out. The thing to do is take complete time off from poker. I dont mean just playing, I mean studying, reading these forums, thinking about it, EVERYTHING. Say for like a week. If thats not possible to do because you live on poker or something, at least do it for 3 days.

[Rudbaeck]

I actually find NL boring. There are so few hard decisions. (There are plenty of decisions involving many chips, but they are generally easy.)

Little kicks every ten minutes does more for me than one big kick every five hours.

But yes, OP should explore other forms of poker. Variation keeps you sharp.

[Bob Moss]

play BIGGER!

Bob

[AngryCola]

Um heres a shocker...

You don't know what you're talking about.

Almost everyone agrees NL is more boring than limit. You would be in the minority to suggest otherwise. Limit forces you to make far more decisions than NL. I could elaborate further, but I'm not going to.

It's shocking you would get something else wrong.

[Greg J]

Try O8, 7cs, or NL (or limit if you play NL).

[thirddan]

play live or play tourneys...
playing live is much more engaging and you can focus solely on making decisions since you can't watch a movie etc etc

play tourneys, they are much more exciting and i get a rush from them. Andyfox had a thread a while ago asking why he thought differnt losing X amount in entry fees was different then losing X amount in big bets, you might find it interesting if tourneys interest you, sorry i don't have a link...

[MarkL444]

since you apparently dont want to quit, im gonna jump on the learn a new game bandwagon (and by learn i mean learn well)

[sublime]

basically, poker has become like any other job i've ever had, and i hate working. i honestly thought this would never happen

go get a job at kinkos for a month. play no poker. compare your paycheck to what your expected earn would have been.

that experiance should carry you for at least another year.

[spadeclub99]

[ QUOTE ]
Almost everyone agrees NL is more boring than limit. You would be in the minority to suggest otherwise. Limit forces you to make far more decisions than NL. I could elaborate further, but I'm not going to.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, I think you are completely wrong, playing limit correctly is extremely boring. Most of your decisions are predetermined by the math and cards. And if it is a close decision then it doesnt't matter what you do as the EV is virtually the same either way. No Limit or Pot Limit is real poker. It is a game that can be played well with many different styles. There is no default "correct" strategy. You are playing the other players more than the cards, especially with deeper stacks in a live game. There are so many more factors that go into every decision and each decision is much more important. No form of poker is more exciting and interesting strategicially as live NL with stacks greater than 200BB. Playing party NL with 50BB stacks can be boring as well as the strategy is limited and you need to play straightforward. That is my personal opinion.

Boring, however is subjective, some find the faster pace of limit exciting, while some find the strategic thinking and psychological aspects of deep stack NL exciting. So your saying that one is definately more boring is a stupid statement as boringness is an opinion.

That the majority opinion is that limit is more exciting, I don't think that is clear. Why do they call it grinding if limit poker is so exciting.

[IlliniRyRy]

[ QUOTE ]
Stop playing and stop thinking about poker and do other stuff. Play live if you can. People grow up and change, and when you get down to it, poker isn't that sexy, interesting and varied an endeavor, especially when its limit and is online. There so much more to life than money, at least when you have some money.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is an important point. I think when your mind is stimulated in a positive way by other things going on in your life, that stimulation carries over to poker. In the same way, I bet if right now you're finding poker boring, its because there's some other negativity going on that's unrelated to poker. That's been my experience at least. When life is good, poker is good. No, poker is GREAT. So go out and do something positive for awhile and when you come back you'll fall in love with the game again.

[sandrew]

Play some live games. I find I get bored with online poker, but I love the thrill of a live game. Go to the local cardroom play some low limit poker. There is something about a live interaction that makes the game more fun.

Agree with alot of other people on another point.. Live your life. Go do something different stimulate your brain.

[dealer_toe]

In limit you are playing you opponent just as much (some may argure more) as in NL. When to bet, when to reraise, all that is only succesful against certain opponents. If you try to bluff a Calling station, you're goin no where. so it is just as important to play your opponent in limit hold em.

[spadeclub99]

I agree in all forms of poker you play your opponent, my point was that I think there is more opportunity to play your opponent in NL, since showdowns are much less common than in most limit games. I have never played high stakes limit, so these comments do not apply to those games.

[zaxx19]

In limit you are playing you opponent just as much (some may argure more) as in NL. When to bet, when to reraise, all that is only succesful against certain opponents. If you try to bluff a Calling station, you're goin no where. so it is just as important to play your opponent in limit hold em.

Wow this is perhaps the oddest post ive ever heard....Is limti holdem really a game of bluffing?? not usually imho..NLH is all about bluffing/trapping/ and semi bluffing. I mean you can be a decent low limit player by playing Lee Jones by the book Lholdem and almost never bluffing..or restealing.

[1111]

There are more decisions to be made in NL because of the betting structure. Sklansky breaks down limit to its core with his 8 mistakes essay, but that would need to be extended for NL because you could add many more mistakes because of the ability to alter your bet. Not making large enough bets is a very common mistake in NL, as well as overbetting too often. The other variations of this are obvious.

There is certainly a lot going on in a limit game in each hand, but your statements make it seem like NL is more of waiting for big hands than it actually is. The semi-bluff and bluff is so much more effective in NL that essentially -- with a solid understanding of position, bluffing, and betting patterns -- you could play profitably irregardless of your cards if you are skilled enough at the game. That certainly is not be boring!

[FUpaymee]

Switch to NL S&G's. Much more exciting IMO and seems to be more profitable (at least for me). Play like 3 or 4 tournaments during the day and take a break and then play more at night. I've found that playing more than 4 tourneys in a row can cause you to make stupid mistakes around tourney #5 or 6. But they are certainly more exciting.

[joker122]

i think my boredom was a result of the shitty run i've been having, which had me winning .6BB/100 for 29k hands (i know it's not a downswing, but it felt that way). i took 2 days off and tonight and ran really well. poker is fun again! thanks guys.