Do you love poker?

[Demana]

Loving poker is knowing and accepting poker for everything that it is. This is different than loving to play poker.

[Demana]

For those that answered "The question is irrelevant", why do you think that the question is irrelevant?

[Reef]

It's kind of a love/hate thing IMO

[JackWilson]

I love winning. Big pots. Check-raising LAGs.

But man do I HATE losing. And being card dead.

You what I hate the most? Monster draws that don't come in. I'm talking 13+ outers on the flop.

Wait, something I hate even more. Flopping something pretty good, betting and getting called all the way to the river, so I think my hand is good and I get showed a set or two pair. I mean AT LEAST raise me. I know. I'd actually rather not be raised but hands like that make me feel stupid for some reason.

Yeah it's love/hate.

Edit: Wait, one more. This actually happened as I was posting this. Picking up KK as your first decent hand in over 100 hands and seeing an Ace on the flop with 5 guys in the hand.

[Demana]

For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[NiceCatch]

[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you serious? If only people who loved their jobs went to work next Tuesday, our country's economy would come to a grinding halt.

It's called money. And poker is as good a way as any to win it. Now on the other hand, if you don't love poker, and you are a losing player... well then you'd be an idiot to keep playing. Actually, if that description fits you, call this number NOW: 1-800-GAMBLER

[DemonDeac]

i love poker....................but just as friends

[Pepsquad]

You know, to be honest, until I read this post I had never really stopped to consider the question.

What I realized is that I LOVED poker before I knew how to play it. I can remember a time I would go to the casino with $100, knowing that a flush beat a straight (and little else), usually came home without that $100 but that drive home was always like coming down off a high. Now, poker is much less exciting to me. I don't anticipate the turn of the card now very often except in a huge pot.

Poker has just become 2 cards, a decision, 3 cards, a decision, one more card, a decision, one last card and a decision...next hand. When I was losing, all I wanted to do was find a way to win at poker. Now that I'm winning at poker I feel chained to it in some ways.

God I'm melodramatic tonight. I think I need a break.

[NiceCatch]

That wasn't a very peppy post. You know what it is? It's the thrill of the gamble. That's what kept you at the edge of your seat, every time you waited for that next card flip over. I enjoy that feeling too. But I also love the psychological aspect of the game, the feints and lunges, the tricks, the bluffs, the monsters, the slowplays, the fastplays. All of it. The fact that a day doesn't go by where I haven't learned something (usually alot of things) about the game. The fact that the game forces me to be the best that I can be.

Maybe it's the form of poker you play, pep. In my mind, limit poker has no soul. Even long-handed no-limit is a game of math and patience.

Short-handed no-limit Texas hold 'em. Now that is the Cadillac of poker. Amen.

[Demana]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you serious? If only people who loved their jobs went to work next Tuesday, our country's economy would come to a grinding halt.

It's called money.


[/ QUOTE ]

True, the economy would come to a screeching halt, but we would also live in a world that was a better place to live. Grinding long hours at a job that you hate does not serve you in the long run anymore than cold calling a preflop cap with 72 offsuit does.

Money does not buy happiness. It is simply a tool that may provide you with other ways to pursue happiness.

[Dentist]

seriously. the rush of winning a big prize in a multi-table tourney or taking down a HUGE pot with a brilliant move is quite possibly a more powerful rush than porking a chick... unless she's super hot like Jessica Alba, or if it's 2 chix.

[NiceCatch]

[ QUOTE ]

True, the economy would come to a screeching halt, but we would also live in a world that was a better place to live. Grinding long hours at a job that you hate does not serve you in the long run anymore than cold calling a preflop cap with 72 offsuit does.

Money does not buy happiness. It is simply a tool that may provide you with other ways to pursue happiness.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, you asked why people play poker if it doesn't make them happy, or has no effect on their happiness. They do it for money. I'm not saying it's right, but that's the answer to your question. Just as people work sh*t jobs for the money, alot of people play poker just for the money. While I personally agree with your way of thinking, not everyone does.

[Hulk Hogan]

I love it, but I am afraid it is a highly abusive relationship.

[plus_man]

I play it to make money. I don't need to love it.

[OrangeHeat]

I hate poker. I literally hate sitting down and playing poker.

The problem is I like the money from poker. Catch-22...

Orange

[underaged]

Eh... I used to really really like poker but the more days I play the more it feels like a job. I still get an adrenaline rush from pocket rockets and cowboys good flops/turns/rivers etc. Overall, I still enjoy playing poker, but not as much as I used to.

[SenecaJim]

I love to play poker, watch poker, read about poker, and I love to PokeHer. Is this the same as loving poker. The sum of the parts thing ? I don't know.

[boudge7]

I love the game, and everything it entails. Like many of you I watch poker, play poker, and study poker. On top of everything, going to school to become a Chemcial Engineer, I find/make time for the game I love. I am a preacher of the game, and I try to make everyone around me love the game like I do.
Boudge7

[toots]

I used to love poker until I learned how to quit losing. Now, I'm not so sure.

1) I hate the [censored]-to-elbow seating. I'd like a little more stretch-out room
2) I hate the obligatory rock or drunk who has to throw a fit over everything that happens at the table
3) I hate having to wait for a good hand, which seems antithetical to having fun. (Note that sometimes, I'll decide to have fun rather than win.)
4) I hate most poker players. Most poker players are jerks, and the side of their personality you see at the table isn't their best.

Why do I keep playing? Dang good question. I used to love playing, but couldn't afford to be losing money all the time. I picked up S&M et al to be able to afford to play more often. Now that I've done so, it isn't as much fun to play, 'cause I have to quit being a maniac. And I enjoy being a maniac.

I played BJ at FW for the first time in years last week. (After playing BJ on a cruise last fall, which was the first time I played any BJ in years.) What a completely different experience. More comfortable seating, people were allowed to have a sense of humor, people were rooting for each other instead of against each other. The dealer was allowed to have a personality.

I lost money, but gained quality fun.

I'm thinkin' maybe I should spend less time at FW, and what time I do spend should be spent in the pursuit of fun, even if it does cost more.

[CORed]

This poll should be muliple choice so I can check both "yes" and "no", or better yet, "I love poker" and "I hate poker".

[smarterthanyoda]

[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[/ QUOTE ]

I voted "No" because of this part of the question:

[ QUOTE ]
This is different than loving to play poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

I love to play poker. (But after reading some posts in the thread, that might change once I learn to play better.) I love sitting down at a table of people willing to play the game with some level of respect.

I don't love hanging around in noisy casinos waiting for a table. I don't love putting up with jerks that feel the need to berate other players, dealers, etc.

I don't love the "Tilt" perception so many people have. I have a friend that is a professional gambler, and he has gotten so many negative reactions to what he does that he won't tell people what he does very often. It's a shame, because I'm always amazed at his math skills, but most people ignore that because they immediately think "degenerate gambler."

Once I took the sheer enjoyment of playing out of the equation, I was left with these tangetial elements of the game and I decided the negatives outweighed the positives. If the question were "Do you love playing poker?" I would have voted yes, but this wasn't the question.

This post came out being more negative than I meant when I started typing, but I'm focusing on the negatives. To answer Demana's question, poker does make me happy or I would not be doing it. It's just some of the elements outside the game that annoy me and make the game less than it could be.

[SenecaJim]

[ QUOTE ]
[

This post came out being more negative than I meant when I started typing, but I'm focusing on the negatives. To answer Demana's question, poker does make me happy or I would not be doing it. It's just some of the elements outside the game that annoy me and make the game less than it could be.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's not a poker observation, that's life. Nothing is outside the game, it's all part of the big game.


Feel like I should say " Duuuuude" after that comment.

[KingDan]

[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "The question is irrelevant", why do you think that the question is irrelevant?

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Loving poker is knowing and accepting poker for everything that it is. This is different than loving to play poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can love playing poker and just hate losing sessions, being carddead etc

[Demana]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "The question is irrelevant", why do you think that the question is irrelevant?

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Loving poker is knowing and accepting poker for everything that it is. This is different than loving to play poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can love playing poker and just hate losing sessions, being carddead etc

[/ QUOTE ]

Loving to play poker is no different than loving to play any other game, but it does not mean that you love the game of poker. Only when you look beyond the immediate facade and understand the true nature of the something, can you truly love something (or someone).

btw - GTaOT is next on my list to be bought and read as I hope it will help me understand the game of poker better.

[OrangeHeat]

[ QUOTE ]
I used to really really like poker

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. But after working 55 hour weeks at the day job and 30 hours a week of poker at night for two straight years it gets old.

Orange

[Dave H.]

I do love poker with one exception: not being able to convince ANY of my friends or family of its beauty. Down to the last one of them, it is purely luck and nothing else.

[toots]

[ QUOTE ]
I do love poker with one exception: not being able to convince ANY of my friends or family of its beauty. Down to the last one of them, it is purely luck and nothing else.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, maybe you should quit trying, and let them get back to playing their part in setting national policy on science and mathematics education.

(just feeling a little cynical.)

[Dave H.]

lol Toots. Funny you should say that. My degree is in math and you know, I couldn't convince any of them of the beauty in that subject either! But at least they didn't consider it heresy!!

[toots]

I have great respect for anyone with a degree in math, excepting my older brother and Pat Buchanan's sister.

Well, I actually respect PB's sister, too, but my brother's still on the other list.

[Dave H.]

Why...did he cheat?