"retirement"

well guys i can't handle it anymore.


i know poker is supposed to be fun and all but i almost feel like its consuming me. i read my poker books nearly as much as i read my school books. i'm going to the casino or clicking on the truepoker server instead of studying like i should, my grades are starting to falter.


but thats not really whats bothering me. whats bothering me is the fact that poker seems to have become what dictates whether i'm having a good day or a bad day. if i'm running good i'm on top of the world, but other days when the cards aren't coming and i'm taking bad beats or whatever, i just get so agitated that i feel angry for quite some time afterward.


i suppose i'm just not cut out for this game. i think one quality i lack is the ability to not let bad days get to me. but they do. they affect me more than i'd like to divulge. even more so when its not a bad day but a bad week or whatever.


on the upside, my final stats for live poker are .75BB/hr (at 3-6) and on TP i'm up 855$. but the state of mind i enter when i'm running bad is not worth these small profit margins.


my parents think that i have become a borderline "gambling" addict. i try to tell them its not gambling, but in reality i think its safe to say LL hold'em has quite a large degree of "gambling" in it (though i believe skill wins over time).


if i ever play again it will be totally for the thrill of it, if i sit in your game i'll be the extremely loose-aggressive guy giving away his money, or running the table (if i'm getting lucky /images/smile.gif lol).


so, after a year and a half of play i'm announcing my "retirement" from my poker career (if you can call it that /images/smile.gif ). thanks for all the advice guys and good luck to all of you. i'm going to try and get back to what i'm supposed to be doing at this school.


adios.

I think Tommy has a great perspective about this issue which has been very helpful for me personally. (Insert "thank you" to Tommy here.)


To paraphrase "I can run bad and lose for four straight days and still have fun taking my girl out to dinner." I'm not totally there yet, but getting closer every day.


If you won't ever get to the point where a bad day of poker doesn't effect the rest of your life, then screw it. There are better hobbies out there for you.


Best of luck.

sounds like ya may have just needed a little time away.. or maybe ya already tried that. if ya havent, try it first. say a week or 2 of no cards. then come back fresh...


one of the toughest things to overcome is the fact that you shouldnt mind getting sucked out on, simply for the longterm benefit. you cant ask the players to play better really...but it does build up over a few sessions. *or 1 really bad session* sometimes the chips never seem to come your way at times, and those are the rough rides.


i enjoyed your inputs on posts and your posts in general...im hope we'll see ya on here again...


take it easy...


b

ditto. especially true since I'm currently in a forced, non-permanent retirement right now (thank you, again, IRS).

take up another hobby. I was/am lucky that i had fishing before I ever had poker. there's no more need to play cards than there is to fish, and one can occupy my time just as well as the other.

as an added bonus, if you fish, Zee will talk to you.

My two major hobbies. If had had to choose only one fishing would win easily, despite the fact that I've had a small win every year except one,lost a 100. After 25 yrs even small wins add up to a chunk of change. I'd give it up in a second to be able to fish.

If this is the way you feel, then you made a good decision.

I felt like this many times before, well damn I should of I used to be a professional sports bettor and had no choice. What I found best was not only trying to get away from it as best I could, but try to do something different. Play a different game, hold-em or any game gets old and painful if you play it over and over. The skillset you need in another game gets you over the boredom and you find yourself proving you have talent, but in different ways. Or even better do what I did. Awhile back I played poker consistently, not as a pro, but as a nice hobby with some profit. It got old and then I played only tournaments. That was more fun than the live game I found and after awhile I was ready to take on the live games again. A guy who plays one game endlessly is sure to lose his edge and his mind if he keeps it up too long...

thank you for the advice guys


i'm going to do both things you suggest starting with taking the rest of this quarter (9 weeks) off.


i think when i come back i'm just going to play cheap online tourneys for awhile to try and gain some confidence back before i enter the fray of ring games again.


well, thanks again, and i'll "see" you in a couple months.