For me, all the fun in trading was in finding profitable opportunities. I should start a billion-dollar hedge fund, but then, when I'm done selling it - and have the strategy all mapped out - I'll have to screw down and trade for the next 10 years!


And I'm bored of poker, it's the same thing every round. I'm in almost every hand raising pre-flop, and then it's me and the big blind and one other guy - trying to pick me off or rope-a-dope or something. So all the sharks end up on my left, and all the fish on my right where I can "claim" them.


Any time a fish raises to my right, I re-raise with anything. If no one has opened, and it's nothing but sharks behind me to the button, I'll fold just about anything short of rockets. And so some people think I'm "changing gears" or something, other people think I'm a maniac, and they all make their silly, transparent little "adjustments" right before my eyes!


On the flop, if they both call, I muck. If one folds, I'll put a read on the other one, and either re-re-raise or muck. Then, they try to pick up on some pattern, and fire back with their own raises, or just call on the turn, but it's so obvious, it's the same thing every time. They spend a whole rack just trying to get up to speed.


I bluff bet and they fold. I bluff bet, they call, and I fold. Next time, I bet, they raise, and I fold. Next time, I bet, they raise, thinking I am bluffing, I reraise, they would fold the turn - but I check! Next time, I bluff, they bet, I check-raise, they re-raise with nothing, that's the point they're at. You catch them coming and going, lucky and unlucky, up, down, hand after hand after hand it goes.


And I'm not even that good! In the course of an hour, my opponents can give up about eleven big blinds, in bad capped-flop play and stupid river calls. And I give back about six of those in over-loose calling pre-flop, and still hope to end up with five. The only real skill I've aquired is to swim in a way that keeps about twelve feet of water between me and the other sharks.


So, anyway, I'd much rather push the people, and use my reading skills that way, it'd be much more fun. The only way to really have fun with people at a poker table is to make them all poor. And the only way to get to hang out with other fun people is to get poor yourself. Can you imagine playing at a table with Ray Zee, Tommy Angelo, and Abdul Jalib?


With poker, it's either a bust, or it's Romper Room. I'm bored of it, and I'd take another job, where I could talk to about a thousand different people on the phone each day, in a second. Heck, just to sell some guy a pound of beans, I'd be willing to give him as much attention as I used to give girls


So even if nobody actually bought a single bean for 10 years, I'd be having more fun just trying! Or, if it ever got easy, maybe then we'd start to have a problem. So, anyway, when I see someone like GummyWorm, and how much fun he is having playing poker, I have to admit I'm a little jealous.


eLROY