[parttimepro]

Anybody else experiencing this? I've worked my way up from the microlimits to play $200 max NL. So with multitabling it's not unusual for me to have $1000 on the tables at any one time. I've achieved a skill which I think is necessary for successful play, which is that I feel comfortable risking a lot of money to pursue a thin edge.

The side effect of this is that it makes me care a lot less about throwing money around in the real world. Before I played poker, being a grad student, I was very frugal. Example: there's a soda machine at work that sells cans for 60 cents. I would rather buy 12-packs at the grocery store and bring them in to save the 30 cents a can. Going out to eat with my wife costs about $20. We tried to not go out too much and make things at home instead. But now, I can toss out $20 as a standard continuation bet.

Part of it is that poker is bringing in enough money that we don't have to scrimp as much, but I also feel like routinely betting hundreds of dollars is loosening my spending standards, to the point where I just don't care about a few dollars any more.