If you are playing 800-1000 hands per day, you're messing up your life

[Robk]

Hi Lori,

I couldn't agree more. If one of the 2+2 authors made a commensurate blunder about poker strategy we'd never hear the end of it (see Mason's K4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] hand for the response to a relatively minor error). But when Al gives psychology advice like this it goes relatively unnoticed. Not only was this statement hasty and uninformed, but his poker advice was possibly even worse, as I argued in the initial thread. I haven't read many of his posts, but if he said something like this I can only imagine there are many similar instances.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry to be so blunt, but your life is grossly unbalanced, and unbalanced lives are unhealthy.


[/ QUOTE ]

I work 4 hours a day to get those hands. that leaves me with LOTS of free time to pursue the things I want to pursue. I could argue that your 9-5 job makes your life far more unbalanced than mine is.

[Homer]

How about sitting in a cubicle 8 hours a day? Is that healthy?

[TimM]

I know this is a troll, but I will answer anyway.

I average about 20 hours of poker per weeks and about 600 hands per day. If I had more time I would play more. My goal is for online poker provide a good consistent part-time income, similar to a part-time job or business that others might pursue when they need or want additional income.

I am not a compulsive gambler and I have exactly zero of the criteria for pathological gambling from DSM-IV. I have some pre-occupation with poker but it is a pre-occupation with improving my game by reading and gaining a lot of playing experience. I never particularly liked gambling, and would not even bother with poker if I did not think I could be a consistent winner.

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
I never particularly liked gambling, and would not even bother with poker if I did not think I could be a consistent winner.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stop thinking of it as gambling. I hate it when people call me a gambler. I'm no more a gambler than a stock trader, yet they don't deal with a stigma attached to their proffesion. Playing the lotto is gambling, pumping quaters endlessly into a slot machine is gambling. A winning poker player makes his money on skill and lots of study and work. Thats alot more than can be said for the majority of proffesions in this world

[Inthacup]

This post refers to a thread in the psychology forum where the 2+2 resident psychologist makes a sadly uninformed statement.

Link please

[Lori]

Troll and well known psychologist agree word for word

Lori

[GrannyMae]

yes, but the REAL question is whether Elizabeth-Anne is in this thread somewhere.

hmmmm
(NOT you lori)

[TimM]

Agreed, I don't think of poker as gambling at all.

What I meant that I don't particularly like those other forms of gambling you mentioned. I don't play lotto, slots, crap, roulette, etc. I have played some Blackjack, without counting. I have studied counting, over 20 years ago, but never tried to put it in practice. Blackjack is about the only gambling game I can tolerate because at least you get to make some playing decisions, and there is some skill in making your EV as close to zero as you can. Even then I only played once every few years.

I do go through the same kinds of things when explaining it to others sometimes. One friend and co-worker always goes back and forth - every time I tell him about a losing session, he says maybe you aren't cut out for this, maybe the game can't be beaten, etc. Then later I tell him about a winning session and he starts saying maybe he should get into it too. Now if i tell him I lost on Wednesday but won on Saturday, I get "well maybe you should just play on weekends, maybe the players are better during the week", etc., as if I could conclude that from one session.

One friend instant messaged me during a game, and I told her I was playing, and she says "well don't lose your shirt, and don't tell me you won't." Of course right after that I have my single biggest losing day. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] Her answer to that was "Serves you right!"

I later told another friend about that day, and she says "well Tim maybe it's not good to be gambling all the time", etc. So I told her the amount was only about 10% of what I've made so far, in my first few months of playing (and I made back most of it this weekend).

So, as much as we try to not think of it as gambling, as long as you have friends and family to "answer to", it's not so easy. I've started to try to keep quiet about individual sessions, and change the subject when asked, and maybe only talk about long term results.

[BradleyT]

on the net though thats only a few hours if you're a quadder.