Ever feel like...

[revots33]

there's a more productive use of your time than playing poker?

For the past week I decided to take a break from the game. This was not due to a downswing - it was because I felt like I was playing too much. I figured that I'd been averaging 3-4 hours a night, 6 nights a week. That's a large percentage of my waking hours spent pushing virtual chips around a table. I rationalized this by the fact that I was winning. So how could it possibly be wasted time?

In the past week off from poker, I went to visit my neices and nephews, took my wife to the movies and dinner, went out hiking and took some photographs, and finally got around to reading "1984". These are all the types of things that poker was crowding out of my life.

I still enjoy playing and plan to keep my hobby. But I'm going to limit myself to 3 nights a week, even if that means I'll have less income. Poker is a great game but taking a break helped me realize how many other things are important as well.

If there's anyone out there who feels like they might be spending too much time on poker, I think it's a good experiment to take a week off and see what happens. You might remember some of the other things you found fun, before you discovered poker. For me, I hope it will help make my life more balanced, and my time spent playing poker more enjoyable.

Thats why i dont play poker all that much.

[PAUL-IN]

consider yourself lucky...if you feel the 'need' to play, and you hit the felt hard, and have no choice but to take time off from the game, one would be in much worse shape mentally than if he/she were to take a break voluntarily.

ever heard the saying, "success begets success?" Well, i've noticed that usually it's the players who have succeeded in life's other things(carreers mostly) who actually win the major tournaments...maybe there's something there to think about.

i've noticed that when i've played just to make money, with no other income, my spirit was usu. racked with ugly ideas and a black cloud constantly followed me. partly that has to do with the fact that i'm probably not good enough to play professionally. now that i'm married, have a great job in a great town, i've found that when I play, my thoughts are clearer, I play stronger, and I enjoy the time better.

again, consider yourself lucky!

[4thstreetpete]

excellent post revots33. I'd probably spend a lot less time playing poker if I was married. There's lots more thing more important than poker.

Yes and no. I love games. Board games, computer games, miniature games, hell, I even like Spider solitaire on the PC. I used to play ALOT of computer strategy games. I'd also go in waves of painting miniatures for fantasy table top games.

Part of why I like games is I always have the edge, I'm good with numbers, with concepts of opportunity cost and risk, all things that work well in poker. I've found that now I tend to play poker instead of computer games or PBM strategy games. It seems to scratch that same itch.

Now and then I burn out and play something else, or paint miniatures (I think that hits some sort of artistic itch that I need to scratch periodically). But yea, when I go to sit down to play something I tend to think sometimes I *should* play poker since I make money at it. I have to remind myself though that I play for fun so when I sit down I should just play whatever the heck I feel like playing.

It's gotten tougher though the higher stakes I go...making $30/hour at poker means playing Civ 4 for 5 hours tonight cost me $150. But I don't want to be a slave to the game...but it's $150 bucks...

I suspect it'll always be hard, but lately I've been telling myself to do other things during the weekdays when games are tighter and save poker more for fri/sat/sun. Cuts down on my rakeback, but I don't burn out so much so either.

[SNOWBALL138]

I'm totally addicted to poker, and I have no life, so there's not a whole lot for me to "rediscover". Most of my income is from poker too, so...

But it sounds like you made the right move. How did you like 1984? Have you ever read Homage to Catalonia? I think its Orwell's best book. Its totally amazing actually.

[revots33]

[ QUOTE ]
How did you like 1984? Have you ever read Homage to Catalonia? I think its Orwell's best book. Its totally amazing actually.

[/ QUOTE ]

1984 blew me away - very intense and powerful stuff. It's also the first Orwell book I've read (how I managed to avoid him in high school and college I'm not sure) - but I will definitely check out Homage to Catalonia, thanks for the recommendation. Right now I'm just starting on Brave New World. I must be on a dystopia kick.