Why Poker?

[rory]

Why do you guys play poker?

For me, I play for a few reasons... and, surprisingly, #1 is not money. The #1 reason why I play poker is that it is a competitive game. And I like games, especially competitive games. I want to be the best at every game I play. Poker is just the first game I have found where I can also win a lot of money if I get good at it so I am not just 'wasting my time', whatever that means. So the #1 reason why I play is that it is a competitive game-- my competitive game of choice for the past few years. #2 is that I can win a lot of money playing it.

I think this why I have zero interest in playing 50 tables, even though I am pretty sure I could crush the 10-20 six-max game for more than I am beating the higher limits. And also why I really enjoy being in hands heads-up with good players. And is probably why I get bored when I am playing in a "good game", even though it is exactly the type of game I should be most excited about playing in, since I win the most money at it. The "good game" is boring because the strategy is fairly straightforward. No trickery or deep thought involved-- well not as much as when you are playing against a good player. I think it might also be the reason why I am more immune to tilt than most people, and don't do things like shout or get angry or punch my monitor or whatever. My #1 goal is to play the best I possibly can to beat the competitive game, not win money, so when I fail at winning money I am not that upset. I get more upset when I am not playing well, which in turn prompts me to get mad at myself and stop playing when I am not playing well, an excellent defense mechanism for long term survival in poker.

It could be that moving up to uncomfortable limits makes #2 take precedence over #1, because the money becomes more important. And then I will lose some of my advantage in the game such as the desire to play perfectly and not get upset, because the money lost might overshadow the desire to play well. This is why I have taken longer to move up to limits that Schneids and BK are playing, even though I am rolled to play in the games. However the desire to excel at the competitive game means I must move up in limits and play against tougher and tougher opposition. There is a balance between #1 and #2 inside of me-- when the money gets big, #2 starts to become more important than #1. I think this balance is very healthy to have, keeps me from playing too high or playing in very tough games but doesn't keep me out of moving up limits quickly or playing in moderately tough games.

This post is entirely inappropriate and appropriate for HUSH. HUSH people are my peeps so I'm posting it here rather than in psychology. Just things to think about.

[Entity]

Another good post.

One of the reasons that I'm less tilt-immune is that I still haven't learned to dissociate bad results from bad play, and vice-versa. When I play well I expect to win -- as generally happens in competitive sports/activites I involve myself in, and I need to learn to realize that there is enough variance in poker that I need to judge my own actions based on what they are, and not on what they provide.

Meh. I'm rambling. Trying to come up with a coherent way to think about life and poker that doesn't frustrate me right now.

Rob

[PokerBob]

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Why do you guys play poker?


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Because I quit my job. Also, IMO there is just SOOOOO much money out there to be made with the WSOP and WPT stocking the lakes with fishies. Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.

[sublime]

to meet chicks

duhhhhhhhh

[rory]

Try pilates.

[Ghazban]

Well said. I feel pretty much the same way.

[Derek in NYC]

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The #1 reason why I play poker is that it is a competitive game. And I like games, especially competitive games. I want to be the best at every game I play.

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Totally agree. It is really sick.

The money is so irrelevant to me that I have never withdrawn a penny of my bankroll yet have declared and paid taxes on it.

However, I do aspire to play in big games someday, although I would never play in such a game using funds other than my segregated bankroll. Which is why, at some point, the money does become important to me. The way I see it, if I dont shepherd my bankroll, I dont get to play poker anymore.

[sublime]

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Try pilates.

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or MIT book discussion club?

[naphand]

money

perhaps more accurately, make enough money and still have 20 hours left each day to do what I want. plus I can (in theory) play anywhere so I am not restricted geographically.

so it is all about the money - but only because I can play where and for how long I want and choose my $$/time.

hopefully later this year I can secure some land and start a smallholding. live in a tipi for a year or two while we fix up the derelict old barn. it has its own spring, looks out over a beautiful bay, has no nearby houses yet is only a short walk from the town I currently live in. all I have to worry about is getting the satellite connection and setting up a source of electricity (wind/sun). the rest should be easy...

ha-ha. it might just happen. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[stripsqueez]

i read the title before opening and mentally answered the question with "because its a competitive game" - since childhood i have addictively played games - some games you can master and once i do i go from having to play them virtually everyday for a big chunk of the day to never playing them again overnight - arcade games were the early victims - other games you never master and that creates a conundrum for me because i cant stop playing them so now i have a couple of accumulated addictions of which poker is 1

but poker holds a different lure for me which is that i love to gamble - if i can bet money on something i always do - i gamble on several games of chance (i love craps the most) although for some reason i'm yet to fully fathom i have never lost more than i could afford to lose and i have never played games of chance addictively - if i can beat something i can bet on i always eventually do - horses, sports, and various card games are all long term winners for me now although i have all but given up horses because over the last 20 odd years it takes a lot of work to beat - but it did provide me with a living for several years in my late teens and early twenties

in terms of my plan to master poker (which i'm aware will never happen for anybody) it doesnt centre on playing better players at higher limits - i play up to 40/80 on-line but i think i derive more wisdon from playing 3/6 stud8 or 1/2 draw or tournaments or even regressing down to low limit short handed games - making a good living putting in 1,000 odd hands a day at a mid limit game of some description i can beat gives me plenty of time to indulge the lessons

i suspect that ultimately ring games arent going to do it for me - tournaments have a far better competitive edge

i have wondered how it is that i became like this - it might of been a horse called leonards inn that i had a dollar each way on at 100/1 that got up by a nose when i was 13 - or it could be that my great grandfather was a bookmaker in england in the 1800's - or it could be that i'm just the most competitive person i know - which ever way i've grown into loving it

stripsqueez - chickenhawk