Do you love poker?

[Demana]

Loving poker is knowing and accepting poker for everything that it is. This is different than loving to play poker.

[Demana]

For those that answered "The question is irrelevant", why do you think that the question is irrelevant?

[Reef]

It's kind of a love/hate thing IMO

[JackWilson]

I love winning. Big pots. Check-raising LAGs.

But man do I HATE losing. And being card dead.

You what I hate the most? Monster draws that don't come in. I'm talking 13+ outers on the flop.

Wait, something I hate even more. Flopping something pretty good, betting and getting called all the way to the river, so I think my hand is good and I get showed a set or two pair. I mean AT LEAST raise me. I know. I'd actually rather not be raised but hands like that make me feel stupid for some reason.

Yeah it's love/hate.

Edit: Wait, one more. This actually happened as I was posting this. Picking up KK as your first decent hand in over 100 hands and seeing an Ace on the flop with 5 guys in the hand.

[Demana]

For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[NiceCatch]

[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you serious? If only people who loved their jobs went to work next Tuesday, our country's economy would come to a grinding halt.

It's called money. And poker is as good a way as any to win it. Now on the other hand, if you don't love poker, and you are a losing player... well then you'd be an idiot to keep playing. Actually, if that description fits you, call this number NOW: 1-800-GAMBLER

[DemonDeac]

i love poker....................but just as friends

[Pepsquad]

You know, to be honest, until I read this post I had never really stopped to consider the question.

What I realized is that I LOVED poker before I knew how to play it. I can remember a time I would go to the casino with $100, knowing that a flush beat a straight (and little else), usually came home without that $100 but that drive home was always like coming down off a high. Now, poker is much less exciting to me. I don't anticipate the turn of the card now very often except in a huge pot.

Poker has just become 2 cards, a decision, 3 cards, a decision, one more card, a decision, one last card and a decision...next hand. When I was losing, all I wanted to do was find a way to win at poker. Now that I'm winning at poker I feel chained to it in some ways.

God I'm melodramatic tonight. I think I need a break.

[NiceCatch]

That wasn't a very peppy post. You know what it is? It's the thrill of the gamble. That's what kept you at the edge of your seat, every time you waited for that next card flip over. I enjoy that feeling too. But I also love the psychological aspect of the game, the feints and lunges, the tricks, the bluffs, the monsters, the slowplays, the fastplays. All of it. The fact that a day doesn't go by where I haven't learned something (usually alot of things) about the game. The fact that the game forces me to be the best that I can be.

Maybe it's the form of poker you play, pep. In my mind, limit poker has no soul. Even long-handed no-limit is a game of math and patience.

Short-handed no-limit Texas hold 'em. Now that is the Cadillac of poker. Amen.

[Demana]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For those that answered "No" or "The question is irrelevant", why continue to do something that does not make you happy?

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you serious? If only people who loved their jobs went to work next Tuesday, our country's economy would come to a grinding halt.

It's called money.


[/ QUOTE ]

True, the economy would come to a screeching halt, but we would also live in a world that was a better place to live. Grinding long hours at a job that you hate does not serve you in the long run anymore than cold calling a preflop cap with 72 offsuit does.

Money does not buy happiness. It is simply a tool that may provide you with other ways to pursue happiness.