Friday, January 23, 2009

Why do I play Poker?

I had a comment the other day from RecessRampage that went something like this:

"Will, this is an honest question.Why the focus on poker? In other words, between your faith and your family (btw, are you still taking that class?), there seems to be a lot of time commitment that would be required. Sure, we all love poker but why the commitment to it? Do you love it that much? It's clearly not the money (I don't say that based on results but more because at the stakes that you play, sure it could result in couple of nice dinners but nothing that you can't cut out, I assume) so what is it?Just curious."

So, why do I play poker?

I'm not a winning player or should I say, I'm not a winning cash player. I'm probably ahead on tournaments as I had some early success. If it wasn't for bonuses and rakeback, I probably wouldn't be playing poker. So, again, why do I play poker.

I'll try to answer this the best that I can.

I definitely love the game. As I get older and am not able to compete in sports as I once used to, poker gives me something to put my competitive juices into. I'm truly competitive and when I find something that I like, I try to do what I can to get better and it really bugs me when I'm not. At least not consistently. I'm still playing on my original deposit of $60 some 4 or 5 years ago so I have that going for me.

It it an addiction? That's a tough question. I think are good and bad addictions. Bad addictions take away materially from other important stuff like faith and family then RR mentioned. I could say that faith and family are above poker; but it would only be kind of true. Especially, when it comes to my faith (I am still taking that class by the way). I don't put as much time as I need with that. I'm still trying or planning to get back to that.

As far as family goes, I still put them above poker as most of my poker playing comes after kids are asleep. So, yes, it is probably an addiction; but hopefully I'm keeping it somewhat reigned in.

I like the social aspect of it as it brings guys (and girls) together for poker night. I much too old to go out partying or to the bars... especially since I don't drink. So poker night serves as a great opportunity to get together with other people. Even casino poker is fun as you get to meet all different kinds of people.

You mentioned the stakes that I play meaning that I'm not all that serious. I would love to be playing bigger stakes; but my bankroll dictates otherwise. I've never withdrawn from my poker accts. Would I like to? Yes and no. Yes, I would love for poker to help pay for some fun things for me and my family; but given that I want to approve and don't want to drop down due to bankroll reasons, I will keep playing at my current levels until I feel comfortable moving up.

Well, I'm running out of time for now. I hope this gives a little glimpse as to why I play poker.

Have a nice day!!!

3 comments:

oossuuu754 said...

Good Post and I relate totally

Anonymous said...

I swear I could have written this exact post on my blog. I relate to all the reasons you gave. Well done and keep playing.

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

Great post Will.

Only correction/clarification - I didn't indicate (or at least intend to) that the stakes you play is meaningless. What I meant is that your goal is clearly not for you to use poker to supplement your income in any way.... that doesn't mean meaningless (at least not in my book) so I didn't want you to take that as if I am looking down on the stakes that you play because that is totally not it.

In other words, there are times I treat poker like it's my second job and with you, I had the feeling it's not and that's where my question was coming from, especially because you seem to take it just as seriously as someone who is trying to make a living out of it.

Like I mentioned before, I think it's great you are taking that class (no matter who says what, doing things you believe is the right thing to do to better yourself is a good thing, IMO) and it seems like you know your priorities so that's great too. Keep up the good work!

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