It seems pretty straightforward. Regs payed for his education by calling too much since he raises too much. This was, in fact, a bad adjustment. When he feels bad about poker, he remembers this fact.

Reread it for the 5th time and now it is completely clear. Not sure what the heck was going on in my head the first 4 times.

Anyone have a rough idea on kind of Std Dev per 100 hands would be for a typical reg in a deep stacked NHLE 1/2 live cash game that frequently has straddles of 4, less frequently 4+8 and every now and then 4+8+16? I'm thinking 150-200bb/100 but I don't know.

Did a week trip to Bonaire for scuba and windsurfing earlier this month
been hanggliding the last 2 days
going to cozumel for thanksgiving

I think about these fun things and recreating like a boss when I have to deal with the energy suck that is the casino poker room

100% serious

If you think that a casino poker room is an "energy suck," then I would say that you're out of touch with reality. Poker rooms are places that are filled with people who WANT TO BE THERE. It's recreation for 99% of the players, and most of them would choose to spend their Saturday in the poker room versus looking at fish.

My last real job was ten years ago, when I was working in an industrial WAREHOUSE. And prior to that, I worked in state government, in a cubicle, surrounded by lots of other cubicles. Talk about energy suck! In fact, every real job I've ever had has been a tremendous energy suck. One of the things I love about live poker is the socialization that you just can't get at most real jobs. Like you, Squid Face, I've been a live grinder for a long time now, and when I'm running bad, I hate the game, hate the poker room, and I especially hate the luckboxes who keep sucking out on me. But then I remind myself to think rationally. Were it not for variance, then we wouldn't be able to do what we do. We MUST lose if we want to win, and the better we get at losing, the better off we'll be.

Poker rooms are filled with some of the most disgusting degenerate people that absolutely hate life and want everyone to know how badly they hate life. To call it an energy suck is an understatement.

its an energy suck cuz people want to win...yet most dont. There is some serious cognitive dissonance happenin. The venom people spew when they feel they unjustifiably lose is mind numbing. If you dont see the energy suck in that then u r outta touch with reality.

I have been preaching for as long as I can remember that you need energy balance to deal with the daily drain of the casino environment. When I say energy balance I mean seriously positive things in your life to deal with the negativity that is in a casino environment

I find that playing shorter sessions (but still shooting for max hours) is a good way to counteract the energy suck.

Those 10+ hr sessions can be miserable at times depending on the table.

Agree that most tables there's this fake sense of camraderie where everyone appears to be having fun, but most are genuinely unhappy (including pros).

This is just representative of society. Agree that casino attracts the low of the low but I think the reason why we feel it more is because its just so unavoidable and in our face in the casino environment

Poorly veiled brag about going to an Ivy League school

With that very expensive education, I would've thought you would know how to spell "paid"

I don't know the kind of people you deal with on a daily basis but my life outside of the poker doesn't include people that are constantly complaining about things.

poker is better than a normal minimum wage jo b for sure

People making such comparison usually won't make it in poker.

If you're alternatives are working a $10-12/hr job, chances are the variance will eat you alive.

If your alternative is working a min wage job, you're 21+, and you don't think you'll advance in said job, you many want to reevaluate your life choices

This kids. This.

In every real job I've ever had, there are a lot more people around me that are the kind of people I want to talk to, compared to the poker table.

People I don't meet at my day job:

Loud stupid attention seeking drunk who is slowing up the game? Check

Tilting muscular heavily tattooed yob who is just simmering with barely contained violence, thereby raising everyone's blood pressure in a 10 metre radius? Check

Embittered nit reg and life fish whose misery has reached such a stupendous level that it has now collapsed into a singularity, forming a sort of negative vortex around him? Check

But at my day job I have to pretend to respect people nearly as bad and I don't get any of their money.

Maybe you just have to be a certain kind of misanthrope to enjoy the miserable environment of live poker.

Don't get me wrong, I voluntarily play an 8 to 10 hour session every 2 weeks and if I could play more often, I would. But I think doing a 40 hour week in that place would make me a noticeable worse human being.

Luckily I'm not nearly good enough at poker to have to make a financial decision to play professionally.

It depends on what stakes you play at. I used to play at very high stakes where you would meet very interesting people whom you could learn from. Those games don't exist anymore. Much as in life you will have a better time independent of win rate spending your time with people who are better off.
If you don't believe that you have never met a typical 3-6 limit player most of whom think it's the dealer's fault that they always lose.

I flew to florida to play the 10-25 NL for two weeks when NL first opened a few years ago. The 10-25 ran every day usually with two tables. They were good but only a little better than Commerce so I didn't stay. Sad to see the state of poker where they don't even have a consistent 5-10.

This year at the WSOP I went to the Wynn to play some 10-25. There were two tables. At 38 I may have been the oldest guy at either table. Within an hour both tables had broke. Turns out everyone was waiting for one fish who never showed. The only way I can think of to save NL is to have an ante say 10-25 with $5 ante but casinos wont want to slow down the game.

How is that going to save it? If recreational players aren't willing to play 10/25 then why do you think they will play bigger? We used to have 5/T with a $5 ante running quite a bit and most rec players didn't realize how big that game plays. I'm guessing they finally figured it out because that game doesn't run anymore.

If u want to deal with less dregs and more tolerable people- id recommend playing during the day.

The games arent as good but the environemnt is better

There's without a doubt a big correlation between miserable people and the stakes you play.

The lowest stake will generally be miserable and filled with a ton of nits who grind out that 20k/year or degens etc.

A lot of 2/5 or 5/10 games are filled with successful businessmen, lawyers, investors etc and are often a pleasure to talk to at the table