This is why we don't have nice things. Aisle seat gets one armrest, middle gets two, window gets one. Aisle has the benefit of easy access to stretch legs and get up, window seat has the ability to lean on something, middle deserves two arm rests.

This is how I will explain the concept of fairness in the future.

Happy 2018

no one can always make good decisions, don’t be too hard on yourselves

Happy 2018 Don!

Aesah!!!

was making poor "how much should i drink" decisions when this was posted

Well it was a good quote nonetheless, reminded me of this.

Word.

yeah even me saying "drinking too much was a mistake" is results-oriented, it's not even necessarily correct. maybe at the time i took my last drink of the night i judged there was a 80% chance of me having more fun and a 20% chance of me having less fun (i.e., getting sick)

Closing a chapter of my life again, 18 months at Riot

The rest is still unwritten

Why are you leaving Riot?

I've wrestled with this topic for a few months now and have discussed this with a ton of people (thanks Snowball2, Sol Reader, and snamuh).

Riot is an incredible job (both in general and as a fit for me). I expect to remain close friends with many of my coworkers, I expect to still play the game, I'll sorely miss the cafeteria, etc. However, I haven't felt particularly passionate/motivated recently. My non-Rioter League of Legends friends are more excited about the release of our next new character that they don't know anything about than I am though I've been working on her for months, and not even close to how hyped up my co-workers get about finally being able to show her to players.

A recurring topic of discussion in this thread is "a job is a job" (not surprisingly ofc ). Lots of arguments on both sides, but the mentality that "maybe I'll never find anything better than Riot and I'll be squandering a golden opportunity if I leave" was a blocker holding me back. While I found that idea reasonable enough to entertain for awhile now, it seems so silly to me today. Yeah, maybe I'll try to find something better and fail. But right now I feel like I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try.

I mean, ****, people were saying that to me 6 years ago except replace Riot with FDA.

Gogogo. Excited for you.

Don, what an amazing thread!! I just binge read the entire thing this week at work (things are slow).

What are your plans now that you are done at Riot? Are you playing poker semi-regularly nowadays?

Probably about 5-6 years too late, but SUBBED

I literally just got home after my last day, so we'll see. Haven't played poker since WSOP in Vegas

Still feeling super emotional (sadness) right now after saying goodbyes to everyone. That always happens to me

First impressions back:

Yeah poker's getting harder, but even by 2050 I'm pretty sure there will be a ton of players who didn't drive 30 minutes to the casino to fold preflop, especially not to a young energetic asian kid (wait HOLD ON I'M TURNING INTO A STONE-FACED MIDDLE AGED MAN. NOOOOOO). But yeah, I had been worried how much the poker world would have changed during the ~2 years I was away- things are not as bad as I expected! Still have the entire table reassuring a fish that losing with his nut flush on a paired board was a sick cooler, etc. (btw, is this OK? Poker is pretty fked up)

Also some of my tables have been crazy low energy. They make me feel like my lifeforce is slowly drifting away, I need to figure out how to be social again ASAP

I am really curious though- for those of you who play a lot of poker and don't particularly enjoy it, are there any sessions or even venues that you remember enjoying?

I think it's super super important to prioritize finding (or even creating!) an environment you thrive in. As a bonus, you could even consider it study time as it's fairly likely that spending time on it would be +EV in terms of $/hr and $/yr

Also HOLY CRAP I SUCK. Definitely gonna need A LOT of practice as well as rebuilding my game from the ground up!

Yes, I think about this often actually.

Daytona dog track was where I started, and it was a very fun place to play poker. Non smoking. No casino (so not filled with depressing people). Very well run room. And the players were casual. Lots of husbands/wives. Police officers. Teachers. It was a really great place to play poker. I've often said that if I started anywhere else I would not have gotten into poker, as so many other places are scummy, poorly run, bad crowd, etc.

I dont have much fun playing anymore but when I do its when I'm at a table of people playing for fun. Like, just pure gambling. Laughing, fun needling, suckouts, etc. No one cares about losing money. This rarely happens now outside of plo, and even plo is getting some nits/tilters trickling in.

Win or lose, those are the games I enjoy playing in. Poker is a game after all.

Ava nailed it again. Playing with normal people who enjoy playing poker occasionally is the best experience. Playing poker with a bad crowd and or people who have gambled/ played poker for a long time is not fun- not because they're necessarily better, but because they're bitter, shallow versions of their former selves.

My last poker/ vacation i played in about 4 different venues. They were almost exactly the same- a seedy, depressing, soul sucking atmosphere. I had a good time exactly once for about 2 hours- there were a couple mawg who just wanted to gamble/ shoot the **** / hang out with the "boys" and have a beer. After they went home the table returned to normal- absolute silence from a bunch of nits who think they're going to be the next Tom dwan.

After being away from poker for 2 years, has your perspective of people changed? I mean when I played all the time, I began to sort of despise everyone in and out of poker- because poker can show you how scummy people can be no matter their profession or walk of life. Once I stopped poker and started being around normal people again, my faith in humanity was sort of restored.

I find just attempting to talk to your neighbour can sometimes shake up a stale environment. You'll find things you have in common or coincidences or people you know or whatever, things that make the game more enjoyable.

Last time out I started talking to the guy next to me. He's been a permanent fixture here since the summer when he just moved from back east but we haven't really gotten engaged. We both ordered the beef barely soup and he showed me how adding vinegar to it gives it a nicy little zingy kick.

He was far and away the biggest nit at the table (besides me).

Gmakethebestofthings,imoG

Don't you dare put nit and dwan in the same sentence

Will revisit "how to love poker" (hey maybe I should coach that after I figure it out, I 1000% believe that's more important than getting a little bit better at equities/etc)

But for now, I just wanted to give my regards to that orgasmic feeling when you find out you stacked your chips in 21s

Posted in the wrong thread

But welcome back Don

Its a good thing the most fun way to play poker =/= the good way to play poker

Lol, I run bad at chip stacking mistakes as usually it's always realizing I've done them in 19s which just shatters me.

Gworst.thing.ever.G

So given an immeasurably equal volume of joy in both cases, would you rather be slightly sadder for maybe half you session (lets say 2 hours) and have a spike of joy at the end, or be slightly happier then have a spike of disappointment? I think I'd rather the former because the spikes are what we tend to keep in our memories which is preferable for your future joy.

How about on a larger scale, 300 days in which you're downcast and 65 ecstatic, or 300 pleasant days and 65 in despair? As for my choice... well, I set the line :P

Also, a lot of the advice I read on 2+2 advocates striving to be unaffected by results (rather, getting close since total detachment is unrealistic). I used to try to do so myself and probably posted about it at some point. But while it's clearly more +$EV to not get tilted, now I think that it might make me bore of poker much quicker. So perhaps it's a more fruitful endeavor to attempt to embrace the strong feelings- both good and bad.