Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowball2
It's so ironic that when I wasn't winning much I felt like I was completely focused on trying. Now that I've been doing really well for a while, I just want to stop playing. It just feels like it's slowly killing something inside and I'd like get out while I can. I don't know what I'd do instead though. Then there's a certain lifestyle attached to it that makes it really hard to be given up.
What % of regs/pros have some degree of sociopathy?
Quote:
Originally Posted by karamazonk
I've been dealing with an identical experience.
As for the sociopathy question, dunno, but I'm very confident that it's higher (and probably substantially higher) than the percentage of sociopaths in the population at large.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowball2
Care to elaborate? How do you think poker's changing you for the worse? Actively doing anything to balance things out?
Poker has changed me in ways both good and bad, with different effects over time. After having played over 10,000 hours of live poker, I've come to realize that poker breeds negativity. Many people who play poker are unhappy people who are playing poker socially to fill some void in their lives, many of those people are losing $ and are frustrated about it, and many of those people are delusional and/or have degenerate tendencies. It's impossible to spend a lot of time in such an environment without being influenced by it. In my own experience, I've become more negative in general (i.e, more oriented towards negative thoughts and a negative outlook on things) and more cynical about human nature.
That being said, I've also met some of the most interesting people I've ever met through poker, and it also accounts for almost all of the most entertaining and/or fascinating personalities I've come to know by this point in my life. As a socially anxious person, I also feel more comfortable and at home at a poker table or in a poker room than I do just about anywhere and am very grateful for that. For the most part, although I still see plenty of sexism, I've noticed that, as far as race, class, occupation, etc. there are few environments where people are treated more equally than at the poker table, and I have come to appreciate that, too.
I haven't been doing much lately to balance out the negativity. Truthfully, I enjoy live poker less currently than I ever have in over a decade of playing the game seriously, and I can't wait until it's a more optional part of my life than it currently is.