No, that sounds about right.

Poker is dumb, but life is even dumber. Lost 40% of my money today. Not 40% of my roll -- 40% of my money. I berated my opponents for 7 hours straight. Sometimes they berated me back. Typical stuff.

you apparently haven't played online poker in a very very long time

you apparently haven't dealt with sarcasm in a long time

if it was anyone else I would have taken it as sarcasm. since it was you I just chalked it up to lack of poker skills.
zing!

Pretty standard. Strong player plays on Bovada, is like "Wow, these games are soft!", and then gets wrecked. Totally legit site. Totally legit games.

But I am dying to know... is that fish who spends every session calling people variations of the n word still around?

Whatever; I've been playing pretty poorly and being an ass in chat, I deserve whatever rigging comes my way.

I don't know about an "n-word guy", but there is this anti-Semitic fish I play with quite a lot. He sure knows every possible way to insult a Jewish person.

How does he know if you're Jewish?

Serious question... if I hate poker, have more than enough money to find something else to do with my life, yet keep playing, wtf does that say about me? I really, really hate poker. I have no idea why I keep going. I've been "back" for a year and it just gets worse. I was much happier when I wasn't playing at all back in 2012. I'm not very materialistic and don't need the money. Yet here I am.

Is it possible to have a gambling problem when I don't even like gambling? Like I mean people talk about sports betting and prop betting and the pit and all that and I am just like wtf why the hell would I want to do that? "let's make it interesting!" to me = "let's suck the fun out of it make it really annoying!"

I totally don't have a problem quitting jobs or school or anything else that isn't addictive. But poker... I have hated it for a long time now and just keep going. I have so many reasons I want to quit. I don't understand what keeps me going. I have no motivation to study poker, no goals, no dreams, don't really care about making more money, etc. etc. And no offense, but I have approximately jack and **** in common with most poker players.

So basically, I want to quit poker but apparently can't. I have "retired" so many times in my head only to come right back. Am I describing an unusual form of gambling addiction? ****, I make no sense

UG I think its just that you have invested a lot of time and energy getting to your level of skill and you know that it is quite a high level, in the upper tier even amongst professionals in your field, so there are both ego-related reasons and practical ones to continue.

yea, this was definitely a big part of it for me anyway. After having done no studying for 12+ months and then no playing for the last 2 months my urge to play is now completely vanished.
I know if i dont seriously force myself to play I will likely never play a hand of online poker again.
Its weird cause 6 months ago i was pretty much exactly at the mental stage were you are now UG. I hated almost everything about it yet every afternoon i felt an urge to log on and start the hunt for max $/hr.

I am also like you in the way that i never enjoyed gambling. I hate casinos, slot machines, sportsbetting, lotteries. Its just a total waste of time and money the way i see it.
I think for people who are gamblers by nature they have that as an extra motivational factor (for good and bad, depending on how good you are).

I really hate getting up in the morning. But every single day I drag myself out of bed in the cold and dark, perform stupid rituals like shaving and brushing my teeth. And breakfast has got to be the dumbest meal of the day. Most important my ass. Who wants to cook before daylight, and dry cereal is like rabbit food. And no offense, but if you drink coffee you're a brainwashed drone.

DD, ya for sure. This is the first time in my life I have been in this situation. Maybe I should have asked "How do I quit?" since I do want to but can't bring myself to. The way I do things now, I travel a lot, but am often at home for 2-6 weeks too just not playing. I've really noticed what a negative effect poker has on my personality... I was so much nicer of a person before. And WAY more relaxed. I have so much anxiety now, it's just ridiculous. It's like the competitive anxiety that I need at the tables just doesn't ever go away when I am playing regularly and it makes me a total ******* compared to how I used to be. I mainly just want my old personality back.

Hen, I would honestly prefer to finish school and get a real world job like you. That was the plan when I started. But then I got way better at poker than I ever anticipated, so I didn't. I mean I am extremely dysfunctional in school/work, so it is honestly terrifying to go back. And once I am there, I am going to have to deal with the little devil on my shoulder whispering "You don't have to do this! Just leave it all behind and book a Commerce trip!" which may sound really good when I haven't played for a year and the real world is driving me nuts. Not to mention I am 34... would really like to live permanently at home and pursue a normal life.

Networth, me you and Elo need to just start robbing banks. Then you can sleep until noon, Elo can play 90/80 pre-flop and not be broke, and people won't have to read my posts about how much I hate robbing banks because I am not quite stupid enough to post that publicly.



Overall, I hate this **** where we as humans are supposed to act all positive about everything. Like for all I know, maybe half of you or most of you hate poker just as much as I do and I am the only one who constantly bitches about it lol. Hen, is is true that in Norway it is ok to express that you are in a ****ty mood? Like if someone says "How's it going?" can you just be like "****ing horrible" and they don't think it's inappropriate?

Somehow I still enjoy poker. I feel very lucky.

Good postings, everybody. Very interesting.

I love poker. When I'm losing I'm extraordinarily tilted/angry (obv), but when I wake up the next morning the first thing I do is look at the lobby.

Maybe love is the wrong word, because I'm certainly hardcore addicted to it. In the Stars days, and now that I have a little money on Bovada, poker is the only thing I have any interest in whatsoever. I wake up, play 14 hours, sleep, repeat. Everything else seems even dumber than it normally does. Have never felt at all burned out. Probably not the healthiest lifestyle, but **** it.

Poker, sports and marijuana are the only things that seem remotely interesting to me. I don't even know what other people do with their free time. Paint their house? Go grocery shopping? Chop up some firewood?

UG, seriously you gotta grab yourselv by the neck and pursue something else in life. You are not too old (yet) for a fresh start.
But I am not gonna spew out a bunch wise-ass advice now, you are too smart for that.

And yes you are too some degree right about that generalization. We tend to answer pretty honestly when someone asks "hows life been lately?". Although "****** horrible" would be a little over the top for sure
So its more honest and to the point than in america anyway.

UG, poker blows. Here's a link to a funny thread in OOT by a dumbass poker player:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/34...couch-1395468/

About how poker changes your personality;

What I found is that it amplified the traits that i thought was needed to win at poker. I have always been a calm, calculated and not the most extroverted guy. In some real-life situations it is good to have these skills but i would also argue than in most social situations its not optimal at all.

The more i worked towards robot-like zen-poker the more i started to hate the person i was turning into. This is the complete opposite of the guys you read about who get violent with their girlfriend if they have a horrid day. I could have the worst sessions of my life and lose 15k and then have a nice lunch with girlfriend 10 mins afterwards and she couldnt notice a thing.
You cant have it both ways so ofc i also totally lost the ability to feel great joy, for most good things that happen in life. (not joy completely ofc, just a slightly numbed version of what i used to feel)

The second element to the story is how lonely you are when you play and the total lack of human interaction. You can trivialize it all you want but humans are by nature social creatures. Our brains are hardwired to be stimulated by social interactions. Maybe unless you are Elo (no offense) there is no way arround that.

These two things come together in an introverted person like a perfect storm. Good for poker winrate but not always great for other things.

ok, gotta run... Could talk so much about these things

In America, the only acceptable answer to "how ya doin'?" is some variation of "fine". One time, somebody asked me how I was doing, and I said "bad", and he got angry ... angry at me! I was just like, sorry for not mindlessly following the accepted protocol for pointless pleasantries, *******.

None taken. People's brains aren't "created" the same, and as such I don't totally buy your assertion. Also, people are dumb and the norms surrounding social interactions are dumber. The rest of your post was interesting.

UG, I'm sure you have more than enough money to start something more enjoyable and fulfilling. Black Friday was the kick in the ass I needed to quit playing, and now I've started a new career. It takes a lot of willpower to break out of the routine (addiction) of easy money through poker.

This is my first time on 2p2 in a year so I can't guarantee I'll be around to read any responses.

More fun with huhu ****:

play hu with some tag, he runs better than I've ever run in my life and wins 45 bets in like 20 minutes, I finally run good, climb back a little, win a big pot, and then he SNAP QUITS.

obv

****ing ******s

See: Location

Perhaps tangentially related to that, I've gone from 15k back to 6700. Just in case anybody cared; even though they shouldn't, seeing how worthless I am.

When I die, nobody left in the world will have heart. Except for Isildur.

Thanks for the support and awesome replies... was thinking a poker forum was a really dumb place to talk about this, but it worked out! Anyway, thinking I may either play enough to tread water or just stop playing until the summer session in school (missed deadline for Spring) and then quit for good, finish college, and get into music or something that has almost nothing to do with math/science/gambling. It's been over a decade since I finished a college class, so I will likely need to spend a lot of time reteaching myself what I have forgotten in whatever degree I pursue.

Bicyclekick, your love for poker really stood out to me when I met you... was like "2003 join date and still loves poker how the hell???"

Hero, poker players are indeed complete dumbasses. They do dumbass things like create new 2p2 handles as if anyone cares what they say or do

Hen, awesome posts. I think I will have more insight into how poker has screwed me up once I am out lol. Right now, I just know I am happier and much more like I was when I was younger when I don't play.

ICH9, what up! Hehe, the last thing I wanna do is start a business or some such unless I am super passionate about it. I want to move away from variance and gambling for awhile.

Elo, you're still my poker idol no matter how many times you go busto and chat tilt. You're the one who convinced me to move up to 10/20+. Were it not for you, I easily could have ended up with Daiq, La Peste, tw, scorcho, etc... talented players who waited too long to move up to robusto stakes.

Very strong chance I just keep playing like a bitch and am whining about this same crap a year from now, but that's life.

30 time, with 120 bets

Dear Jeebus,

Please, let me lose this money so I can spew a bunch of tilt posts into 2+2 and then finally work up the courage to end everything.

Amen,
Elo