I'm done, I will never play another hand of poker. I had days where I'd win or lose a thousand or two against online pros and enjoyed the rush of thinking of one day hitting the high stakes. While playing relatively high volumes of hands for a year while working and going to school I was miserable. Then an old buddy of mine helped me get a real job that pays well and I have to say it substantially improved my happiness, the only reason I got the job is because I busted my ass to get my life on track.

In my opinion poker seems like a good time and a potential for profit but deep down it's a game that changes people drastically for the worse. It makes most regulars irritable, less sociable, more stressed, less healthy and worst of all less happy. As soon as I quit poker, started living more healthy and spending more time around people I have noticed a drastic improvement in my life where poker used to reside. This is for all of you who aren't making hundreds of thousands but are putting in large volumes and find your life not going how you hoped, don't even think about the money, think about how poker has changed your life and if it's worth not being happy any more.

if you dont already have your life together than yea poker can be a bad thing for you but if you learn to balance it you will be fine
i am also learning this too
but youll be back they always come back :]

there's a 0% chance I'll play another hand of poker in my life. The dichotomy between how happy I am with and without poker in my life is so extreme that there's just no way. And I had balance, it was the social isolation involved with the dedication required to win that got to me. Almost anyone unwilling to show extreme dedication to poker will lose, same as with any form of competition where substantial sums of money is involved. The social interaction involved in a respectable job that requires some specialization of in a decent company is worth quitting poker alone, and this is setting the bar low.

I'm glad to hear that what you've done has made you happy. What you're laying out reminds me of what (I hope I'm recalling the source correctly) Larry Phillips mentioned in 'Zen and the Art of Poker' when he called the pro poker life as 'monkish'. I think he was right in too many cases. You've freed yourself from that it sounds like to me.

Care to bet on it?

Seriously tho, happy for you, good luck.

Good for you OP

i dunno man, i agree with a lot of what you are saying (i do not play poker at the moment and enjoy being away from the game) but I'm pretty sure that I will go to the cardroom for a few hours of poker, food service and free drinks when I'm older. It's a solid night out when you're 40+ and trying to take a break from family/life. Definitely wouldn't play online though, may never play again unless there were partypoker type games.

I'm pretty sure I would be better off without poker...I often wonder where I would be putting all of my mental energy and time spent on poker if it was not or was never part of my life.

I have a finite amount of creativity, motivation, and energy to exude and with me when I play poker other interests in my life suffer.

I win money though, not amazing money but significant money.

I decided to take a break last year and I stopped playing for 6 months. It was interesting to say the least. I was reading books, spending more time with others, started going to the gym regularly, heck I even became interested in politics. I was happier and felt more inspired not only with my free time but also in making changes with my career. I was more in tune and focused on those around me and what I wanted from life.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an unhappy person, I just have the feeling that I could be making better use of my time and energy when I play. I don't like thinking about poker, I don't like the word. How many times does that stupid word go through my head everyday? 10? 20? 100?...IDK but it bothers me.

Poker is a game of swings that takes immense mental stability. I use to get real upset over bad beats, deep runs etc. However, i've learned that if i'm going to take this seriously then i need to omit those negative thoughts. In doing so, i started focusing on mindfulness/buddhist practices. Not only has this helped my poker game but it's been profoundly effective in my day to day activities.

Another way to do it is completely cut poker from your life. Personally, poker has increased my critical thinking, mental balance and concentration. The game is a score system and many can't stand the thought of losing, however, losing is a fact of life. I can go to the casino now without any expectations and focus on the moment. Many depressed poker players stress over the past or future profits. As the Buddha says "Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts." If quitting poker is your freedom to maintain a higher level of mindfulness and higher quality of "personal" stability then you have made the correct decision.

One more quote:
Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day,
'one who knows the better way to live alone.'

cool story bro

Absolutely, but there'd have to be a stipulation so I get paid intermittently for every year I don't play. I'll bet an infinite amount.

Just sounds like poker wasn't the right job for you.
A lot of people just enjoy playing poker and can have a good life.
If poker was making you that miserable it's obviously a good deicison to stop.
But for some other people it could be the other way round, normal job is depressing and poker is hapiness.

Sounds like someone when broke and joined Gambler's Anon

You can replace poker with anything you may have been pursuing for money or a hobby that takes too much time....

Its not necessarily poker that changed you, but also the lack of free time....Had you been more successful, you might feel the same way when "college" was over or whatever responsibility you have.

Some people feel that way after quitting a sport that requires a large time committment, where others would be miserable quitting.

Hilarious post, Oaks.

It wasn't the freetime so much as the social isolation. My job forces me to interact with new people on a daily basis and I'm a generally shy person, I also got laid quite a few times this week whereas isolating myself in a room playing poker got me zero action. I really think that spending hours on end every day staring at a computer screen is horrible for your mental state

Playing live ain't no picnic either.

This thread would only have been remotely interesting if OP was a winning player

Let me just state for the record that this is only your personal experience, and not an opinion.The definition of opinion is: a subjective belief, and is the result of emotion or interpretation of facts.

The facts are that some people who win or lose get a great deal of enjoyment from poker, including myself. I find as I improve as a player, I improve other areas of my life as well.

Even if I had never played another hand of poker (i.e not made the amount of money I would have liked to) I would be glad I learnt about poker. Helps so many other areas of life. +1 to superjeff

+1

He's probably just uber-tilted.

The FACTS are the extremely large majority of the poker playing population are losers. As well, a substantial portion have gambling problems. I do not deny at all that some people are winners.

This is not subjective based on my own personal experience or emotion, your argument is based on an insanely large fallacy that my informed opinion that an addiction to poker negatively effects the majority of people psychologically of physically. The game may help you, or you may be in denial, either way is completely irrelevant. I'm not tilted, I love my life, played zero hands of poker for the past few months and haven't been happier since before I ever played poker. And I never considered it as a career path, I was trying to pay my way through university.

Oh man, this guy is coming back for sure.


Edit: You can always take a break, even an extended break. Bankroll management is key!

Nahh I'm not coming back, once you recognize an addiction it is so much easier to break. You would have to pay me more than my job does to spend time playing poker. I was only trying to give people some insight from someone who has played a substantial quantity of hands, made a minor profit and quit. I feel bad for those who are where I used to be, and there are a lot, I wish you all the best.