lately i just can't get myself out the door and to a casino. i'll even go on trips where i've planned around a day or two of live poker, and i just look at bravo and can't get myself in the door. when i do manage to get to the casino i just stare at the board and walk around for a while, then leave

any of you guys dealt with this? best i can do now is like 10 or 20 hands of .25/.50 PLO 6-max, even that i feel burned out immediately. maybe the game has passed me by, or i've just seen it all (20+ years of live low stakes) and nothing surprises or interests me now. i used to be a fun table captain-y kind of guy, now i smile and converse but i'm not pushing the action or engaging anyone

would love to enjoy poker again, thanks for your advice

Time to move on and find a different hobby.

For a lot of people the joy returns after a while away from the game and they start playing again, at least occasionally. For me personally it took a couple of months.

Agree, not worth pushing it, it's a hobby. If it was work you should find alternatives to just straight walking away. I was (again) out for some months, had other things, will return to the casino actually tomorrow, with some new stuff under the belt.

This happens to a lot of people over time. Squid face, a professional gambler and regular in the No-Limit Hold 'Em forum has written about this several times. He's given up going because he hates the environment of a casino and loathes many of the people at the tables. No matter what is going on at the table, your goal is to take everyone else's money directly. That is their goal too.

As the others said, find something else you enjoy. Personally, I play the lowest stakes I can find. The breaking point for me was sitting at a table where a guy was playing and his wife was begging him to stop because he was betting away their rent money.

I play only MTT tournaments at the lowest stakes, not so clear whose money I'm taking, if anybody's. It needs planning of course, not just popping in.

This sounds oddly exhilarating

thanks all appreciate the suggestions

Try a glass of red wine every couple of hours, it makes the game a lot more fun (especially when other people are also enjoying their beverage and having fun). If that doesn't work move to a table where people are actually having a good time instead of being in a game where nobody talks and sits there seriously like they're playing for their lives instead of their recreational/hobby money. Sitting across a table for hours with those kinds of players is what makes the game and our precious time suck.

This happened to me before I started playing poker professionally. I was a computer programmer, systems analyst and found myself unable to go to work. I couldn't explain specifically why it was happening. I guess it was partly depression and partly working on a project that was doomed to fail. The people there were decent and my team were all people I liked a lot. A few times I got to the building in Jersey City after travelling 45 minutes on public transportation and I just couldn't enter it.

I did get through it but ended up on Zoloft for a few years. Ultimately I realized that the profession was not for me and I left it to play poker. Oddly I work now as a consultant creating spreadsheets for tax credit projects for TV shows... But I do that at home for the money.

For me playing poker is not specifically about winning or the money but about the experience. There are always some fun people at the table and often everyone joins in. I appreciate that because in tournaments I cash only like 15% of the time.

The only question really is, is it specifically about having lost your love for poker? Or is this something that is permeating all aspects of your life?

seems like something else is going on, like panic sets in or something. maybe you have an anxiety thing that poker brings out, especially if you do WANT to enjoy the game, but just can't.

I'm a software engineer and this is happening to me now -- it sucks.

As far as the OP goes -- I go through the same with poker periodically. I will play a ton and then all of a sudeen don't want to play at all. So far every time I have taken a break for anywhere from a couple weeks to several months the love of the game has come back eventually and I get the urge to start playing again.

great question. it's pretty much just a poker thing, and honestly after ZIRP ended it became much more of a problem. maybe it's due to the way live low stakes is becoming unaffordable to the majority of the room. for instance all the 1/2 in my local card rooms (save one) is now 1/3. 33 percent more big blind plus a mandatory button straddle, and all of the sudden you have a bunch of bad regs who are getting squeezed too hard. guys i played 5/5/T with grinding 60BB stacks at 2/5. games seem less fun than they used to, i remember more needling and at PLO more fun / less desperate gambling

Out of curiosity, is it because you're afraid of losing your job or because it feels like a waste of time to work on something that's going to fail anyway?

Part of our business is helping people develop MVPs and sometimes we also do the implementation. With that I follow a very pragmatic approach. We tell them that we don't think it's going to work that way and if they want to continue anyway, we continue. Two years ago our best young full stack engineer worked on an MVP for a large car manufacturer who put mid 7-figures into that project. A couple months in I told the client that their business plan wouldn't work because the numbers just didn't add up. They wanted to keep going and I made the mistake of telling our guy about the situation. Apparently that stressed him out so much that he quit a couple months later. I'll never do that again.

The thing with poker as a profession is that it's extremely easy to quit, especially if you made enough money in the past. Unless you have a staking agreement or something like that you can literally just not open the client on your computer anymore or not drive to the casino without having to tell anyone or other consequences. If you quit your real job, that usually has a direct impact on other people.

If poker isn't fun for you, playing it is pretty stupid.

It started out with 2023 being an awful year with all the tech layoffs. I made it through 3 rounds at my company.

It looks like things are turning around in my particular niche on the industry and I just got a raise over double what the company reported average was, but still not feeling all that motivated. Apparently I'm still doing well above average work though, so that's good.

No plans to quit because there is 0 chance I could make anywhere near this much money doing anything else.

I am a rec grinder (for profit hobbyist with a fulltime job). WRT live, I find my desire to play live ebbs and flows. I usually shoot for 1 session of 4-8 hours a weekend, often Saturday but sometimes Friday night or Sunday. But probably 1 weekend a month other commitments prevent a session.

Sometimes, I am really enjoying live and will play all three days. Other times, I am not feeling live and will go 2-3 weeks without playing.

I went out to Calgary (while teleworking during the day) for 2 months to play live there and see western Canada. While there, I was loving it, great rooms and great action, and played 4-5 days a week.

When I returned to ON after, my local room (which is a poorly run room) was awful by comparison and I had no desire to play. It took me almost 3 months before I played live again, and then got back into my normal routine.

If you aren't feel it, don't force it. If the desire returns, great, if not, move on.

I had the best job in the world (at $200k/yr) and got sick of it, so I retired at 63. Maybe it's me or something wrong with my psyche. I used to go play 1/2 or 1/3 NL a couple of times a week, usually Thursdays and Saturdays. Then it was once a week and now once every other week. It's not fun, I don't need the money, the drive sucks, the people are dicks. A few weeks ago a gen X kid told me that I talk too much. Don't need it, don't want it. Taking my dogs to the park brings me more joy now a days than most anything else.

Think we only so much can predict how we will feel about poker. Will have a "forced break" from the casino during summer, probably helps against the risk of getting fed up. A bit under a year ago Stars told they would inactivate my account if not logging in, started to play online, switched to live, and can now envision myself playing in the casino every second week ten years forward.

What will happen? Will go by my inner flow.