By
rocksolid124 |
Published
Jul 14 2007, 09:21 AM
How many times do we find ourselves staring at our computer screen after devoting hour upon hour to a tournament, only to bust out because of a.) a bad beat or b.) a misread or a bad play on our parts. How frustrating is it to realize that all that time has gone down the drain, and several of your hard-earned dollars has been donated to a donkey who will only lose it days from now in a high-limit game that the biggest ballers on the Internet don't even have the bankroll for?
For me, this has been a common occurance, and from reading many articles and threads on the forums, I know without a doubt that I am not the only one. I am not a big game player; I am not a highly skilled player that could go out and dominate the World Series. All I am is a player who has done decently over his time playing poker, and that is all I intend to be.
But I was doing some thinking the other day, and I posed a simple question to myself.
Why did I get into poker in the first place? Was it for the money and fame, or was it for the sole purpose of having fun, playing a game on the Internet that could provide me with a time of rest and relaxation after a long hard day, whether at the job, or at home.
You see, I think that a lot of us, myself included, treat poker as a job, and that is why we stress out when the results aren't there. You look at your account, and you realize the dollars are slowly dwindling away when your goal was to make x amount of dollars on a certain day.
Poker is a game where you will take swings, whether positive or negative. It's a game where being results oriented will kill you. It's a game that you really will be doing yourself a great injustice if you tell yourself that you are going to make a set amount of dollars per day. Some may be able to do so, but I would contend that the vast majority cannot, no matter his or her skill level.
So what is the point I'm trying to make here? I am simply saying that I believe that poker should be treated as a game, a hobby, something to allow us to have fun. Sure, there are many of us that can make a living off this game, but even still I don't believe poker should be treated as a job. I can admit, I make enough money to support my bills/extra expenses. But when I start looking at poker as purely a way to make money, I lose more than I win. However, when I look at poker as a game, and I sit down to have fun, that is when I win tournaments; that is when I see money pouring into my account.
So again, I am not a great author, or a great poker player, but I believe that most of us could benefit by getting back to where poker is what it is...a game.