Re: I can’t stop playing poker
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Playing microstakes poker should be a small/recreational thing. If its screwing up a relationship, it is NOT worth it.
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I have a quibble with this part of your otherwise good post.
I am a very serious beginning poker player, and my small-stakes play is neither small (in terms of time) or recreational.
My goal is to make poker into a decent part-time job. I am a musician, so I approached it like I would learning a new instrument. To be good, I have to learn the fundamentals, just as in playing an instrument, you have to learn tone production, scales, alternate fingerings and when to use them, etc.
I approached poker exactly the same way. I used play money to get used to how it works online. I am always using flash cards to memorize something new: odds/outs/percentages, different starting hand systems for different situations, different randomization techniques/systems, what to bet to give the right (wrong?) odds to a drawing opponent, etc., etc.).
One of these days, I'm going to slog through The Mathematics of Poker, and I might even take a game theory class to help myself in that area.
I talked this over with my wife, I had a plan and a very conservative bankroll strategy.
I did play money for several months, was grinding $1 SNG for a few more months, and I recently moved up to $5 SNG. I've been playing for real money for about 6 months.
This is not recreational. Right now I work about 30 hours a week at my regular job, and another 30 playing poker. I like it, but this is my work, just like my "regular" job, and by the time I've been playing real money for a year I should be playing $10 SNG and making as much as at my real job.
If someone really wants to be good at poker, he can never start with the idea that it's recreational until you play for the big money, or "it's only play money" or even "lol micro donkaments" (that last drives me crazy).
The problems with addiction are real. I know, I worked with drug and alcohol additcs for twelve years. However, commitment, even at micro levels, even if it's a big time commitment, is not a bad thing.
"I don't know anyone that got rich working 40 hours a week."--Sean Hannity
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