Sick of Online poker.
WARNING: This is kinda a rant/whine post, so if you're not interested, please move on.
So I'm pretty much fed up with online poker. It's really lost it's appeal, and it's just not worth my time. You know, it's the same old story, "I can't win a race to save my life" and "You called me with THAT??!" and "Oh, I'm ahead preflop, but you rivered you kicker to take me out." Etc, etc.
My intinal deposit last year was $75, and now I'm up to a whopping $250. Not really 'killing' anything, just plugging away slowly. Too slowly.
Yes, I know other online players that have REALLY taken it prison style lately, but for me, the whole online thing it so , I dunno, stale. Passe. Run it's course.
Make no mistake: I love live games, and I'm still doing OK live. Some loses, with some wins. And the social aspect is so much better. My local crew of boys and girls are just great. A guy couldn't ask for better friends.
But why does online suck?
Johnnie
So I'm pretty much fed up with online poker. It's really lost it's appeal, and it's just not worth my time. You know, it's the same old story, "I can't win a race to save my life" and "You called me with THAT??!" and "Oh, I'm ahead preflop, but you rivered you kicker to take me out." Etc, etc.
My intinal deposit last year was $75, and now I'm up to a whopping $250. Not really 'killing' anything, just plugging away slowly. Too slowly.
Yes, I know other online players that have REALLY taken it prison style lately, but for me, the whole online thing it so , I dunno, stale. Passe. Run it's course.
Make no mistake: I love live games, and I'm still doing OK live. Some loses, with some wins. And the social aspect is so much better. My local crew of boys and girls are just great. A guy couldn't ask for better friends.
But why does online suck?
Johnnie
Comments
Well apart from the standard blah blah more social, blah blah, reads...
Have you simply considered that maybe you hate online poker because "in general", it's tougher than live? You're bitching about suckouts (which happens), but maybe the reality is that you love live games because you beat them, whereas you get crushed online (in a tougher game).
Note: I'm not saying this is the case, maybe you beat both, but offhand I'd guess any online player probably has an easier time beating a live game...
I love live play too, because the players are abysmal and playing in a wild loose game is generally a lot more fun than playing in a squeaky tight game...
I'm still in love with online. Definitely more bad beats per hour but I can't beat the convenience of a SNG whenever I have 45 minutes to spare. Plus that free airline ticket.
Ignoring whether a specific player can beat the game, I think online takes a certain personality to consistently enjoy. Because it lacks a lot of the social aspects, you need to be pretty "focused" (or anal/introverted
As for skill level, I am convinced that our local games are much harder than the average SNG online. It is just that online poker can get very boring and maybe you're making a few bad choices that you wouldn't make in a live game. Or you can't read online as well as you can live.
Take a break Johnnie. I am sure there will be a Bristol soon. Hint Hint. That means you, Zithal.
Do I fully and completely understand, I am so sick of losing a pot to a suited 35 when I flop top two pair (AK) he goes runner-runner for his flush after capping pre-flop, flop, and turn with me!!!! The beats can be sickening. I was on Euro last night and can't count the times I was rivered but I can't say they were all bad beats, just unfortunate for me. My opponents when I look back had every right to be in the hand. I had KK capped pre-flop, J high rainbow flop we cap flop and turn is a blank and I get called, river is a J, I checked knowing full well he was going to flip his over played AJo and sure enough he bet and I called to see exactly that. Two pair to a rivered straight, he was open ended. Most of the time they have the odds to make the calls they do it just really sucks when you take an extended hit like this but I have learned that before I get all excited I review the hand from my opponents perspective and compare how I would have played it to how they did and that helps deal with tilting. Sure you'll still get the odd bad beat but I suspect most of the time it's just a case of a legitimate draw hitting. That said that can still wear you down and it makes the game a grind!
If you've become frustrated the best thing to do is take a break, the nice thing about online is that there is a game whenever you want to play so it'll be there when you come back to it.
For now focus on live games, starting with this Fridat at my place
This is what I've been doing and I've been enjoying it more. I'm in the same boat as the OP. I put in $100 a couple years ago and am up about $120. I played on and off, both live and online, but always found live to be more enjoyable. Nothing beats a poker game with friends, it's even less stressful when they suck out on you.
Yeah, that helped for awhile. I was playing alot of 7CS, and PLO, but really, NLHM is really where it's at online.
Just to clairfy, I know that Bad Beats are part of the game, and I didn't mean to sound like a whiner when I posted. (Ok, I did A LITTLE.) ALL of online poker seems so boring and stale to me. Even when I lay down a Bad Beat or make the money in a SNG. I've just lost my interest and focus for it.
I think that I'll quit online for bit, and get back to going out to live games and maybe play more 9-Ball and guitar. Oh, and maybe spend time with the wife!
Thanks all,
Johnnie
Every thing in moderation right?
Without focus and interest poker can be very boring unless you are just here to gamble and get some juice from that.
I have tracked all of my results on Excel from my first deposit and graphed the results. My gains have all come in rushes. Two weeks to a month of ROI in the 50-100% range and then I fall back to toiling along just beating the rake.
All of the rushes I have been on have followed a big breakthrough in my learning about this game. Basically, I learn something that makes great sense to me and I focus like hell on the game. My results go up and I go on a rush. This usually lasts until I take a series of bad beats, my brain says "why work so hard when the cards are against you?" then I lose focus and get stale again.
I guess what I am trying to say is, "Poker success = focus"
This is something I struggle with constantly.
If you have lost yours take a break, read something, learn something, set a goal and come back charged!
Good Luck,
Caddy
Time to take a break then buddy, I think it happens to us all. I've done it before and when I came back it was exciting again and that cycle will repeat.
A great idea...and she'll love ya for it!
It would be nice to get a weekly live game going but for me it would have to be a cheap buy-in!
I play lots live, and well whadda you know, the bad beats have been grusome. Prison style would be a nice term. I've had coconuts call four bets cold with 32o preflop, and call down with three diamonds on the flop and them having none only to hit two pair at the river. And, this was done repeatedly in one session by not just one coconut, but two coconuts. So, the malaise you run into online does exist live.
If you play enough, you will run into the same stuff -- online or offline.
I asked myself, "what pushes folks over the edge?" It happens to all of us. But what is the trigger?
I noticed that sometimes I just take a bad beat as a road bump. I know my opponent isn't good and they thought they were doing the right thing. I say "nice hand" and then figure out the weakness I need to exploit. I sit paitiently and if the opportunity arises, I exploit the weakness. On these nights my stack takes a small hit, but I usually fare very well.
On other nights I want to give up poker for good. I look for the weakness. I then target my opponent and make up excuses to play him in a hand and go to the showdown. Every hand he wins, even if I'm not in the hand, hurts me. Its like I can't stomach the coconut winning anything. It's personal. These nights I usually take a hit.
I suspect this the point where you are with online poker. Live, you're playing with friends and even if they are playing like a coconut, the money is going soemone you like. So, it's not an attack on your person. It's just a friend, and even though it pisses you off they beat you, you don't take it as a personal attack. I'm sure if you were playing live at a casino with unknowns, you would experience the same feeling you get with online poker.
But, what's the trigger. What makes the beats a personal attack? I'm thinking it's your/my state of mind when I'm playing. I could be tired. I could have taken a few bad beats in a row. I could have had an altercation while driving. How about an argument with your significant other.
When playing live with friends, I tend to put the "noise" in the background. I now want to catch up with these folks -- I can even tell them about the idiot who cut me off as I drove to the game. The net result is that I feel better and I'm ready to play poker.
Online, the noise doesn't go away. In fact it festers in the subconcience (sp). Now you also play more hands and the opponents are strangers. You've got you're ammo in the gun and so many coconuts to help pull the trigger.
Personally, I'm finding a way to rid myself of the noise.
Cheers
Magi
I've just recently joined, but I have to say that I really enjoy online poker. For all the bad beats there are tonnes of suckers. The bad beats hurt, but what I found helps is to play at a limit one less than you'd ideally play, then it doesn't hurt so bad for me.
I'd play an MTT for 2+hours and barely make the money, or bubble in a SNG. I found that it wasn't worth my time.
It's been nice to shut the computer off and watch a movie with my wife or run the dog around outside. I've also been playing the crap out of my guitars lately too.
I felt as thought the online poker thing had really taken ahold of me, and was starting to run my life.
It fells like work, and isn't very fun anymore. I guess I'm not cut out for the grind of online play and making a boatload of money.
For me, it was time to scale it back, and play when I want too. Not play because the computer was on and I and I had some free time.
Johnnie
Amen. I only play Saturday afternoons now (and any live tourneys), and I play better and enjoy it more as a result.