Off Topic Poker Forums

Hi Deuces Cracked.

I'm thinking of seriously getting back into poker soon. Black Friday hit me sort of hard, but looking back its hard to see where the hobby/part-time job was really taking me. Was not happy with my life in general and a lot of the things I was doing wrong spilled over into my poker life and kept me from reaching what I think was my potential. A lot of things are going right for me now that weren't previously -- sort of discovering talents I didn't know I had -- making plenty of new friends etc. I am thinking that a lot of this indicates I can be more successful in poker now than I ever was before -- obv I will have to play a lot more live for the time being but I think that is a relatively small adjustment given everything that has happened.

If I do this, I want what I'm doing to matter -- not just be a source of extra cash. Or at least I want to try and make it (this new phase of my hobby/career) into something bigger than just money. In order to reach the goal, I want to get good enough, and participate enough in the community, that I make a name for myself among professional poker players. That's not the actual goal though.

The goal would be to for an eventual protege of mine to become world class. The reason I choose this as the goal and not for myself is partly because I am already 39 and my current level of accomplishment is somewhere in the minor leagues (single A or lower, I think). Also, I think my life experiences and, it feels weird to say, new-found wisdom makes me think I have a lot to offer as far as insight in to how a player truly improves -- and the dimensions of skill that go beyond what's that in most books and videos.

I suppose I could continue to play and also study to keep my game up to par without trying to accomplish anything other than make extra money, have fun, and give myself chances to make a big score. But I don't know if that prospect is interesting enough for me now.

Thoughts?

if i read your first paragraph i would advice to leave poker where it is...
you seem alot happier then when you played..., keep it that way

if i read your first paragraph i would advice to leave poker where it is...
you seem alot happier then when you played..., keep it that way

I am. But poker wasn't the source of the unhappiness. I know I'll keep playing at least a little when I get the chance -- just to see how I do and try some new things. One of the discovered "talents" is acting. Playing different characters actually seems more natural me now than trying to "be myself" used to be -- partly because so much of "being myself" consisted of hiding things. I see myself at the table being a lot more fun to be around -- I think I used to at least a bit of a bore -- especially if one is a TAG, a boring player is not someone the fish like to give their money away to.

More to do with the acting: I know how different successful playstyles work -- but it used to be i that most of the time I had one and only one style -- something that suited what I thought was my personality. It helped that my desire to constantly experiment and try different things made me a bit more unpredictable but now I think I've reached a place where I can do things in poker that were previously way outside of my comfort zone. I am pretty sure I can act/and or play the maniac at will (even online)-- for all I know I have come across as nuts at the table but I never actually played that way despite having the knowledge about how to do it successfully -- not counting the whole changing-gears thing that I learned to do at different times in tournaments.