Home Vs OL ???

[hojediade]

Hey gang.

I wanted to told you about a thing i notice in my own behaviours during past months.
First, i've been somekind of a poker addict for few years now and i couldn't spend a night at home without playing any OL poker game. It ran like this for more than 2 years now and i didn't have any problems with that, except with my GF probably.
Since few months now, i feel like every time i'm playing OL, i can't keep my concentration for as long as our Euro games last, which means no more than 1 hour and a half (and that's when i'm patient enough not to gamble sooner). I feel like i'm on tilt as soon as i open a table.
That's weird for someone that is used to addiction as i am.

I'm not in the mood to play good poker anymore while OL, it seems, if i ever played good poker in the past. I guess i'm somehow tired. I keep on play our league games as i feel a bit "engaged" with 4kp and members that are also friends, but i know i'm not gonna perform in it, which is not really a trouble for you i guess.

To tell the truth, i'm playing a home game (usually a small cash game 0.05/0.10 euros) which fully fill my desire to play poker for the week, and my wallet too. i feel like this game is a way for me to overcome my OL frustration and to improve my live play.

So here is the question: Am i sick or is it making any sense?

Put your own thought or experience.
If you ever need more infos, ask and i'll tell you as honestly as i can.

[Alnoble]

I kind of understand where you are coming from Hoje. before the new year I was playing multiple tournements every night and doing alright for the first hour then getting bored and playing a wider range of hands and as a result losing.

Now 70% of my poker is 4kp games which I enjoy because of the general standard of play is high and there is some banter in the chat. Not realy helping my bankroll a lot even though my ROI for 4kp is good so far having been in the money more than once it's self funding.

Could do with playing some longer tournements with bigger prize pools to make a bit of spending money rather than playing money. Need to try and find the concentration from some where.

[kingmotan]

I wanted to told you

I stopped reading here!

hahaha I'm kidding! It's because you don't take the game seriously man. I should know because (sometimes) I'm doing/feeling the same thing.
There is only one solution to it. Ok, maybe two.. PLAY MORE! (I'm saying this because I'm the addict, you're just a baby!) And stop playing any freerolls! I'm serious! MOTAN THINKS they are bad, bad for your game and focus.
I don't know what you want to do or where you want to get - Poker related but my advice is set goals for yourself. If you play SNGs aim for a certain number of them /day and set a ROI that you want to achive at the end of the week/month, even though for sngs you need a larger sample in order to get a decent ROI. If you want to give cash games a try, set a number of hands as a goal and a bb/100 you want to get. PTR covers that for fulltilt if you don't use PT/HEM. Anyway I know you don't have much free time for this and I don't personally know you so I can't give you any better advices, this is the best I can do
GL man.

[Limey777]

Sick? I hope not, might be an epidemic.

Sounds like online burnout to me. I catch myself on insta-tilt many times (such as last night) sitting there staring at the monitor, thinking did I really do something so dumb? I started to write a big long story about last night, but I deleted it because I’m too ashamed of myself to tell the story

The tables are wild and crazy on Pokerstars at the moment (due to the milestone hands promotion) and every night is like playing at the weekend, which I try to avoid. I usually run for an hour before taking a break but here lately 30mins is all I can manage before I get the feeling I’m about to do something dumb.

You can’t beat a good home game with a few buddies and brewskies, I play Omaha but deal Hold ‘em, with the same players every week. What has online Omaha done for me? Well, I can read them so well, they won’t let me play with them. I couldn’t imagine live poker helping you get over the frustration of online though, maybe you "do" have a problem

How do you overcome online frustration? I think the answer is buried in your post. You take said "GF" for dinner/movies/dancing, whatever she wants, and make sure it’s far away from a computer. If 3-4 days doesn’t work, give it a week. If that doesn’t work, at least the GF will be happy.

Doctor Limey has spoken and I am unanimous in my decision.

P.S. Don’t listen to king, I was watching him today. I mean really, 10 1c/2c Hold ‘em tables at once, that’s sick, no, more disturbing than sick. I think King may be a lost cause.

[kingmotan]

P.S. Don’t listen to king, I was watching him today. I mean really, 10 1c/2c Hold ‘em tables at once, that’s sick, no, more disturbing than sick. I think King may be a lost cause.

lol only 10? I was relaxing today. Yea I will try to do something next week and I'm training. you stalker
P.s. are from Poland?

[hojediade]

Thank's for inputs peeps.

I know it all come from myself and i'll have to work on it. Probably a semi-break for few weeks would help me to focus on my goals at poker (semi-break would mean that i'll keep on play Euro 4kp games only). Cause you're true Mo, i don't really have any goals so that i can't really see any improvement in my game. Plus as i don't play enough to collect useful stats and as i don't use any tracking software, i can't work on my weaknesses properly.
As said, i don't have much time to put into poker and i did choose to spend it reading more. I will give cash game a chance and will stop playing FRs, which i don't play much anymore knowing i won't last long BTW.
As said earlier, i only play few OL games a week now, mostly cause my home game seems to feed me for the week.
About spending more time with my GF, let's say that's not easy, works and kids don't allow us more than few hours together during the week. That's how life is running, and we can't go against it yet. Remain together seems to be quite an achievement in itself.
I still wonder if playing more live games would led me to stop tilting while OL.

[Limey777]

OK, in my opinion, no. Playing live will not help any aspect of online play at all,

I find the opposite to be true though. Online definitely helps me spot weakness. If one of my buddies throws out a $5 bet into a $25-25 pot they may as well be waving a big flag that says "I didn’t really want to do that but I’d like to see another card please". Sometimes I pounce, sometimes I’m nice. Sometimes they make a big donk call and I get caught, which is too funny.
It’s really easy to take control of a game with people that play once a week / every 2 weeks but remember it’s no fun for them and too much aggression will kill the game. (I just realized, all my buddies are fish)

If you suffer a bad beat during live play it usually results in us flicking small candy bars at each other with a few insults and then we all laugh it off. A bad beat online just causes rage and you have no "support group" to help you through the difficult period.

Playing live is still playing poker and without a break the frustration will not recede.

[eberetta1]

You should stick with what you enjoy doing. Lots of people take time off from their sport, and they come back with a new and fresh attitude ready to take it on, again.
Some of the frustration is the bankroll. If you have put in 300 hours and there is less than 30 dollars difference, you come to the realization that it is not a money making hobby.

You also mention it is very fun playing around other friends. That is what we need more of in our lives and not get swallowed up in the online world.

I try not to play more than 5 hours a night from like 10 pm to 3pm.

i know when i broke away from online and played in the house with everyone bringing a pot of food, man we had so much fun and everyone still talks about how much fun it was. Of course, we had 3 kids play at diff times, and they were getting unreal hands and online poker hands so it so livened up the party.(like they thought nothing of calling all in, and saying you are going down to their parents, and they were the chip leaders.) Good food and friends we hadn't seen in forever. And poker hollerin into the wee hours of the night. But online is for when the family is all taken care of.