Thursday 26 January 2012

Losing Love for the Game?

I don't know what it is recently but I can't seem to get myself up to play online poker:
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Is it all the downs personal life dealt me last year that got me out of the habit of playing?
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Am I just tired of players holding onto J5 on a J high flop until they hit their set on the river to beat my AA?
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Have the bonuses dried up that used to turn me from a marginal winning player to a quite profitable player?
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Whatever it is Online Poker is just not the same as it was to me over a year ago.
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Is OnLine Poker in Trouble?
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Daniel Negranaeu, in Poker Player Magazine, spoke about poker being in trouble because there are no real characters coming through the new game.
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I think it is in trouble for different reason - a high percentage of players are now better!
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Heres my theory:
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When a player is far better than their opponents the skill difference is very apparent and the effect of this skills gulf is mostly measurable (probably solely) on their results. Luck does still play a part but overall the difference in skill will win out in the end.
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When players' skill levels are more evenly matched the skill level plays less of a role in results and the winning player is more likely going to be the one who is luckiest. To me this doesn't matter if it is equal skill at a low level or at the highest level. At whatever level it becomes more difficult to measure your success because you can't (or don't want to) measure the amount of good or bad luck you have.
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My second point here is where I think online poker is at now. At all levels players appear to have a good grasp of the basics of the game and in most cases are educated to the more advanced plays.
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How it used to be:
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Of course the player holding onto his J5 in my opening to this post is exactly what you want to have happen, but these players are fewer and far between (perhaps one to a table). When there used to be 4 or 5 of these to a table you were likely to get those chips back 3-4 times faster than is likely today.
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Consequently you reward to time ratio is watered down and your overall ROI is reduced ... and thats just to the few players you are better than!
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Add to this mix the fact that tracker software has levelled the playing field even further and it becomes very difficult to make a meaningful profit.
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This is probably the real reason why I have lost the drive for online poker.
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So what are my plans for online poker?
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Well I think it is going to become mainly recreational whilst I continue to try and make something happen at the live game. I am not going to sit and grind for hours and hours, I am not going to attemp to hit the leaderboards, I am going to play when I feel like it.
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So, unless something in my Psyche changes, I am going to try and play the bankroll build game until the end of the year.
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I am starting at the lowest SnG, cash and multi tourney buy in levels ...
I am starting my records from $0 dollar ....
I will play freerolls and bonus tournaments ...
and I will see how much I have won or lost by christmas.
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When my balance is at at appropriate levels I will be using the following rules for buy ins:
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5% of bankroll for SnG
2% of bank roll for cash games
1 % of bank roll for Multi Tournaments
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Any profit I have at the end of December will then be spent on live poker for 2013.
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If I lose on the year it could well be spelling the end of my online poker exploits.
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So until my next update
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Keep it Tight!