I keep getting the question: In the last week, how much money did you loose gambling.
reasons for not playing
* I have only ten good years left to play poker.
* Rake, and tips, are higher; so I had to play at a higher limit. I chose 10-20 and 15-30 hold-em and higher.
* Playing on the strip, at Mirage, has disadvantages: I could not walk there; the environment is more corporate and less intimate. e.g. Getting food comps is like begging or at least time consuming and being interrogated - they are not gracious (sometimes hostile authoritarian :(, sometimes corporate friendly :).
* Text book strategy is very much advanced. Playing against dull play is dull and the win rate is low.
* I changed my way of playing, to become more structured. The complicated structure I used required an intensity of attention and recalling "correct" play. This was draining, for the next half year I would have only been able to play for about four hours at a time.
* I was never going to be able to "just play for fun", get drunk, and still make a living playing. In fact I pretty much could not drink and play at my best.
* This is a strange one. At the lower limits the players were playing for fun and had no chance of winning over time. At the Mirage, however many of the players could win, so my beating them did in fact change their outcome.
* I proved that I could beat the game, even at the higher limit and make $20 an hour. (This need was perhaps pathological.) I played at the Mirage, a variety of poker games for a month and made $30 an hour.
* Fear of success. If I would have stuck with it and continued to work hard, studying, thinking, improving my game I might have been able to make e. g. $100 an hour. I do not know. Either way, making $20 (not enough) or $100 (too much) could be a reason to quit poker.
* To quit using cocain.
This requires some discussion. I never smoked with other poker players. I did not smoke before or after playing. Alchohol and playing poker overlaped since the early 80s, so not being able to drink (much) while playing was a strong dis-motivator, and changed the game entirely. Al I know well, and many others play better or win more than I do at poker. Even so they are not successful and they use cocain. The fact is that I did quit using cocain and I did quit playing poker. The connection between the two is more real and stronger than I can articulate. Tony, at U. S. Vets, for one would agree. I am now (04/40/47... ) staying here and am not using spell check or being able to move text.