Anyone else a poker player?

[Zuni]

I won 52$ yesterday in a game that ended up lasting 6-7 hours. I loved it. I was down to 3$ in chips when I won a huge pot and then was able to really get my game on.
I love gambling. My dad was a gambler. My brother is practically a pro gambler (he bets on football every week, goes to the racetracks, plays poker several times a week and goes to Atlantic city whenever he gets the chance. Luckily he is good at it and wins hundreds of dollars a week to boost his income. he rarely ever loses money) I think I may have a problem too.

[Systematic Chaos]

1. It's only a problem if:

1) You risk money that doesn't fall under the category of "disposable income"

2) You risk relatively large amounts of money on games you don't THOROUGHLY understand. When I'm in my casino dealing blackjack I just cringe at how poorly most of our patrons play that game. We're already set up to take about 3 cents of every dollar wagered each hand, win or lose, so at least an inkling of basic strategy is a must if one is to maximize playing time and enjoyment.

3) You have an emotional attachment to the money you're losing that causes your judgement to become clouded, or compels you to "chase" losses with more money.

My advice to you is that if you really enjoy playing poker, do your research and find the best published materials concerning the games you like to play and study, study, STUDY. If you can't be disciplined about your gambling and it's causing you problems then yes, you do have a problem. Speaking as someone who got to watch his mother flush over $100k (probably more like $200k - and that's a LOT of college credits :( ) down the toilet on bingo and video poker over the course of my lifetime, I know what I'm talking about.

[Zuni]

4. I do not think

I have a real problem. I do not spend a lot of money, and what i do spend is the kind of money that i use for recreational purposes. When I do lose money, I never have lost more than 25 or 30 bucks in a game. I usually come out ahead playing poker, 20-25 bucks in most games.
My biggest problem is when I go to bars, I always have this irrational urge to play Keno, although i rarely ever win anything at all. One night I plunked down 20$ on Keno and won all of 2 dollars back.
I also buy lottery tickets and scratch games at convienance stores, but that is only when I buy cigarettes.

[chiburb]

2. Read this:

Real Men Need Poker Night
God, sex, cars, really good scotch and a lot of five-card stud. Might just be essential to your health

Snip:

I don't watch NASCAR or "WWE Raw" or "The Man Show." I don't read a lot of Maxim or ESPN Magazine or Sporting News nor frequent Gold's Gym with a cadre of thick muscled dudes named Rick or Tony who stand over me and spot my bench presses with a lot of c'mon dude you can do it pump one more rep yeah yeah yeah, just before we all high five and go out for pizza and beer and talk about SportsCenter and the crazy shopping habits/frustrating fellatio inhibitions of our wives.

I do not spend endless hours of every weekend out in the garage rebuilding my rusty old '67 'Stang. I do not grill giant slabs of beef ribs on the Weber every night. I do not reshingle the house or wear khaki Dockers or pound pitchers of Bud Light at O'Shaunessey's during the Final Four. Maybe I should. But I don't.

In fact, I engage in few stereotypical manly guy things largely because I live in the City and enjoy a wickedly urban and decidedly lubricious lifestyle, and tend to find many traditionally "guy" activities to be sort of unfulfilling and uninteresting and occasionally sort of dorky and faux macho and sadly devoid of divine sensuality and intellectual mystery and really good booze. But whatever. That's just me.

But maybe I've been wrong all along. Maybe there are ways to do this sort of thing right. Maybe I've been neglecting an important aspect of life, that of the Gathering of Like-Minded Ones, the Reinforcement of the Gender Thing, the Great Weekly Bonding Event.

Because I now find I want to start a poker night. A real one. Sort of.

The whole column is here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/12/03/notes120303.DTL

[Zuni]

7. It is very true

I am not that into sports except for hockey and sometimes college basketball), i am no good at mechanical stuff like working on cars. My two things i like doing with guys, besides drinking a shitload of beer, are playing poker or playing music.

[curse10]

3. we have a semi-weekly game going

nickel ante. tons of fun. I'm pretty good, I usually take home more than what I put in. And, even if I lose, I had a good time with friends for 2-3 bucks.

[Zuni]

5. we generally play low cost games

but we ante up to $1.50 maximum bet (if you keep raising, it goes higher than 1.50 but that is the most you can add to the exisiting bet at any time). Sometimes i play with my brother's friends, and they bet bigger. They like to play bigger stakes. I have won over 100$ playing with them, and have enough sense not to blow my cash when things aren't looking good.

[Rowdyboy]

6. Love to play, usually win a litttle....

but have only played once in the last ten years...I moved away from all my poker buddies.

[wysimdnwyg]

8. First and foremost, poker is not gambling

It's a skill game. And I love to play, although it is proving very difficult to find people willing to start a regular game. (Any Nashville DUers want to play?)

[radwriter0555]

13. Exactly, it's a game of skill, not chance.... that's totally true...

it takes genuine skill to play GOOD poker.

[RebelOne]

9. Used to stay up all night playing nickel and dime antes.

But that was a long time ago. Now I just play on the free game sites.

[lazarus]

10. I was

I live within 15 minutes of 4 casinos with poker rooms.

I was a regular at one of them, and hit another one on occasion, but had to quit.

I got good enough that I was ready to move from the 3-6 Hold'em tables up to the 8-16. And that's the point where I needed to quit, because I couldn't afford the potential losses at 8-16. I could handle the ups and down at 3-6. I would go up 200-300 for the night, then down 100-200 the next night. But 8-16, you're looking at a hell of a lot money.

And to be honest, things got tight enough at home I had to dip into my roll, and I haven't been able to build one up again. Once I can put about 500 dollars into a bankroll, I might start playing again, but not until then.

[beawr]

11. Strictly Amateur

Love to play with friends these days. I have, however, lost more than $1,000 in a night and have taken home a car someone had to sign over, this was a while back. In the long run, though, I'm about even.

[radwriter0555]

12. I love cards, poker and blackjack. My pal made $7000 on the last game

he was in out at the Hustler Casino, LA.

He paid off his land/house in TX over a couple years with poker winnings, to the tune of over $200K.

he's goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.