Losing Interest in Online Poker

Is anyone else feeling the same way, with all the cash out problems, bad plays on top of bad plays, this is not just poker, I know there are ups and downs, but bad play after bad play and then they get rewarded, its no longer of interest for me to play online. I haven't posted here in awhile and I think I am going to move on to live poker, at least then I can see the person that makes that bad play instead of wasting my time and money.

It probably just because Poker is on a down swing because of black friday, not really any great sites to play on.

Actually I think online poker is going to be huge in the next few years. As far as losing interest in it. I get bored a lot but if you're not bored playing tournament poker you are doing something wrong. As most the time you are just folding cards.

Damn Cali. You did it again.

Ya, I find myself facing burnout also...and the improving weather and the boat in the driveway aint helpin...I may be around less lol

oh and cake cashout sux.(rant rant rant)

edit: live play sux tho, here in Oklahoma...can you imagine the sb disappearing every hand online?? they rake the crap out of every pot.

I had black card status on fulltilt and was on pace for supernova on pokerstars at the time of black friday. Now all I play are the cardschat games and an occasional sunday tourney like the pokermaximus on merge or bovada 100k. No cash game play in 2012 and barely any since BF. Now I play live couple times a week at casino plus home games on fri or sat.

I have always preferred playing live to online - but I have to travel to play live. I stopped playing everything except CC games after Black Friday.

Until the past few months - now I play other games as well when I have time - so I am actually playing more online now than I was in previous months.

I have several friends who have also started playing more online now.

If you get that feeling it is best to take a break. Either moving to live or cold turkey quit. Best of Luck in what you do, I am sure you will have several friends left here when you decide to return.

This is how I feel. Black Friday screwed everything up. I'm barely playing now because the online poker environment for US players sucks right now. Hopefully online poker can get back to the way it used to be with the nevada based sites sooner rather than later.

Still to far for me to travel for live poker, but above seems reasonable & probably profitable, to me.
Enjoy & good luck.

Gotta agree with you here, sad state of affairs, personally have found better things to do with my time as of late...Now if it gets back to as easy to cash out as in ...than count me in. However until than for me at least consider online playing as amusement only just as I would any other video game where you cant trade ur points for cash. Or in this case Faux cash Fer Cash.

I do understand what you mean, sites now are usually intelligent players playing with intelligent players, everything relies now on the cards and when you should or should not fold. It's at the point now when I'm shoving with AA and waiting for the river to suck me out. I just think live would personally be a better experience for me, but each to his own.

I think online poker hit its peak in early 2000s where credit cards were a dime a dozen and every joe would fill his account with $3k thinking he would hit it big.

Playing bad opponents isn't a waste of money; it's a recipe for profitability. If you're losing to bad players over a significant sample size, it's either a highly unlikely statistical anomaly or the level of play isn't as bad as you think it is. In the latter case, it may be that your subjective memory of bad plays that worked out makes you think the rate of occurrence is higher than it actually is.

As for wasting your time, that's a pretty subjective matter.

That said, if you're discouraged enough to be in such a negative state of mind, it's more important to address how you feel, be it by changing to live play, combing your records to determine how much variance has actually affected you, or other methods.

My main method is only playing when I know I'm in the mood. I don't play out of habit or just because I have nothing else to do - at least not nearly as much as I used to.

I love poker. I'm on Social Security and any little profit helps, So I'm not bored and will continue to play. I use to drag race but too old now,,,so poker is my thrill of winning and agony of defeat......hope I live long enough to see USA online sites. take care ya'll

I really enjoyed seeing your signature.

I only play for fun since BF and the demise of Fulltilt .
and of course, because of the constant stream of bad beats,
which is never-ending (variance ?)
Have fun with online poker , don't be negative.
gl

Remember Jerry Ruth? I used to crew for him.


-

(Fingers Crossed)

\At some point in the (hopefully) not too distant future, The laws in the US will once again allow easier deposit/withdrawal of monies, at which point, the online world will explode.

For that very reason, it is worth the effort to keep you skills as sharp as possible.

Take a vacation from all you electronics, Internet, TV, smart phones, everything, and reacquaint yourself with real life. Visit the Grand Canyon, or my favorite....Monument Valley

BF and the lack of ability to cashout and move money means I play a third of what I used to play. Now I play just to exercise the little grey cells a bit

I don't expect the B&M casinos in the US moving to a legal online marketplace to make things better... just make it different. I expect the cost to play (rake/tax) may make that new environment inhospitable to many

I've been taking a bit of a "rest" myself. I don't know why, but I just hate the Carbon software. And it affects my play. I know it shouldn't, but it does. Poker takes a huge investment of time. As a result, for those of us who play as a hobby, we've got to be having fun. Otherwise, what's the point? It lost just enough of that fun factor for me to swing the pendulum the other way.

I know it will all get worked out in the end. Until then, I'll continue my hiatus. I hope to see a day where I can enjoy some CC freerolls again. But who knows what's going to happen here in the US. It could take years for this whole thing to get worked out.

It's unfortunate that so many players that really enjoyed online poker so much, have had their interest taken away from them.
I was in decline prior to Black Friday mostly because of projects that I had put off for a long time, deposit and withdrawal issues, along with the anticipation of the hammer falling on online poker.
I would love to get the interest/excitement back and play more but, it just doesn't seem to be in the cards right now. I even have a hard time reading posts and responding in the players lounge. I will continue on standby for the time being trying to get a CC tourney in once in a while or possibly even league play.
I hope for all here that are hanging in there, things turn around in the online poker situation.

Count me as one of the casualties of BF. Being outside of North America I can play in any online poker room I choose to, but after losing my roll and the constant stream of bad news and bad people giving the poker world an increasingly negative image... I've found other things to occupy my time with.

I can also honestly admit that while I was doing well and making a fair amount of money, my relationship with poker last year wasn't very healthy and was actually quite detrimental to my personal life. Having this break more or less forced upon me allowed me to get some distance from my addiction and to reevaluate some things in my life.

I've recently been starting to get the itch to play again, though I know now I really need to monitor how much time I spend in poker pursuits and not let the swings on the felt affect my state of mind off the felt.

I'm a usa player and i've worried a lot about more and more the poker sites getting closed down, so its effecting my play i think

I didn't play much at the beginning of this month and found the break quite refreshing.
Played a lot this week, but didn't actually find it much fun.
I doubt I'll ever give up online poker, but I might start to reasses how much time to spend on it.
Looks like quite a few of us are currently feeling disallusioned.
(The bad beats and coolers don't help, but surely there must be another group happy to be benefitting from the good side of these).

After Black Friday I stopped playing online (damn the US Government) for almost a year.
The good thing was I started playing even more live poker and I found myself really enjoying it.
As usual work interfered with my schedule after a few months (even though I did pretty good live)
I found myself missing the ability to just log on and play.
I especially missed all the great conversation and camaraderie of places like CC so I came back here
and I started playing for play chips just to get back into it.

I am still playing live (in a charity tourney this weekend) but I still enjoy playing online when I get home from work.

I think online poker will be back bigger than ever but not till after the next US elections are finished.

It is hard to get motivated to play since cashouts are so slow ATM. I slowed down a lot for a few months but i recently started playing again.

erm i like, play one MTT at a time and yes, a lot of time i do spend it dozing off. but then again, i can't manage more than 1 table... must be old age ahahaah. my friends are telling me that i really need to grind to keep the wheels well-oiled and not die of boredom from online. maybe true, but i'm too stupid for that. yes, i've gotten numerous times over when nothing i play seem to go my way and bouts of losign streaks was the norm. there were periods when i had to stop playing for a week or two just to gather my self. having said that, i'm still at it... thankfully, i've still managed to stay in the black, albeit with diminishing results. but i guess for me it's more of a personal thing where i need to challenge myself with determination and persistence. and hopefully one day, i'll see the bright lights of wsop. until then, i would like to still think of myself as a work-in-progress... yeah... i may be dirt now, but one day i'll change into coal and den a diamond

Just stop playing for awhile, after awhile you will miss it and come back.

sorry to hear your down on poker.
I have never been more excited about poker
look harder for the joy

actually, playing poker is kinda like life... some things or sometimes, you've just gotta rough it out regardless of how you're feeling. so when i'm feeling "dry" with poker, i have to switch my mind onto auto... move into small stakes or super micro mtts and put in the hours until things change around. It's a little like streaks.. honestly, I don't understand it mathematically, but i can swear that streaks do exist. and knowing how to ride the streaks means whether i'll be losing big or small.. as well as making a profit in the end of it all...

most people come back because its so fun

on the other side its so frustrating at times its not even funny

rlly guys, I dont get it, why everyone when he had a bad day or days or whatever, he come to the forum and start trash talk about online poker :S if u dont like it, dont play it and dont flame it, because there are still guys who enjoin playing online poker.

Not necessarily the case. I had a extreme run good at the beginning of February, and almost immediately afterward, suffer a lack of interest in playing. That lack of interest may have contributed to a minor run bad for several weeks.

Goes to the point being that when we play while being disinterested we are not playing a sharp game.

I think its actually pretty normal to be discouraged about online poker at the moment, if you're a US-based player. Not a lot to get excited about. Just the opposite actually. Seems like every week/month there is a new round of sites turning away US players. Those that do still accept US players have (usually) many problems. Small player pools, few tournaments, slow or non-existant cashouts, ridiculous cashout fees in some cases. Just more and more negatives all the time.

Now, with the government involved you just know its gonna get worse, too. What kind of cut do you think they will want from your profits for granting you the "priviledge" of playing online poker from the privacy of your own home? It's all very unfortunate because I actually do still enjoy the game, but I find I'm having to start seeing it as simply a pastime or hobby, not something that I feel I should put in the time to seriously study and improve my game because I just don't think there is much upside anytime soon for US players.

I guess I could justify it (study time, serious effort, major commitment, etc) if working on your online game would significantly improve your live game, but the two are so different that I don't think that's really the case. All-in-all, I just think it's a sad time right now for US-based online players, so feeling discouragement, a lack of motivation, whatever, is completely understandable.

Easy to say when you are not a US-based player, and don't have to put-up with all the BS that entails right now. Now, if things could or would somehow suddenly revert to pre-BF status for US players, you bet I be motivated to play poker again. Sadly I think that day is gone and likely to not return in anything resembling pre-BF form.

I've been frustrated as well, but I refuse to quit

I keep trying to tell myself it's just a bad run.... I'll be doing fine in an SnG until late hand a crucial hand comes and it always starts out with me having the better hand (whether I go all-in or not against another player) and EVERY TIME they catch river magic over me and suck out...or in a pre-flop all-in race someone calls me with a much weaker hand and somehow their luck comes and they suck out on me

So many different variables I cannot list them

I'm also fully aware that online poker is a completely different breed...it feels more like a video game the way monster hands come more often and simultaneously between players and skill will always overcome in the long run

The bad runs I've been through are the exact experiences that makes one think the game must be rigged....I refuse to believe this

I know a good amount of losing hands are from making some mistakes, but what I'm talking about are the steady and constant miracle catches that are getting dropped on me constantly. The ones that completely take me out of the game busting me

I honestly try not to race and go all-in on pre-flop with AK...I'll do it with AA though...it's become ridiculous it seems and I try to take time away and stick to FR's when it occurs because it's draining what small money I actually have

The other issue is the lack of US-friendly sites. Because this limits me I can't just cash out and try another site for a while either so you feel stuck and relegated to just a few locations

I refuse to give up...my skills may not be super, but I know enough to do well normally. The recent runs are what eats up my account. Otherwise I win 4 or more of every 10 SnG's and grind upwards. I take notes and I'm reading my adversaries well. I take all the information and input here into consideration and I've improved, and with these tools I'm staying where I am and not quitting

It may take a while for me to become a winner in a CardsChat FR because the community is more skillful than I am, but I do know I have what it takes to take on the fish and average players...I'm not going to let this discourage me into quitting

I enjoy on-line poker, but play for the fun of it. I mostly play free rolls to get a bank roll..

Being kicked out of so many poker rooms due to our own government dictating what we can and cant do in the privacey of our own home, along with the depressed economy, does take it's toll on the game of poker as well as the players. I also play half as much as I use to due to all that I have mentioned. As little as I play though, I still find it enjoyable. I'm not quite ready to quit yet.

I'm going back to just freerolls for the rest of the week...if not longer. I at least can't stand paying to lose every SnG or MTT if it means I'm gonna lose every stinking game to river magic...at least beat me honestly and not by some damn lucky gift

Also,It's amazing to me how the government is fine with casinos as well as New York state's "racino's" (the term is used for casinos in the horse racing parks like Aqueduct and Yonkers)

Obviously it's taxation(but I'm sure most of these poker site's would be happy to pay a tax if they can legally open for business), and hypocrisy that is synonimous with polititians

The legislators who claim this is unhealthy for it's constituents are a lying bunch of P.O.S's talking out of their backends. They have nothing but negative one-liner's for a game of skill, but they find no problem in lotteries and games of chance that benefit 'The House" and the edge it provides

The public is suckered into believing lotteries are going to education, yet here in NYS schools are being closed and kids are forced into even more crowded classrooms. There's never an accounting of how much is actually going to a student's benefit. This is kept in the dark and we also have no idea who's actually making the profit

Bear in mind there isn't one decent candidate running for president either...

Who wants to vote for any of these choices we have....one's a zealous religious nut, another guy is nicknamed after a fielding glove, or the other who used to be named Barry?

Can't I just play an honest game while we all go to hell in a handbasket?

Everybody gets tired of playing sometimes. Good to take a lil break every once in awhile. I would have to agree that online poker sucks for the US player right now.

Interesting bit about the lotteries, there. SUPPOSEDLY, they benefit the schools, yet every election season there is another ballot issue to increase taxation for the local schools, or else they will supposedly fail/eliminate sports/cut services, whatever. It's always something. With the popularity of state and national lotteries, where exactly IS all that profit going????

I think you summed up very well the situation and uphill battle for US players.

I still think that online poker can be competitve and nice entertainment for us, as well as profitable for some, and will play as long as it is feasible, but cannot have serious expectations or optimism for the future.

Thanks,....I guess. Wish I could say that I can see a brighter future for US online poker in the immediate future, but just trying to be a realist. When you figure that what, 75-80% of online players are net losers, try to calculate how many are only slight winners, then calculate the government eventually taking a healthy percentage of those winnings under the guise of some-sort of "sin tax" or such that they now levy on alcohol and tobacco products.... I think very few people in the US will ever be able to profitably play online again (at least for the foreseeable future).

For those of you who always question these kinds of posts and ask if the poster has any "insider information" to support his theory.... No, I don't....except a lifetime of witnessing how the US government generally works when it gets involved in things it shouldn't be.

Bad play = chance to make money, who doesn't like bad play? Even if people get rewarded occasionally spiking on the river, long term these players making calls without odds to do so are going to be the losers..

Online poker will come back in the States, it's just a matter of time until it's legalised and more firmly regulated. It'll then come back bigger than ever before.

Very true. The unfortunate thing is that while I agree there is also an element of truth in what the op says. Poker has become a lot more aggressive and the prevailing tactic seems to be double up early or forget it.

Even when I double or triple up 2 out of 3 Sng's I would get an incredible hit of one to three straight bad beats to knock me out...frustrating

That's an awful mentality to play with.

Your not alone out there. I used to play everyday,now it's 1-2 small games a week. Combination of the payment services and sights "holding" my money along with getting punished by players who even after five or six years playing me will still play AQ into whatever raise I throw at them and beat me holding AK or AA. lol. Thank goodness for the semi-sanity of casinos.

Continuing to read this thread hasn't helped improve my online poker mood. I fear the Thrill is Gone and not sure if it will be returning anytime soon. Except for the few CC games I play I have pretty much stopped playing online...

Happens to all of us, we easilly lose interest when things don't go our way, and that happens a lot