Balancing Life And Poker – Aim To Achieve An Equilibrium

By Andrew Ferguson

Starting out as a poker player it is easy to become deeply involved in the game, especially when you start winning. Constantly earning money is addictive, something that I would define as completely different to a gambling addiction. Every moment you are away from the table can lead to thoughts of missing out on the positive expected value associated with playing poker. This kind of poker obsession can be a great thing at first, it allows you to learn the game and work up a bankroll pretty quickly. In the long-run though, it can be fraught with problems.

When you do start experiencing the inevitable downswings and bad beats of poker, your heavy involvement in the game can become a problem. Your instincts will not allow you to walk away in situations where you have become steamed and could use some time away from the game. So instead of walking away when you are down three or four buy-ins for the day, you stay at the table because you don't have anything else to do with your time, or you are obsessed with winning. Inevitably, you continue to lose because you aren't in the right space mentally, your opponents are outplaying you or getting lucky and it simply isn't your day.

Breaks from poker are essential when you are in a rut, but if you don't have a balanced approach to your life, it is likely that you don't have many other interests outside of poker. Players who have a good equilibrium between poker and their life will immerse themselves in their families, business, physical fitness, reading or whatever else makes them tick or allows them relax away from the table. Their emotional welfare, while influenced mildly by how they do at poker, isn't deeply engrained their poker profit. If they are running bad at poker, they have plenty of other things going on in their day to day activities that they don't have time to think about it.

Even if you are good at playing through losing streaks and you feel like you can play poker all the time without any problems, this kind of lifestyle will catch up with you. Whether it be your physical or mental health, something is going to give in the long term. Spending long hours, 300+ days a year playing poker will take it's toll on your physical fitness in that all that time sitting down and living a very inactive lifestyle. You'd be surprised how much getting up from the table, giving up some poker time and going for a short jog everyday can help you out, both at the poker table and away from it. Physical health aside, the game of poker will wear you down mentally unlike any other. Even if you can keep it together at the worst of times, after thousands of hours and hundreds of sessions you will eventually be broken down. It is no surprise that many of the top poker players have famously broken down or developed substance abuse problems.

Poker is a great game, there is no doubt about it, but life is great and has so much to offer. So before you next sit down at the poker table, consider how long you are going to play and whether or not your poker playing is in balance with the other activities in your life. Do you really want to wake up in ten years time and realize you wasted the best years of your life playing poker, when you could have experienced so much if you'd played just a little less everyday?

Copyright 2007 – Andrew L. Ferguson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

The Eureka Kid is an up-and-coming young poker player who publishes free poker commentary content. The Omaha Split provides all the Omaha High/Low rules and strategy you'll ever need to know!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Ferguson
http://EzineArticles.com/?Balancing-Life-And-Poker---Aim-To-Achieve-An-Equilibrium&id=474886