Poker's gone to the dogs!

Yes kids, it's happened again. After barely staying even for a couple of days, my luck truly turned sour, and I am now taking a break from online poker. I'm not sure how long, maybe a week, maybe two, maybe forever. There are only so many bad beats one can take in a day, but take that number and imagine it happening in 3 hours. In case you're wondering, yes, I still have my bankroll, and yes, it is still a nice number. But, poker has started to play a bigger part in my life than I'd like. I am more reclusive, and less productive. More stressed, not at my best.

At one particular table, the proverbial last straw if you will, one particular person called me 3 times in one hour, with only a gutshot straight draw, to my trips on the flop. No flush draw, no pair, just a hope, and a prayer to the poker gods. We put all the money in, and 3 times he hit the gutshot, meaning 4 cards in the deck. Literally, the guy was the biggest fool ever, and yes, I do want people calling me with those cards, for all my money, as a 95% favourite to win. But for me to lose 3 times in just 45 minutes with those odds is mind-blowing and morale sapping.

So on to more constructive things. The job search continues, the quest for U.K. grows unabated. Poker has been good to me. Over the last 4 months I have managed to take a little knowledge, a little heart, and little talent and combine them all to wreck the dreams of fellow poker wannabees. I've stolen pensioner's pensions, and cocky teenagers' daddy-funded bankrolls. I've raided the raiders, I've plundered the pirates. I've managed to earn a decent amount at the same time. But most of all it's been fun. Now it's time to take some risks of another kind.

Peace out.

M.L.

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"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)