Poker finally over for me....

[BetCheckBet]

Well it finally happened, after over 10 years of online poker I can finally say I'm 100% done. I started playing back around 2003 and proud to say that I built up a very nice role from never depositing and grinding like a mofo. As stupid as it sounds, its one of my proudest achievements. Poker played a big part in my life and it was not easy to give up. While I had not played a hand in over a year I still had a few thousand in pokerstars. I just didn't have it in me to take the last of my money out. Always thought in the back of my head I might come back some day. But the truth is after you've played poker for a living it just isn't as fun anymore to play recreationally. I loved back in grad school grinding out 8 hour tournaments or 10 tabling cash. I remember going for runs along the canal listening to AEjones lecture about poker on the free ipod I got from stars. The monitor right now I'm typing on was free from stars too... Nowadays pokerfraudalert and OOTV twoplustwo is about all I have... and neither is really about poker.

Anyways today my rsa token finally expired (issued 2008). I realized I've carried that thing on my key chain nearly everywhere for the past 6 years. I took it off, got out my one time password (only time I ever used it), and withdrew every last penny. For the first time ever since I started playing poker I literally have no money online. Its crazy to think back to 2003-2005 and how the atmosphere was back then. It really was and amazing time and I'm okay with giving it up. Don't have any regrets but its definitely not easy to give up some of your identity when poker was such a big part of it.

[ShadyJ]

Well it finally happened, after over 10 years of online poker I can finally say I'm 100% done. I started playing back around 2003 and proud to say that I built up a very nice role from never depositing and grinding like a mofo. As stupid as it sounds, its one of my proudest achievements. Poker played a big part in my life and it was not easy to give up. While I had not played a hand in over a year I still had a few thousand in pokerstars. I just didn't have it in me to take the last of my money out. Always thought in the back of my head I might come back some day. But the truth is after you've played poker for a living it just isn't as fun anymore to play recreationally. I loved back in grad school grinding out 8 hour tournaments or 10 tabling cash. I remember going for runs along the canal listening to AEjones lecture about poker on the free ipod I got from stars. The monitor right now I'm typing on was free from stars too... Nowadays pokerfraudalert and OOTV twoplustwo is about all I have... and neither is really about poker.

Anyways today my rsa token finally expired (issued 2008). I realized I've carried that thing on my key chain nearly everywhere for the past 6 years. I took it off, got out my one time password (only time I ever used it), and withdrew every last penny. For the first time ever since I started playing poker I literally have no money online. Its crazy to think back to 2003-2005 and how the atmosphere was back then. It really was and amazing time and I'm okay with giving it up. Don't have any regrets but its definitely not easy to give up some of your identity when poker was such a big part of it.

The same thing happened to me on April 15th 2011

[BetCheckBet]

Well it finally happened, after over 10 years of online poker I can finally say I'm 100% done. I started playing back around 2003 and proud to say that I built up a very nice role from never depositing and grinding like a mofo. As stupid as it sounds, its one of my proudest achievements. Poker played a big part in my life and it was not easy to give up. While I had not played a hand in over a year I still had a few thousand in pokerstars. I just didn't have it in me to take the last of my money out. Always thought in the back of my head I might come back some day. But the truth is after you've played poker for a living it just isn't as fun anymore to play recreationally. I loved back in grad school grinding out 8 hour tournaments or 10 tabling cash. I remember going for runs along the canal listening to AEjones lecture about poker on the free ipod I got from stars. The monitor right now I'm typing on was free from stars too... Nowadays pokerfraudalert and OOTV twoplustwo is about all I have... and neither is really about poker.

Anyways today my rsa token finally expired (issued 2008). I realized I've carried that thing on my key chain nearly everywhere for the past 6 years. I took it off, got out my one time password (only time I ever used it), and withdrew every last penny. For the first time ever since I started playing poker I literally have no money online. Its crazy to think back to 2003-2005 and how the atmosphere was back then. It really was and amazing time and I'm okay with giving it up. Don't have any regrets but its definitely not easy to give up some of your identity when poker was such a big part of it.

The same thing happened to me on April 15th 2011

Ya I can relate to that. It was the beginning of the down spiral for me. I remember finding out on twoplustwo after waking up around noon about the seizure and calling my gf and panic withdrawing a lot of money. Spending hours listening to emergency radio that night. Definitely felt for the Americans.

[herbertstemple]

Congrats.

A life poker story with a happy ending is a rare thing.

[sonatine]

fly fishing > poker

[limitles]

Now what are you gonna do? At least poker keeps you from relapsing into child porn and
selling smack.




"Be careful what you fish for."

Dan Quayle

[pavoe]

Similiar here..started with 50$ for free and never had to deposit my own money but it took me until 2005 to discover online poker.
Have not played a hand of poker in 2 months or so and it feels great. It was just not fullfilling anymore and no fun.
Was sn on stars for 4 years playing SNG/MTT before switching to CG on eurosites, can not remember a month in the last 6-7 years without playing.
Time to focus on other things and luckily I have a clear plan for the next 3-4 years (hello university) and the time after and I am very motivated. Not sure if it would be so easy without any plans...it was really eat, sleep, breath poker for a long time.
May sound like a negative person but online poker is so different/worse nowadays, from the things that started to kill it many years ago (coaching sites, HUDs) to the 'newer' things that made me want to play even less (seating scripts, NoteCaddy and so on).
Not saying I never took advantage of those things but they changed the game too much IMO.
It was a good run and a good time.

[BCR]

Good luck BCB. The reasons Pavoe listed here are why it doesn't sound like any fun anymore. The seating scripts and programs just aren't worth dealing with unless you're killing it, which it seems few are. Seems like there are very few fish anymore, and when one shows, a thousand predators waiting to clean them out methodically.

[limitles]

Good luck BCB. The reasons Pavoe listed here are why it doesn't sound like any fun anymore. The seating scripts and programs just aren't worth dealing with unless you're killing it, which it seems few are. Seems like there are very few fish anymore, and when one shows, a thousand predators waiting to clean them out methodically.

I still like the competition but I also realized the online game changed

years back now and will never be the same.

Can you explain further what the seating scripts and programs are and do?

I've only heard about bots but know nothing of them.

Can any of these things be identified?

[BetCheckBet]

Good luck BCB. The reasons Pavoe listed here are why it doesn't sound like any fun anymore. The seating scripts and programs just aren't worth dealing with unless you're killing it, which it seems few are. Seems like there are very few fish anymore, and when one shows, a thousand predators waiting to clean them out methodically.

Thanks. No biggie, I've been working full time in a field I love for the past 3 years. Just never had it in me to take out the last of my roll. Kept telling myself I would come back to poker. You are completely right though, I'd never play unless I knew I was plus EV, and to get back into poker would require a huge time investment of playing too many hours per week. I'd even have to upgrade all my software which is pretty obsolete now. Oh well, at least should have a nice few grand for Christmas presents

[ShadyJ]

Good luck BCB. The reasons Pavoe listed here are why it doesn't sound like any fun anymore. The seating scripts and programs just aren't worth dealing with unless you're killing it, which it seems few are. Seems like there are very few fish anymore, and when one shows, a thousand predators waiting to clean them out methodically.

I still like the competition but I also realized the online game changed

years back now and will never be the same.

Can you explain further what the seating scripts and programs are and do?

I've only heard about bots but know nothing of them.

Can any of these things be identified?

I had a guy that could write a script for anything on Stars. I spent alot of money on scripts but when you play 30+ tables you dont have a choice.

Huds didnt ruin the game. 1st off most of you casual players play tournies and you wont have enough hands to get any real knowledge from huds other then vpip/pfr.

Cash games are different you can buy millions of hands, but it still takes alot of learning to understand how to use that info.

[BetCheckBet]

I still like the competition but I also realized the online game changed

years back now and will never be the same.

Can you explain further what the seating scripts and programs are and do?

I've only heard about bots but know nothing of them.

Can any of these things be identified?

I had a guy that could write a script for anything on Stars. I spent alot of money on scripts but when you play 30+ tables you dont have a choice.

Huds didnt ruin the game. 1st off most of you casual players play tournies and you wont have enough hands to get any real knowledge from huds other then vpip/pfr.

Cash games are different you can buy millions of hands, but it still takes alot of learning to understand how to use that info.

IMO what killed online poker (at lower to mid stakes) was aggressive affiliate and rakeback programs. Because they rewarding high volume so much you found more and more regs mass tabling. To give you an example think of it this way... a site has 50% regs and 50% casual. Sounds great right? Well not so much. The regs play for 4-10 times as long per week and when doing so play 3-5 times as many tables. The result? Instead of 1:1 ratio at the table you now have 20:1 ratio where its not uncommon to have all regs playing at most of the tables. When online poker first started you didn't have such problems but as more and more players became rakeback grinders this disparity only increased both due to the poker sites and affiliates. Things like HUDS, datamining, scripts, and bots (I did all except bots) all contributed to the downfall but it really comes down to the problem above.

[Krypt]

Well it finally happened, after over 10 years of online poker I can finally say I'm 100% done. I started playing back around 2003 and proud to say that I built up a very nice role from never depositing and grinding like a mofo. As stupid as it sounds, its one of my proudest achievements. Poker played a big part in my life and it was not easy to give up. While I had not played a hand in over a year I still had a few thousand in pokerstars. I just didn't have it in me to take the last of my money out. Always thought in the back of my head I might come back some day. But the truth is after you've played poker for a living it just isn't as fun anymore to play recreationally. I loved back in grad school grinding out 8 hour tournaments or 10 tabling cash. I remember going for runs along the canal listening to AEjones lecture about poker on the free ipod I got from stars. The monitor right now I'm typing on was free from stars too... Nowadays pokerfraudalert and OOTV twoplustwo is about all I have... and neither is really about poker.

Anyways today my rsa token finally expired (issued 2008). I realized I've carried that thing on my key chain nearly everywhere for the past 6 years. I took it off, got out my one time password (only time I ever used it), and withdrew every last penny. For the first time ever since I started playing poker I literally have no money online. Its crazy to think back to 2003-2005 and how the atmosphere was back then. It really was and amazing time and I'm okay with giving it up. Don't have any regrets but its definitely not easy to give up some of your identity when poker was such a big part of it.

[BetCheckBet]

[

Not sure why the face palm. It was great way to spend my day. Wake up and play poker from 10-noon. Then go out and run along canal listening to poker podcasts or training audios. Come back home and play for a few more hours. In winter I'd skate the canal but I preferred the summer weather. I miss the freedom of being able to do that.



and how it looked when I would run between during summer between poker sessions.

[Dan Druff]

The Nevada online poker rooms have been such failsites that I actually quit them and moved back to the illegal sites.

Anyway Betcheckbet, I know how you feel. I took a long hiatus from online poker in 2011 (not right after Black Friday, but not too long after that), and it felt strange after it occupying so much of my days for the prior 10+ years.

I think I will be in Ottawa next fall, btw.

[tyde]

I had a guy that could write a script for anything on Stars. I spent alot of money on scripts but when you play 30+ tables you dont have a choice.

Huds didnt ruin the game. 1st off most of you casual players play tournies and you wont have enough hands to get any real knowledge from huds other then vpip/pfr.

Cash games are different you can buy millions of hands, but it still takes alot of learning to understand how to use that info.

IMO what killed online poker (at lower to mid stakes) was aggressive affiliate and rakeback programs. Because they rewarding high volume so much you found more and more regs mass tabling. To give you an example think of it this way... a site has 50% regs and 50% casual. Sounds great right? Well not so much. The regs play for 4-10 times as long per week and when doing so play 3-5 times as many tables. The result? Instead of 1:1 ratio at the table you now have 20:1 ratio where its not uncommon to have all regs playing at most of the tables. When online poker first started you didn't have such problems but as more and more players became rakeback grinders this disparity only increased both due to the poker sites and affiliates. Things like HUDS, datamining, scripts, and bots (I did all except bots) all contributed to the downfall but it really comes down to the problem above.

see I don't understand this logic

the games were rich with recreational players in the immediate 'post-moneymaker' era

online poker evolved/devolved with data mining software, a multitude of corruption and cheating scandals, and ultimately Black Friday

Stars is a business...and they are entitled to offer whatever variation of poker they deem necessary to sustain a successful business model

I applaud you for giving up poker.

I can relate, because I think that a lot of people (including myself) who started playing back in 2003 etc and have seen the game change so dramatically on so many fronts, became disillusioned (or even bored) by poker in general.

I thought that getting back on Stars moving to Mexico would be awesome, but the truth is that the games are a lot harder.

I personally didn't come here specifically to play on Stars, but was looking forward to getting back on the biggest online site in the world and mixing it up in MTT's again

at the end of the day, I don't have the same passion for (online) poker that I used to have. It's not 'fun' anymore by any means

I enjoyed my time in L.A grinding cash games live at Commerce and the Bike more than I ever did playing online

[sonatine]

IMO what killed online poker (at lower to mid stakes) was aggressive affiliate and rakeback programs. Because they rewarding high volume so much you found more and more regs mass tabling. To give you an example think of it this way... a site has 50% regs and 50% casual. Sounds great right? Well not so much. The regs play for 4-10 times as long per week and when doing so play 3-5 times as many tables. The result? Instead of 1:1 ratio at the table you now have 20:1 ratio where its not uncommon to have all regs playing at most of the tables. When online poker first started you didn't have such problems but as more and more players became rakeback grinders this disparity only increased both due to the poker sites and affiliates. Things like HUDS, datamining, scripts, and bots (I did all except bots) all contributed to the downfall but it really comes down to the problem above.

I dont think this is accurate, and I will tell you why.


Something I saw in B&M games; superwhales sitting in the highest games, calling all in's with any two over and over until they busted their target.

All the bad low stakes player went broke, the good ones moved to mid stakes. The bad mid stakes players went broke, the good ones moved up to the whale games, where the superwhales busted them, bad and good alike.


The poker 'boom' was a fad. People who either made money off the poker industry or were good enough to be profitable in their niche will do logic backflips to deny this but its true. There will always be poker, poker is a lot of fun, but this 'bloom' that took place was artificial and we have returned to the mean.

[limitles]

IMO what killed online poker (at lower to mid stakes) was aggressive affiliate and rakeback programs. Because they rewarding high volume so much you found more and more regs mass tabling. To give you an example think of it this way... a site has 50% regs and 50% casual. Sounds great right? Well not so much. The regs play for 4-10 times as long per week and when doing so play 3-5 times as many tables. The result? Instead of 1:1 ratio at the table you now have 20:1 ratio where its not uncommon to have all regs playing at most of the tables. When online poker first started you didn't have such problems but as more and more players became rakeback grinders this disparity only increased both due to the poker sites and affiliates. Things like HUDS, datamining, scripts, and bots (I did all except bots) all contributed to the downfall but it really comes down to the problem above.

I dont think this is accurate, and I will tell you why.


Something I saw in B&M games; superwhales sitting in the highest games, calling all in's with any two over and over until they busted their target.

All the bad low stakes player went broke, the good ones moved to mid stakes. The bad mid stakes players went broke, the good ones moved up to the whale games, where the superwhales busted them, bad and good alike.


The poker 'boom' was a fad. People who either made money off the poker industry or were good enough to be profitable in their niche will do logic backflips to deny this but its true. There will always be poker, poker is a lot of fun, but this 'bloom' that took place was artificial and we have returned to the mean.

If I may put the final nail in the coffin, I believe the quality of Canadian players basically overwhelmed the

average Joe, Marty, or Petrie and in our hasty greed we killed the online game.

We own Hockey, no dispute, almost unbeatable.

Now we're taking poker because we're better educated, tougher and generally more

handsome, than you flip flop fatties south of our border.


Sorry, been smoking some "Sour G" lately and it makes you wander a bit.

What I meant to say is, I believe Math did the average player in. Sure many of us were good, or

at least we were better than others, on instincts maybe,

but if you have a math mind, you have the confidence to make a bet that would

have been called a crazy bet not that long ago.

You may get some ballsy players that use everything at their disposal to

make you fold, but slide rules and those who know what they are own the game.

[sonatine]

I dont think this is accurate, and I will tell you why.


Something I saw in B&M games; superwhales sitting in the highest games, calling all in's with any two over and over until they busted their target.

All the bad low stakes player went broke, the good ones moved to mid stakes. The bad mid stakes players went broke, the good ones moved up to the whale games, where the superwhales busted them, bad and good alike.


The poker 'boom' was a fad. People who either made money off the poker industry or were good enough to be profitable in their niche will do logic backflips to deny this but its true. There will always be poker, poker is a lot of fun, but this 'bloom' that took place was artificial and we have returned to the mean.

I believe Math did the average player in. Sure many of us were good, or

at least we were better than others, on instincts maybe,

but if you have a math mind, you have the confidence to make a bet that would

have been called a crazy bet not that long ago.

You may get some ballsy players that use everything at their disposal to

make you fold, but slide rules and those who know what they are own the game.

I think there is a lot of truth here honestly.

[sonatine]

Also I remember during the boom, all my dot com pals and I had absolute oodles of bonus money, stock options, 401ks to cash out that kept us balls deep in action, and wow is that no longer the case.