Looking For One Last Score (Or, My Most Recent Declaration Of Quitting Online Poker)

I'm back at it again. I'm quitting online poker for a while.

This time I'm serious.

And this time, I mean it.

This has nothing to do with running into bad beats or abilities to transfer funds or pressure from my girlfriend to not play as much. It has everything to do with four things:

1. Money
2. Time
3. Dedication
4. Addiction

Money

The fact is, as I've mentioned several times before, I do not have the bankroll to take huge losses nor do I have the financial security to keep buyin back. I'm not a college student with excess student loans and $600 in loose income to blow each month. More importantly, there's no way to justify spending money on poker when I have so many other immediate needs. Realistically, I should be withdrawing what I have left and applying that elsewhere, but I'll give myself a chance at one last hurrah or donk away the rest of my bankroll, again.

Time

Over the last couple of weeks, I've significantly increased how much I've been playing. I took Tuesday off a couple of weeks ago becase I was feeling slightly ill, and spent all day playing. Again, yesterday, I had a couple of appointments, but by 1:30, I was back at the tables. I'm investing a lot of time into poker, and because of it, I'm missing out on doing other things that I could\should be doing. Especially considering the weather up her is going to be gloriously beautiful in a month or so, I need to stop devoting so much time to such an anti-social activity.

Dedication

I have a lot to improve, but considering the above, I am not willing to make the necessary dedication right now to improving my game. Poker is just a hobby to me, and while I do want to give myself as much of an advantage over anyone else at the table, I'm not in a position to do this just yet. At some point in the future, I will look to make the effort to becoming a serious poker player, but that time is not right now.

Addiction

I'm not going to admit that I am addicited to online poker, but I am willing to admit that I am making it more of a priority than I should be. What does bother me is that I find myself getting into my old habits - specifically, if I lose a small game, I jump to a bigger game to see if I can recoup my losses, and if I lose that game, I jump to the next. Last night I played a $11 SnG - chump change for most, and much less than the $33 games I used to play a year ago - a game that costs a significant amount of my measly bankroll. If I'm not willing to have the discipline to camp out at the micro-stakes table and build my bankroll, then I shouldn't be playing at all.

So, here's the schedule for my last hurrah:

1. Token games - I'm going to put most of my emphasis on trying to win $26 tokens. If I try to focus on playing SnGs, I'm going to find myself continuing down the same path I'm on now. My goal isn't to slowly build my bankroll back up. My goal is to put myself in the best position to win a significant amount of money soon. I figure my best bet is to buy into the $26 tourneys, so I'm going to shoot for that.

2. A couple of 90-person SnGs. Probably just one, maybe two. Again, another chance to win a decent amount of money cheaply. I don't want to invest everything into token games, so I'm trying to diversify

3. Micro cash games - I'm going to use the remainder to sit down at the cash tables. This is mostly because I have about $5-$10 left on my deposit bonus that I still need to clear. I'm not going to pass up free money.

I'll divy up my bankroll later tonight and go from there. I have no intention of taking any earnings and reinvesting them. Whatever I win, whether it be $1 or a couple hundred, it's all being cashed out. Then, it's quitsville for a while. This is just one change of many that I'm trying to make in my life, and I truly believe, seriously, that this is for the best.