77 Cents

At one point earlier this week, 77 cents was all that was left in my bankroll. At that time, I was in a couple of KO SNGs, so I worked that all the way up to $7.77 before busting in both of them.

Last month, I split the remaining $600 of my bankroll between FTP & PokerStars. The FTP bankroll dissipated pretty quickly, the PokerStars balance held steady. I hit a point where I finally just had enough of online poker, and cashed out what I could from PS to go buy an XBox 360. I burned through the rest of my FTP roll with the intent of taking a long break from online poker until those KOs gave me something to work with again.

Either way, I'm basically done with online poker for an undetermined amount of time. This has been the result of a number of factors, including:

1. The difficulty and\or uncertainty of being able to cash out from poker sites
2. Burnout from increased playing time during this period of unemployment
3. The sudden inability to play without using scared money which coincided with the depletion of my severance package
4. A very long streak of bad beats from which I still haven't completely recovered (the tilt factor is gone but I'm still not playing my A game)
5. A desire to do other things with my time, which has proven difficult for me to manage with my desire to play poker & the ability to do so with more money than I've had in a long time
6. A change of my focus from having fun & improving my game to chasing money & an unhealthy emotional investment in the game

So for now until who knows when, I'll be more absent than before in any blogger events. This blog will still keep going; I've got fantasy football to write about at least, and I still intend to keep up my live game as much as possible. And perhaps that small amount in my bankroll is the beginning of a new bankroll challenge or something.

But right now, there's too much uncertainty in my life to justify gambling with what qualifies for me as a significant amount of money. If I find a new job soon, perhaps things will change, or perhaps I'll find the break refreshing & stay away for a while. Personally, I can't help but be a bit nervous about the difficulties I faced cashing my money out (especially in the state I reside in) as being a sign of things to come. At some point, this online poker thing will come crashing down even further if not changed radically. I don't have a pulse on the industry to know much about it but it seems inevitable to me, and as quickly as the whole Neteller business went about, I'd hate to have a large sum of money tied up if something happened. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I'd be less concerned about losing money to something like that when I'm in a better place in other areas of my life.

......

Now, time for some fantasy football content.

First things first: I'd like to point out that I was right about Willie Parker surpassing last year's TD total. I just didn't expect it'd happen in one game. Hell motherfuckin yeah!

Luckily for me, the first week in Skidoo's league didn't count, as I was up against the juggernaut that is MattyEbs, who had both McNabb & Westbrook, along with decent performances from the rest of his team. In my other league, which drafted in time to have the first week count, I eeked out a victory thanks to Tony Scheffler's only catch Monday night, which was a nice little 72-yarder.

Skidoo's league is a 12-team league; I've only been in 10 team leagues for the past couple of years. Had I known this, I would have drafted a bit differently. I mentioned last time about my second-guessing of the Romo pick, but now, what I'm even more concerned about is my WR depth, or lack thereof. I'm fine with Santonio Holmes and Greg Jennings, but I have no confidence in Bernard Berrian as a 3rd WR in a league that starts three.

It could be worse though; I could have been the one to draft Brady.