5 Reasons Why I love Playing Poker

Poker has been in my life since I was 13 years old(I know, I started young). I use to play with my friends in home games, just for fun really. Then as the years went on I started playing online. Probably at the age of 15 I started taking it more serious, I basically spent a whole summer playing freerolls online like 11 hours per day, I don't actually advise that for a 15 year old kid but hey that's what I done at the time. Also at that time even coming from the UK, poker was actually on TV more than it was nowadays. I remember watching Jamie Gold win the Main Event. So as the years went by I've finally progressed to mostly playing cash games and studying the game. I also live a more balanced life outside poker which in turn helps when I play, that is all trial and error though so why after 12 years of play why do I still love playing.

Competition

I love being the best and winning. I love winning at Fifa, I love winning at family board games and I love beating my personal best at 100m, so why do I play poker the most though, I'd say it's because of the vast dynamic competition you get, so many complexities to the game and sometimes the worse player actually wins.

Numbers/stats

I have always been a stats and numbers geek, I have always been quick at working with numbers so pot odds, implied odds, that part of the game comes fairly quickly to me in having to work out.

Characters

I love all the different types of players you get and people, I am actually a really big fan of the game as well as a player, nothing beats watching players like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth. But I would love to even play against players like that.

Live poker

I pretty much only play online but live poker is more fun overall, partly because I hardly ever play live but also just meeting people and nothing beats having real chips.

Discipline

This is a factor I had to really train myself at for poker but the last few years at poker I managed to grasp it, But because you train yourself to be disciplined in poker that transforms into life which is a great thing.

So that's the ones that come to the top of my head. I love this game, it gets me having to think and learn new things every session. Is the game as fun as as when I started, I'd say now that I play it seriously, probably not but that's the same with many things with life, I still love it 90% maybe just not the 100% when I first started but that's the same with everything in life. Poker just suits me, like my personality was made for this game and I am sure if I hadn't started playing at 13, I would have came across the game at some point in my life.

Lots To Cover

I have been travelling much of 2016 on a big adventure trip, which I loved of course. I had 2 trips, America for 3 months and then over summer went to Zante.

LA/Vegas

Before I start, I am so glad I done this trip. At 24 years of age, I am young and I wanted to travel for a long period and experience that in my life. I had a good 6 months break from poker which was actually a good thing because I've came back motivated but more on that later. Los Angeles was a great place. I love American people and I had a blast meeting lods of different personalities at the hostels and even meeting lots of people walking around. Very friendly social place and I do plan on going back there next year even if just for a week or 2. I went lots of hiking, spent lots of time with a variety of people, done some touristy things and also played some football with the Hispanics down the park. Because of social media these days, I'm able to keep in touch with people I met over FB etc which I'm really happy about, great memories over there.

Vegas

For a guy at 24 that stays in the other side of the world, being to Vegas for my 3rd time is a great accomplishment, I am very blessed to have been giving that opportunity to go there. The first few weeks I was staying down at a hostel but the last week I stayed at a hotel on the strip which was really nice called the Luxor. Met really cool people there and I actually didn't gamble much this time, just a couple of slots. More drinking going to clubs and pool parties this which I had got to experience a little the last two times but not as much as this one

I would love to live in America one day, over in the west coast. Very hard to get into so not really planning on moving anytime soon but I'll keep visiting as much as I can

Zante

Zante was really fun, different type of heat though, it can get draining. I was mostly just going out every night drinking and sleeping in really late. Had a lot of fun nights here though, eating was more tricky for me being vegan but yeah glad I went there.

So had a lot of fun on this trip and although I don't plan on going for trips of that length of time I still want to travel, maybe down London later this year and America next year again.

Poker

The break was good for me but I'm back grinding at poker. I feel more fresh and motivated to play, still at 2NL at the moment but playing well overall and I can feel 5NL getting closer and closer. I really want to move up the stakes and compete at the top level. But it's been good fun to be playing again.

So I am still single just now which I do enjoy as I am comfortable in my own company and don't need someone else to motivate me or help me etc. With that being said, now that I've been single for two years and coming up 25 I am open to a relationship, don't really see it happening within the next few months at least. I met lots of girls on the road which was cool cause it was good to meet people from different cultures and learn. I like that.

So a few quieter months for me but I plan on getting a cinema card again soon and I also plan on catching up with friends soon.

The blog was a bit all over the place tonight, please forgive me I was watching a Euros semi final whilst blogging.