Recreation and Sports

Free Online Poker Guide to How Poker Can Ruin (some) People

I love to play poker. I love the skill. I love the thrill. I love the challenge. But I’ve got to admit, my desire to play poker is slowly dying away. I, personally, put the blame on a little of everything. Online sites, TV, casinos, really anywhere you can find a game.

Poker, mainly Texas hold ‘em, has been pushed on the public almost too much. Everyone thinks they’re going to be the next great champion. Now sometimes I’ve seen players get frustrated because the person they’re losing to just started learning how to even play the game.

But for me, it’s not even so much that anymore. I feel a lot of the challenge has just been taken out of the game. There are a lot of people nowadays who just don’t know, or don’t care, what they’re doing. People flop bottom pair, middle pair, top pair with BAD kicker, gutshot straight draws, open ended straight draws, flush draw with two cards in their hand, or even flush draws with one card in their hand. Sometimes, they don’t even flop anything. And, they have no excuse why they may even call a bet to go any further, but they do.

What grinds me is this new breed of player has no business playing for any kind of bet, but does, why? Because they either believe they know what they’re doing or believe their lucky charm will carry them through.

As stated before these players all have ambitions and harbour dreams of becoming the next big thing. These guys seek and chase the feel of hitting their cards for victory. Alternatively if there dreams stop short of being the next poker ace, they think of the new riches they’re destined for.

I do place a lot of blame on free online poker sites. People watch/play these sites so much and see bad hands get rewarded so often. That’s where most bad play comes from.

But in the only defence of free online poker, I do understand why you see so many bad plays get rewarded. Online sites make their money by keeping games constantly going. They need the players to move on to another table as soon as possible.

So what happens? Most end up seeing that miracle gutshot hit. Or the one outer hit. Or even worse; the runner, runner (nothing funner) hit. I just wish I could find a site that wouldn’t allow that to happen so, so much. But I never know if my desire will return. Even if I could find a site like that, there’s always the “other” problem. The vast number of players out there who really have no business gambling like that with real money involved. But who am I, or you, or anyone, to judge what might make other people happy?