I've been so annoyed with the way my poker games have been going. For example, in a tournament I played in yesterday there were only 30 people left and I have AQ unsuited in hand so I raise pre-flop. Oh, I should mention I had $73,000 in chips and the only person who called my raise had $180,000 in chips - he was chip leader on my table. Since he had so much more than I did I knew I wasn't going to really pressure him off a hand unless I put in one big bet which was almost all my stack. Anyway, flop comes up and I have two pair. I bet double the big blind because I want to keep him in and make as much money as possible. He calls. I bet 4 times the big blind. He calls. After the river I bet 8 times the big blind and he re-raises me to a pretty large amount. I feel that he's trying to pressure me off the hand so I call. The cards get shown and he has a straight which he picked up on on the river since he played 9-7 unsuited, two cards which made the inside straight. I lose $50,000 worth of chips because of some shitty luck. ****ing hell. I go out a little later since the blinds start wearing down my stack and I have to go all-in on half a hand. I, unsurprisingly, lose and get knocked out.
Poker is not my favourite card game though. My favourite is Bridge. There's less luck as the luck elements comes in when you get dealt a hand but quite often the spread of cards between the four players is quite even. I love the bidding process and then there's so much skill involved in playing the game which has no luck to it. It feels so good when you win a contract of something like 4 Spades and actually make it all due to skillful play.
I haven't found many people who are willing to play Bridge for money. Even if one point only pays out one pence the amount can get high very quickly. Still, I'd be willing to add in the real money element as I feel it makes games so much more exciting.
I do not have a gambling problem.
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