2006-08-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Poker...A new addiction or just a lovely time pass.

Now a days, the amount of poker jargon intruding my daily talk has made me introspect about the relation between me and poker. Is it already an addiction or one in the making or am'I reading too much into it.

Texas hold'em, a popular version of poker was introduced to me at one of the friday evening get togethers starting this spring'06. We were a bunch of 8-10 people who were juveniles, always in need of a poker hand sheet to figure out the better hand, though they were a very few exceptions. After a few weekends, with a few hands won and some luck smiling at my face I quickly imbibed the game with all fervor and enthusiasm. We started analysing the different hands and the way to approach the flop-turn-river and how to bet at each level of hand. It was made more interesting due to different kind of approaches by different players like Raja's aggressive betting, Sunil's chess kind of approach, Narasimhan's "play any game attitude". Initially it was very intriguing and thrilling and made my rusty mind think and analyse.

The progression to the next level was fast and started playing late into friday nights and started longing for another poker night in the same weekend. To multiply my woes I was introduced to online poker and now I play a significant hours a week. Though it improved my betting skills and chances of seeing rare poker hands like royal flush it started make me feel nervous on the chances of me getting addicted as my lovely dreams have been replaced by poker hands dreams-is he gonna bet or call. Does this worry me? yes and no. Yes because poker has become a part of my thoughts and no because we are not involving real money. I think I am strongly passionated towards the game and the thrill it provides me. So where is the line drawn between passion and addiction since a very thin line seperates between them and it takes not much before your passion has fructified into a disease-gambling addiction. The temptation to test your skill and luck at one of the local casino's and involving a certain amount of money in stakes now and then does not make you an addict but if the visiting frequency and stake amounts increase then its time to curb your poker instincts.

Anyway I am happy that I have not reached the levels of addiction but this introspection has made me wary of it. But the greatest advantage of poker is that I have made many good friends and the amount of great fun we have on and off the poker table. By the way when is the next poker night. I am ALL-In

Gimered