Game Over: The End Of The (Online) Road

We're right near the end of April now and I'm afraid it's game over as far as the online game is concerned. The light started to shine at the end of March and the start of April, and fittingly the start of Spring brought a fresh new hope, but unfortunately it's been snuffed out and I've had the wind knocked out of my sails once too often over the last few weeks or so and it's time to sail off into the sunset. Sadly then, I've reached the end of the road with online poker.

I'm not going to wobble on about the whys and wherefores cos you've heard it all before but it's clear to me that online players are getting more proficient and the online game has just become too hard to crack; I certainly don't want to lose any more money trying to prove otherwise. Nowadays, to make online poker reasonably profitable, you need to put in the volume, you need to study the game in depth, you need training sites and/or a trainer to improve your game and you need to discuss the game with a network of supportive players. All of this takes massive amounts of time and massive amounts of effort and, needless to say, you'll need massive amounts of money as well (at least $15k-$20k); in other words, you need to be a pro.

Unfortunately I just can't compete with those that are able to go this route and I know I'm getting overtaken by increasingly more serious and better players as well. I also know I won't be fulfilled playing the low-stakes games either. It's true what they say, to make "good-time" money at online poker you either need to be incredibly lucky (short-term bink at a major MTT) or incredibly good (at the long-term grind) and I'm none of these.

Thankfully, I can refer to last year's profits to show that I'm not a losing player overall so I guess I can still hold my head high, BUT around 8 months of stagnation and break-even poker is proof enough to show that sitting on my arse and staring at a screen of avatars, cards and chips for hours on end each day is not going to make me significantly rich (in many ways besides financial). Additionally, huge amounts of my money in the form of rake (including $13000 to PKR) just goes towards making the online sites richer. Nope, it really is time to take my bow and leave.

I've withdrawn all funds from 888Poker and Paddy Power Poker back into my bank account where I can put the money to better use and have decided that real places like The Empire, The Fox, The Vic and The International is where I want to play my poker from now on. Hell, I might even try out some totally new venues. Yep, I'm going to stick to good ol' fashioned bricks and mortar, face to face, over-a-real-table combat - it's more social (obviously), gets me out of the house and is just how the game should be played! Also, playing zero online poker may even make me fitter and more healthy!!

As kind of half-promised I'll put up my April update to show the full sad and sorry story in my final post of the month. I still don't know whether to call a halt to revealing profits and losses, thereafter, but that'll be something I'll need to reconsider in the light of what's happened to my online game.

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P.S. I still have one ticket left for the PKRL6 final stage satellite and a very small rakeback payment from PKR due in early May but I'll probably use that for a double or nothing pop at blackjack. (Or I may just cash it out depending on how much it is.) I will keep the blog going and continue to twaddle on about my live poker exploits.

Until next time... wobble on and twaddle on.