Why did the blonde stare at the orange juice?

Its been interesting to read a few posts recently about online poker as addiction – or at least, people trying to fathom whether it is an addiction. Clearly it takes up a lot of many people’s time, and I have written in the past of my sympathy for people trying to fit poker around having a wife, a live-in partner or even – god forbid – children. I know that online poker didn’t exactly help when my own seven-year relationship was heading slowly, inexorably onto the rocks. The question of whether I am glad it finally hit those rocks is one that has vexed me quite a lot recently, whereas at the time there was nothing but a great sense of relief and release.

Aside: I miss my ex greatly and don’t think I will ever (allow myself to) feel so deeply about anyone else again. Yet the fact remains that for a long, long time I wanted my freedom from that relationship very badly. It would be great if life made sense occasionally.

So, is poker an addiction for me? There is no doubt it is something I spend a lot of time doing, at the expense of other things. I think poker is an ideal form of escapism, actually. It sucks you in and takes over your senses and your mind, while you are playing (OK, not entirely, as I will discuss in a moment).

When I play snooker or pool its wonderful how life and its troubles retreat into the shadows around the lit table, and the world is reduced to simple, bright colours – red, yellow, black, white, green baize. Likewise, when your attention is focussed on a poker game, the world is reduced to simple variables – chips and baize; bet and fold; clubs, spades and diamonds. (Maybe not hearts – too complicated).

However, if poker were an addiction I don’t think I would have just happily spent four days not playing at all. Nor would I have played my new football manager strategy game for about 25 hours of laptop time over the past month.

What I normally tell concerned friends and over-concerned family members is that it is an obsession but not an addiction. If I were losing money and still compelled to play, then I might call it an addiction. But the fact is, I win money at it and therefore probably play a little more than I would sometimes like. It truly is like a part-time job to me, only it is more flexible and pleasant than the bar-work that I have found myself needing to do in the past.

All of which reminds me that I need to work a bit more, and a bit better, than I have over the past fortnight (only 13.5 hours and a truly disappointing -$87) I do think that its about bloody time I had a real monster session, but that will come as and when it comes. In the meantime I really do have to concentrate more when I play, it is that simple. I cannot be emailing, chatting, surfing at the same time as playing, even less so now that I always play multiple tables.

Why did the blonde stare at the orange juice? Because the carton said 'concentrate'.