The bad beats, the great victories.... I've missed this a lot. Yesterday I got a nuts flush all in (AK clubs) and then the dude I apologized to got a full house (99 pocket, 39 and 3 river) on the river!!! everyone in the lobby laughed at me because I was so sure of winning and I couldn't help but love it... I lost about half of my chips but they were laughing at the odds. I had to laugh too. I love playing and sometimes these things happen. These moments (win or lose) can be really fun if you aren't a sore loser or addict but by playing good cards and making good calls you can grow a bit intellectually.
I play 1 dollar games usually knockout 9 persons and single table. I've probably spent about 300 dollars in my online poker endeavour. I don't play to win big bucks... I just really love the game itself and try to win enough to keep playing more games. Money Poker is very competitive when even as little as a dollar is on the line.
I've logged about 700 hours maybe more... I win enough so I don't need to top up the account. You will eventually lose all your money unless you play tournaments which is what I'm doing today. So if you love the game and don't mind knowing that you're eventually going to lose all your money you put in, try it out! 1 game a day at a 50 cent table will give you about an hour of fun if you beat the bubble... which isn't that hard it requires mostly patience and a few good calls... maybe some muster at the bubble. Then once you've lost everything you put in (try minimum 13 dollars) just let it go for a month or two... don't get over hooked.
Only 25 bucks for me and with a little common sense you can stretch for a good month or two. That's competitive entertainment for cents on the hour. That's how I view online poker.
PSA: don't buy in if:
-You think you'll get rich, because you can't the way I play anyway. Tournaments maybe. I've only come first once in my life. It was a penny tourney (1 cent) and I won 10 bucks out of like 2000 people and the buy ins were about 7500 however I never bought back in. 1 cent got me into first lol. Too bad it wasn't a ten dollar game. that'd be a fucking return to brag about.
-You have a gambling problem
I got into poker for a while. I had a friend that was really into online poker, so I put $10 into pokerstars and started playing tournaments, to learn what it was all about.
There was so much more to the game than I expected that I got drawn into it as I learned.
I just played the <25c tournaments as I learned, but I started winning more than I lost.
Once I had learned enough about the game that my interest was fading, I started playing the cash games. I did well in the small stakes, but my win rate dropped as the stakes and opposition talent got higher. So I would bounce up and down as I won and lost.
I wasn't trying to make money, just avoid going broke and see how high I could get my 'score'. I treated the gambling purse as a score. I thought that way I wouldn't get tempted by any winnings.
I never did put in more than the original $10. Even if I had lost it, that's cheaper than any other games I've bought or played. I didn't lose it though.
Eventually I cashed out $1000. Haven't played since.
I lost interest. Once I had things figured out, It became repetitive.
By 'figured out', I don't mean mastered, I'm good enough to beat most amateurs, but I get destroyed by pros and other high level players.