[Closed] Loss of enthusiasum, no motivation or need new challenge?

I have the same feeling to be honest. For me it's more like i stop seeing poker as the game it is and more like a videogame and just clicking buttons online. Whereas live.. it's so much more exciting and fun and feels like "real poker".
Unfortunately i don't really got friends that play poker regularly or have like a weekly home game or something.. Most people i do know that have played poker (facebook poker, pokerstars play money LOL ♦) are complete fish that don't know anything about strategy. So i've played very very few live poker.

I think it does help to play live too. It's alot more fun then just clicking buttons all day in my opinion. But i haven't done much research yet as to where i could play live here in holland for small stakes.. I can't really afford to play 2/2 or 2/4 live which are the only games in the official casino of holland.. not sure how exactly the law is here with casino's though (That one is 18+ and another one i visited was 21+.. and unforutnately i'm only 18 ). and i'm not really a cash game player.

But if i can find like a NL10-NL100 game live i think i'll definetly try it in the near future..

Confront your feelings of "carelessness". Not to become to personal, but do you have any problems you have can't face? Poker is a very emotional game, and if you can't be honest with yourself, you cant bear to play either. It just seems very exhausting and trying to confront this by playing your A-game. You need to give you another chance to get new experiences linked to pokerplaying. Play with and open mind to be able to get in others situation and blocking your own emotions out of the pokertable. Feel confident about your game! That's the key. There's the feeling. Ask yourself, why is this so exhausting? I used to like playing poker. Which factors have changed? Have my experiences due to poker made me afraid of what's going to happen if I keep playing? Replace all bad feeling you get up with: I can do this. I will beat this game. This is easy. Thoughts like that. Don't ask yourself to allow yourself to make it easy or win the game. You have to really believe you can do it to overcome your doubt.
(I'm no doctor, but this is just how your mind works. Your cousious and subconsious brain will start to work better together if you do these "exercises").

Good luck on the tables.

As a grinder for over 4 years now, I often have the same feelings toward poker.
Playing live wasn't the answer. A break, being it 2 days or 2 weeks, 2 months. Always helped me in appreciating the game more when I returned with a vengeance.
Always kept poker near my heart in reading and re-reading books and forums and watching every episode on tv.......

I took a 5 month break 3yrs ago from grinding and played a freeroll here and there. Was the smartest thing I did. I was more focused on playing my A game.
My winrate proves to me that breaks are essential.

All jobs require a vacation,,,,,,,

well everyone feels that way after a while... i set goals in terms of number of hands played per month and per week so that i make sure that i hit that number of hands...

For me i was actually scared of losing money...coz i used to set weekly monetary goals and if i hit it in the 4th or 5th day then the 6th day used to be quite fuked up coz i dint wanna lose it...so i started setting goals in terms of number of hands..

Also learning new stuff and experimenting helps...playing more tables helps too sometimes..

I think stimulating the mind by having fun and feeling happiness will help use your brain more actively in your pokergame. When you experiment and learn new stuff and feels like you have new things to learn in poker, you will always evolve as a player. And feeling something has something good to give you(you beeing a better pokerplayer) will help you being more confident and having more fun playing. So by learning new things(feeling good) and experimenting with stuff so that your brain starts to work will help you find your best way of playing since you can think totally free. My best way to get this feeling of pleasure to one thing is to let my mind about this particular subject flow in my mind. Get to rest with the feeling that there is no limit of how good you can play or be. And as long as you keep analysing your play and have a positive attitude, you will stop losing your money. Cuz those are what u were afraid of. When you realise you have no reason to feel like this, the bad feelings towards confronting playing poker will disapear.
It helps me

Originally posted by racenutalways
All jobs require a vacation,,,,,,,

Right. Every discipline requires breaking and then renovation.

You said that you are playing 4 years now and mainly grinded FR. so you get used to it and it just doesn't give you excitement about grinding FR. you said that you tried to shift to SH, but do you tried to learn a new game? of course you can find yourself back in track with FR game, but you must grow up again that inside little feeling which wants to climb climb climb climb up limits and to learn/master poker. your inner curious child must be woken up! poker would not be fun at all if there would be a limited system which you can learn and go forward without learning or renovating it time and time again... i think you stuck here right now. you learned the game-> did it well-> stoped learning-> stagnated well.

set goals/chalange alone won't help you long term.

first if u feel u need take some time out from poker and think how your life changes if there is no poker involved. go through your poker career, think how it went,developed... how you felt when first time get in touch with poker? were you a small curious child???
find a passion again. find a purpose. and when you will set up the sparkle again in your heart, start a chalenge/set goals, seek to GET BETTER. your brain wants to be excited about what you're doing other way it won't work well. no energy released..

few more advices:

don't coerce yourself to play play play. if you have dominated feeling/block that it is better not to play so just stay away from poker. respect these inner blocks. stay away from poker for some time and see how it goes.
if u dont have - find other activity where you can unleash your potential and improve well. or just where you find a lot fun etc.. you played poker for 4 years, i believe you made some money, why not just leave poker as a hobby and start something new? whatever you heart wants to do. it is saying: mind without heart is a robot, heart without mind is a madman.

it doesnt matter how old you are. wake up inner child if it sleeps, he has to discover many many things yet.

hope it helps

Originally posted by utenosmelynas

Originally posted by racenutalways
All jobs require a vacation,,,,,,,

Right. Every discipline requires breaking and then renovation.

You said that you are playing 4 years now and mainly grinded FR. so you get used to it and it just doesn't give you excitement about grinding FR. you said that you tried to shift to SH, but do you tried to learn a new game? of course you can find yourself back in track with FR game, but you must grow up again that inside little feeling which wants to climb climb climb climb up limits and to learn/master poker. your inner curious child must be woken up! poker would not be fun at all if there would be a limited system which you can learn and go forward without learning or renovating it time and time again... i think you stuck here right now. you learned the game-> did it well-> stoped learning-> stagnated well.

set goals/chalange alone won't help you long term.

first if u feel u need take some time out from poker and think how your life changes if there is no poker involved. go through your poker career, think how it went,developed... how you felt when first time get in touch with poker? were you a small curious child???
find a passion again. find a purpose. and when you will set up the sparkle again in your heart, start a chalenge/set goals, seek to GET BETTER. your brain wants to be excited about what you're doing other way it won't work well. no energy released..

few more advices:

don't coerce yourself to play play play. if you have dominated feeling/block that it is better not to play so just stay away from poker. respect these inner blocks. stay away from poker for some time and see how it goes.
if u dont have - find other activity where you can unleash your potential and improve well. or just where you find a lot fun etc.. you played poker for 4 years, i believe you made some money, why not just leave poker as a hobby and start something new? whatever you heart wants to do. it is saying: mind without heart is a robot, heart without mind is a madman.

it doesnt matter how old you are. wake up inner child if it sleeps, he has to discover many many things yet.

hope it helps

Ur a genious U understand the basic knowledge everyone should know.
Your inner child(your first experience with poker). The first time you REALLY felt motivated to poker. Find that feeling and taste how good it was. U feel like you never can get this feeling more. U have blocked your mind from learning more. Or admitting you have learned more. Once you find that feeling again of being able to develope, you will feel this rush again, the rush of being new to something and learning. It's the key to everything. Or I might just be crazy, but these things make sense. It's about finding out how your mind work It's very giving.
This might be why children are motivated and more open to learn things. They have no bad experiences or fear to one thing. And learning, analysing and understanding something is how you can overcome your doubt in your play.

Some of your replys have been insightful Others have not. This was never about my winning or lossing money, but rather how i feel playing online.

After having played live the other night and playing online again since then i can confirm there its something mentally wrong with my attitude towards online play.

At the casino i was having an awesome time, playing well and enjoying the game, having fun. It was good knowing it wasn't my attitude to poker that has changed. But playing online again i'm still having the same issue, i fire up a seassion thinking i want to play, then after 2 hands i just carnt be bothered. I carnt for the life of me figure out what my problem is.

I never have been one to force myself to do something, if i dont want to then i wont, it's just funny how quickly my mind switchs from wanting to play to not been bothered.

Originally posted by jonnyjm
At the casino i was having an awesome time, playing well and enjoying the game, having fun. It was good knowing it wasn't my attitude to poker that has changed. But playing online again i'm still having the same issue, i fire up a seassion thinking i want to play, then after 2 hands i just carnt be bothered. I carnt for the life of me figure out what my problem is.

Maybe you need more poker friends in your Skype/AIM/Facebook ? I know I hated online for the longest time, to the point of driving 20 minutes to a casino instead. Eventually I realized that I just needed some social interaction while playing. Online is much more fun when you can post opponent crushing hands to your buddy shortly after they happened.