My Last Serenade

(Preamble:  To any Killswitch Engage fans, whenever I hear that song, I substitute Lemonade for Serenade.  I’m funny like that.  Yeah, like a clown.)

Just to clarify, what follows is not a recommendation for everyone.  I’m simply stating my opinion on the matter and how it applies to me personally.

I’ve decided to withdraw a healthy percentage of my online funds.  I asked for a check from Stars and sold off some other portion of that roll to a local friend who’s still interested in playing.  To be fair, I’m still very interested in playing online too; but I can’t justify the risk of keeping more than I’m willing to lose at various sites.

Let me state a few things first.  I trust Pokerstars completely and have no fear of them absconding with my money.  The same pretty much holds true with Full Tilt as well, although research indicates it may be marginally more difficult to get a check delivered to me by them.  Still, I don’t really feel that my online balances at those two sites are in any danger of simply disappearing.

With all that said, I just sense a growing difficulty in the viability of any 3rd party’s ability to deliver to me that money from each site quickly and easily.  Granted, it’s still very feasible right now.  But to say that the risk hasn’t increased would be a bit foolhardy.

My decision to do this is also heavily based on the fact that there are plenty of live games, both above and underground, here in G-Vegas to occupy my time.  It’s not like I’m quitting poker.  It feels like I’m fighting two battles and I’m losing one of them.  The smart thing to do would be to move troops and ammunition from the losing battle to the winning one.  And that’s what I’m doing, just boosting my live roll with the majority of my remaining online one.

My reaction to all that’s going on is most likely on the conservative side.  But that’s how I roll, 30-year fixed mortgage and all.  The online environment is going through drastic changes right now and none of them are conducive to me making enough money to justify the time expenditure.  For instance, last night at 10pm EST, there were about 6 to 8 tables of $400NL going on at Stars.  The highest % of players to a flop for those tables was 21%.  That’s not a large amount of data, but it’s anecdotal evidence to me that the games are changing for the worse relative to what I feel are conditions suited to me winning.

Of course, I’d be lying to everyone if I said I was going to give up completely.  As G-Rob and his extra $50 will attest, I can’t do that.  So my reduced online roll will primarily be used for SNG’s and MTT’s when I have the appropriate amount of time to play in them.  The days of grinding out ring-game wins and climbing the NL ladder have temporarily been put on hold.  Key word there is temporarily.

Things will come back.  Of that I’m relatively confident.  But I’m choosing to wait rather than struggle against the rising tide of regulations and red tape.  I will say this, however; if it weren’t for the flourishing live action scene around town, I would not have chosen this path.  Like I mentioned previously, I’m not saying The Sky is Falling; even though it is a bit cloudy at the moment.  I’m just choosing to focus elsewhere for the time being.

Doom and gloom?  Perhaps.  But nothing a “procedure” can’t fix.