Why when you first started to play pool you started to dream about it? Or skip classes to play pool? Or stay out til the sun came up, even though you were dog tired?
Why does pool do this to us?
I call it a natural high. Playing pool and learning shots increases my endorphins. Competing allows me to become excited over little balls on a green felted, smooth table.
Playing also allows me to socialize. Being the social butterfly that I am, I love to be around my friends and enjoy life. Playing pool also allows one to travel to places and meet new people, have adventures in new towns in new tournaments.
A natural high is something difficult to describe. It's something you enjoy doing, gives you pure bliss, increases your heart rate, and causes happiness. All the while those endorphins are increasing, your knowledge of the game is improving, and you are becoming one with pool.
Ironically, pool can easily be an addiction and yet I consider pool to give me a natural high. For someone like me who hasn't done drugs, my drug of choice is pool.
And guess what I figured out so easily the other day?
Poker has become my new natural high; my new addiction.
I am seeing so many similarities, too:
- Increased endorphins
- Meeting new people
- Socializing
- Competing
- Reminiscing about certain plays/hands
- Dreaming about possibilities
- Yearning to play again
- Poker players don't have to be burdened with having to play 10 hours a day for 5 years to be good at something.
- Poker is hot and mainstream because it's so accessible.
- All you need to play poker is a deck of cards. You don't even need a table.
- If you want to bet, fine, bet money or potato chips or french fries or whatever.
- Nobody ever complains about the quality of the cards unless they're marked or torn.
I have only been playing "seriously" for 6 months, but for fun off and on about two years. It's easy to pick up and easy to get addicted to, just like pool; just like golf.
But, it's more accessible. And I don't need a lot of talent to hang with the other weekend warriors. Yea, some luck is involved. Yea, I could read some books and increase my skill.
But, I walk into the poker room at the closest casino and they have 45 tables. Forty Five! I know a lot of the dealers, just like I know most of the staff at my pool room.
I recognize many of the players, but there are so many new faces every single time we go. It's a lot of fun to watch and learn, listen and test the waters, chat and yet compete. Yea, I get scared at aggressive hands just like nervousness in stiff competition. But it's a different type of nervousness.
I'm also using poker to help my "embarrassment factor." I'm trying to learn to not care when I get embarrassed when I lose a bad hand I shouldn't be in (just like when I miss an easy shot in pool), and poker is helping me with that.
I don't foresee poker taking over my pool addiction, though, any time soon. So no worries, friends! :) But it sure is a very cool natural high!
1 comment:
Good post. I too have pondered the similarities between these two pastimes. I even relate my own coming-of-age poolroom gambling era to the movie Rounders over any movie made about pool.
That being said, I don't necessarily agree that poker is more accessible or easier to pick up. Sure you only need a deck of cards to play, but you also need 5-9 people to make it worthwhile. With pool you and one friend can enjoy hours of play. Playing pool in your home requires a dedicated room for the table, but there are a *lot* more choices (bars) for pool over poker outside of the home.
Also, I feel that due to the luck factor, poker only has the illusion of being easier to pick up without hours upon hours of practice. Poker is a deceitful game by design. It's easier and natural to hide your skill level (high or low) in poker, especially to newbies.
I think a lot of this comes down to poker's lack of a physical component combined with a large luck factor. Since poker is completely mental, the suckers don't know that they're suckers. With pool, you have to be a relatively decent shot before you could even become a sucker.
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