Today's post is on a somewhat personal level, but it should definately benefit others as well. Before I started playing poker on a constant and almost daily basis (on-line that is) I was a very avid bingo player, sometimes frequenting the local bingo halls for or 5 days a week, however with rheumatoid arthritis, the long constant sitting in bingo halls for 4 to 5 hours each night began to get to me, which is how I began playing poker on-line, I was able to sit at home on the comfort of my own couch or in my bed (laptop) and play. So last night after I went to bingo (hadn't been in a few weeks), I just got angry, because for the money I had spent I probably could have went on line and won more that what I had at bingo, if it weren't for the fact that I didn't feel I was that good of a player. So at this point I had made a decision and that decision was that before I spent another dime anywhere on line to play poker I would put just as much effort into practicing and studying poker, so that when I did decide to play more money games on line I would have a better advantage and be a more skilled player. Even if that meant playing 6 or 7 freeroll tournaments a day, going into the pokerrooms on Pokerstars and watching the pro's play and reading every book that I could find to increase my advantage in the pokerroom, that is what I would do. It isn't that bingo isn't a very entertaining game, because it is, however there is no skill involved, it is purely based on luck, you can't out play or out buy the next player to win, so as I drove home that night I started to take action, I tossed all bingo dabbers out the window, once I got home I logged on to amazon.com to order more poker books, I went into the poker rooms on pokerstars.com and watched as Humberto Brenes, Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem played, just watching in silence and not disturbing them so that I could get the best benefit from it. Then I remembered that I had gotten an e-mail from something called the PPA, urging me to join, so I read it again and people I was shocked to learn that the game I had come to enjoy so much I may one day not even be able to play, because my government is trying to ban it here in the US, with and including threats to lock people up if they won cash from playing poker on line, and I thought "WHAT KINDA CRAP IS THAT!!!", you mean to tell me that If after I do all this studing and all this practicing to actually win some real money playing poker you may at one point pass some stupendous law where I could get locked up. The governments basic reasoning is, is that it could cause such a financial strain on people that it would effect the economy, because people could loose their houses and jobs due to overspending ( which honestly folks with gas a 4.15 a pop, I know people who can barely afford to drive to work to make the 4 dollars to put in their tanks), I won't go into politcs but come on. While I believe that any form of internet activity that involves money should be regulated to protect consumers from some site that would possibly be looking to scam someone, should be in effect, I do not believe that we should stop people from being able to spend their money anyway they like to for their entertainment. Especially when people walk into strip clubs and bars, street casino's and riverboat casinos and liquor stores to purchase $600 in lottery tickets are not being stopped from spending that same money from loosing their houses trying to get rich are not being regulated from doing that. The thing is people that you can actually take steps on-line to limit yourself from going broke and maybe that is what you have to do, such as on pokerstars, I have my own enacted deposit limit, I can not spend anymore on poker in that week, if I want to increase that level I have to send an e-mail to support and request and increase and then wait an extra day to get that increase, I regulated myself, and to tell you the truth I worry less about being cheated on-line in a poker room than I did at a bingo hall (trust me I have seen more acts of colusion and cheating there than I have ever witnessed on-line), and yes I do know what the governments real issue is but I won't go political with it but I will say this start taking action and protect your rights where ever it is that you live, whether your in the US or not, but wherever it is that you have to go to in your country to protect your right to play poker on-line then please do so. Here in the US you can go to pokerplayersalliance.org and sign up for free and they will send the necessary letters to your congressmen and senators for you and it was so easy to do, that folks you just have to do it. Now as for as regulating yourself , as I said that is simple as well. Poker is a game of skill if your loosing money at it maybe it's time to take a reassessment like I did, one of the things I did was type in my username in google and low and behold there were sites that were actually keep track of my play, including how much I had spent and where I was strong and weak at (hard to believe but true) which is when I decided ok sweetie you need to pick up more books and dvd's and get better at this before you start spending $215 to enter a freeroll tournament and get picked off before you've even seen the flop, and like my daddy always said "if you don't read anything but the back of a cereal box read something". So that's what I have been doing, I also said (with the exception of some tourney's I want to play in this weekend, that I would not put anymore money into my on-line account until I had won first place in at least 6 freeroll tournaments. Because people and I am being honest here when I say this, I want to be one of the women next year that go to the WSOP, and be like Tiffany Michelle (almost made it but that's ok there is next year) and I want to be such a good player that I want to be sitting at the final table, but I know that the only way to do that is practice, practice, practice and more practice and a heck of a lot of studying, and if that's what you have to do so that your not on your way to loosing your house or car or something else then please do so. Trust me I started reading my book actually about 2 weeks ago and I can actually tell the differnce in the way I play and now I can not wait until my next shipment of books arrives in the mail, I'm actually really happy about it. I also took action in another area this week and that was starting to learn and play the other poker games such as Razz and Omaha and Horse, because folks I don't want to be a one trick pony either and I am happy to tell you that I really like Omaha and am good at it to boot. So until next time if anyone is actually reading this blog, good luck to you on your next tournament.