I've been easing my way back into poker over the last few days. Honestly, it feels a bit odd to be playing after 5 weeks away.

I've played the Donkament and a few SnG's. I played in the Tuckfard Monday game, and was contemplating the LPR game, but took the advice of two very smart people and gave it a miss. I made bread, ate some lovely local peaches, read and had a bubble bath instead.

I feel now a bit like I did years ago when I stopped drinking for a year. It had gotten to be a habit (not a need, never that), but one that clouded my view of the other areas in my life. Nothing to do tonight, oh well, let's meet the DCon crew where ever they may be lurking and have a laugh.

When something goes from being fun to being a habit, it's not so much fun anymore. And things escalate to find the fun. One night something happened that is no one's business but my own, but the next day I started abstaining. And not only did it give me time to relfect and repair, but it saved me a shitload of money.

After the year, I adopted the Uniboue tag line as my motto:

Drink less. Drink better.

(Sidenote: Yeah yeah, I know that there have been instances where the concepts of both less and better have flown out the window; there has to be exceptions to every rule. And pretty much all of those instances have been with bloggers.)

Extrapolate that to poker. Playing online became a habit; when the fun slips away, ennui is just around the corner. Five weeks away made me see how same old same old it was, and frankly I am no longer interested in spending every weeknight in front of the laptop clicking then cursing when my opponent's three outer hits.

There is more in this life than this.

Poker has made me lopsided; I need to rediscover my version of well-rounded and well-balanced.

So to paraphrase Unibroue, my goal is to play less, play better. And divert the rest of my energies in long neglected areas like writing and glasswork.

And the first person who says/IMs "well, duh" gets thwapped.

You will definitely see me at the Mookie tomorrow night. It will always be my favourite game, and Joanada has invited me to be on BDR where I will bore you with stories from the wild Far North, like the tale of what happened here: