Your on-line casino and poker results will suffer if you are anything but level-headed

Enjoy on-line casino games? Love playing poker online? Do yourself a favour, and Bash that Bible for inspiration before embarking on a late-night 'just one more hour' session.

As the 'good book' says:

A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.
Ecclesiastes 10:18-20

The lesson this week is an obvious one: don’t play poker on-line, or gamble in on-line casinos, when your judgement may be impaired by excess of food, drugs or drink.

Surely life playing poker is merry enough without wine (for which you can substitute communion wine, beer, tequila et al) to enhance your experience? Nobody’s asking you to stitch together running shoes in a sweat shop in the Philippines, or clean toilets in an African field hospital.

Playing poker on-line is a fun way to make money. It’s also a form of recreation for many of our congregation, which is fine, IF money is not your primary motive for playing at that time.

I appreciate that it can sometimes feel like work, and that gambling in an on-line casino could be a serious temptation: all you have to do is press a button and pray.

By contrast, playing poker online requires that you dedicate concentration to the cause, or you aren’t doing justice to your investment (of time or money).

So perhaps on those occasions when you simply want a way to unwind after a hard day, play a level of poker that’s less threatening to your bankroll. (Forget the on-line casino games. They really are for mugs. Surely you're not a mug?)

Try playing a sit-and-go at a lower entry price than you’d normally bother with, or sit with a short stack in a cash game and make an attempt to double or triple up.

Returning home from the pub after eight pints and a curry is about as dangerous a time to play poker there is.

A hangover is bad enough, without checking your poker balance and finding a few hundred (or worse, thousand) dollars missing. Nothing makes a bad start to the day worse than realising you have undone a lot of good work, days or weeks of building your bankroll, in one night of misjudgement.

As for waking up to an email from the on-line casino, detailing your debits... Feel free to write to the Church of Texas Holdem if you're in need of suicide counselling!

We’ve all been tempted to drive while under the influence. That’s why the drink-drive laws were invented: to protect us (and others) from ourselves. You’d let your friend take away your car key and call you a cab if you were drunk in a bar with your car outside.

Be the ‘designated driver’ for your poker bankroll.

Lock up those precious dollars when you’re not at 100 per cent, mentally. That includes times of grief, stress or any other extreme emotion. The feeling of being in love may even be a kind of drug that makes you care less about whether you win or lose playing poker on-line!

Remember the quotation: money is the answer for everything. Not literally! But once more, if we take this in context, your bankroll is vital to your health as a poker player.

So drink a toast to your poker chips, if you must, but don’t be a mean drunk. Come back and play poker on-line when you’re ready to focus.

And please please please... don't play in on-line casinos.

Drunk? Don't play in an on-line casino or poker game!