I have no problem with self-indulgence, except when it comes to poker, where the point of the game is to play well, not to feel good. You want examples? Can you stand to stare them in the face?
How about the time you went heads-up against a blind stealer, calling his raise even though you had only some dreadful 7-4 with which to defend? The flop came 5-6-x and you got all moist and oozy because now you had a straight draw, even though you knew you had the worst of it, pot odds versus card odds, all that crap. But he bet and you called anyway. Why? 'Cause it felt good to imagine the look on that smug chump's face when you caught your draw, made your hand and gave him the whupping that he and all other heathen, degenerate blind-stealers deserve. You didn't have a legitimate call, but you called anyway, because you wanted the triumph. You wanted to feel good. You wanted to see the look on the other guy's face when things went your way.
Most of the time in these situations, of course, things do not go our way. Nor should they -- pot odds versus card odds, all that crap -- and then we end up losing not just money, but also credibility, image, and control over ourselves and others at the table. Never forget the irreducible math of poker: self-indulgence = self-destruction. Okay, another example. You're getting ready to leave a game, but you decide to just play through to your blind before you go. This feels good because it feels like you're getting something for nothing, a free ride, a look at several more hands without having to pay the price of the blind. Trouble is, you've already mentally checked out of the game, and your chances of playing perfect poker (or even adequate poker) have checked out too.
So now here comes a hand you know you shouldn't play, and never ever would play except for the fact that you're already halfway outta there, and maybe you have a few extra chips above some arbitrary number of chips (three more than a full rack, say?) so you decide to take a flier on the hand. Why? Because it feels good. It's action! But then you catch a piece of the flop and make several calls you shouldn't make and get clobbered in the hand.
Which you deserve, frankly, since you shouldn't have been in it in the first place. Now, smarting from your wounds, you decide to take another lap or two (or six) around the table, rather than leave the game you had previously decided to leave. An hour or two (or six) later, you stumble away, stunned and remorseful, having turned a nice, respectable win into a devastating loss. You started out doing something that you thought would make you feel good and ended up feeling bad, bad, bad. Never fall victim to this again! Vow now to play all hands and every hand for a good, sound, solid reason and not just because it feels good.
Look, nobody's perfect. No one plays flawless poker forever, and no one ever plays poker for all the right reasons all of the time. Self-indulgence creeps into everyone's play: yours, mine, and the guy's across the table.
Perfection, then, is something we strive for, yet never fully attain. But how can you hope to hit that target if you never aim at it in the first place?
Oscar Wilde once said, "Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to."
But of course he wasn't talking about poker.
