My degen story. It's not nearly as good as most in here, but I wanted to get it off my chest because I have never told anyone the full story besides my wife. Sorry for length.
It is late 2006ish and I'm in my 2nd year of law school. I'm a very small winner multi-tabling party and its skins at .25/.50 NL. I made more profit off bonus whoring and rakeback than actual play. It’s near finals time so I do not have time to play poker. However, Party just started including its easy access blackjack. To take a break from studying, I play a few hands of blackjack with my tiny poker roll. I run $1k up to $8k. I go to sleep very happy. The next morning, I run the $8k to $22k in a few hours and am feeling on top of the world.
Well, you know how this goes. The next day, while studying, I decide to take a quick break and play with the roll. I start losing. Every time I put a stop loss point, I would get a split/double down hand at that exact point and lose. After that, it was just a downward spiral. I lost it all and then, through a series of $500 deposits, lost an additional $20,000 of living expenses meant for the entire school year that was through loans. It was just a total shock, seeing $0 in my bank account, knowing I had no money for rent/food/expenses in a very expensive city and I had to study for finals. I became severely depressed and my grades reflected this.
For the next two months, I would attend law school club meetings just so I could get their free food/snacks b/c I could not afford food. When there was no free food, I ate at a crappy subsidized food shelter meant for homeless people for like $.50 a burger. Thankfully, my parents bought me class books as a x-mas gift.
A few months later, I somehow deposit $200ish through credit on full tilt. I play absolutely atrocious heads-up limit poker but somehow run better than god. Go from 1/2 to 2/4 to 5/10 to 20/40 to 50/100. Make $20,000 off that $200. Smartly, I transferred my roommate $7kish of it to pay for the remainder of the rent for the year. Stupidly, I transferred $500 into some crappy gambling site like golden vegas or whatever after receiving a bonus offer (at that point, party had withdrawn from the US). Again, through a series of $500 deposits, I lose the entire $13k. I become severely depressed, grades dropped even more, could only afford homeless food, etc. I go to an extremely bad place in my life. Too long of a tangent, but it involves a restraining order against me filed by another law student I was dating, an arrest, me becoming a raging alcoholic, etc. The impact of stupid online gambling was ruining my life.
Somehow, I get a girlfriend in the summer of 2007. A few months in our relationship, we have a wedding to attend on a Saturday night at 5 pm for one of her close friends. On that Saturday afternoon, I deposit $600 on the same crappy site after receiving another bonus offer. I’m playing on one of the law library’s computers. In blackjack, ran the first deposit up to $5,000, then lost it all. Deposited another $600. Lost it. Rinse repeat X5. Had to go through 5 different credit cards trying to get approved. I really hit rock bottom. Finally, on the sixth deposit, I run it up to a couple thousand. I then start betting multi-hands. First $25 a hand, then $50, then $100.
At this point, it's already 4:30 p.m. and I have ignored multiple calls from my girlfriend. I start betting 5 hands at $500 a hand (so $2,500 a deal), and then 5 hands at $1000 a hand. I run like absolute god and run it up to $80,000. Then, doom switch. I start losing. I’m losing thousands and deep down, I know I’m going to lose it all. I continue to lose.
At around 6:00 p.m., my girlfriend (who is not a student at the school), finds some way to let the security guard to get her access to the law library. To this day, I do not even know how she knew I was there. She is in tears and (correctly) accuses me of lying when I said I was working for my crappy part-time summer job. I come clean and proudly state that I was up around $35,000 gambling online for that day. She then (correctly again) calls me an idiot, saying that I just got lucky at a game I was supposed to lose. She was not yelling, screaming, or even sobbing. Just quiet and subtle tears and telling me matter-of-factly that if she saw me gambling again, she would break up with me. I come clean regarding my gambling history over the last year.
We miss the wedding but make the reception. After the wedding, I cash out. Crappy golden vegas or whatever sends 8 emails saying that they cannot process my cashout b/c I did not provide them with adequate proof. I end up having to send copies of my license, all 5 credit cards I used, a utility bill, a cable bill, and my car registration. Three weeks later, they finally clear me but state that it would not be finalized for 72 hours and that I could reverse the cash out at any time. 2 weeks later, the cash out still was not finalized. After emailing back and forth, they give me some crap about how they can only send a $1985 check once a week, but that I could reverse the withdrawal of the remainder at any time.
It ends up taking 6 months to finally get my money. During that entire 6 months, despite multiple urges to gamble, I don’t. This is despite them sending over 100 personalized emails with special VIP bonus offers if I reverse my cashouts.
19 checks later, I end up with $37,000. I use $10k of it to buy an engagement ring for the girlfriend and I put the remainder straight to my student loans. Besides with friends in Vegas playing table minimums for $10 or $15, I have not played a pit game since. I am now happily married to that girl.
Last edited by degenlaw; 12-30-2013 at 11:32 PM.