My name is NoChoy (not my real name, I have a unique name and very recognizable, will only eventually reveal if I make it out of this), I am 35 years old. I have a gambling story that would be a shame not to share. I’ve experienced the highest of highs and unfortunately am currently going through the lowest of lows.

I am putting my trust in destiny and even at the disapproval of my family, I am chasing my dreams of becoming a professional poker player.

On August 8th, 2024, I will officially be physically homeless.

I currently have ~$5,000 life roll.
I owe ~$140,000 in credit card debt and $5,000 to loan shark on a 5% weekly juice.

Yes, I am a degen, but I am hopeful to get out of this. This is the story of a man who ****ed up, but is ready to take responsibility and beat all the odds to win his life back. Throughout this thread, I will share my stories and experiences.

The next post, I will list out my upcoming plans. This will be 80% poker, 10% calculated pit games (I see that “huh” face, but I’ll explain in the next post) and 10% everything else in life.

This is not a troll post, I have receipts to back up everything.

This is my life and my story.

I am currently on a 9 hr session grinding a $5/5 table in Hawaiian Gardens, CA at 12 AM PST, sitting with $600 and as of this post have ~$2,700 in front of me. No notable hands that really stand out so far, I am currently playing a very nitty style because of my liferoll.

Ended a 15 hr session with +$2,745 profit.
Overall happy with how I played as I work on getting used to these long hours. Nothing too exciting or interesting in terms of hands played, pretty standard plays all around. I am interested to see how long this nit style will last me in $5/5.

No Choy:

Where are you going to live (sleep/shower/keep your stuff) after Aug. 8? That seems the most immediate problem to address.

You say you have a life roll of $5K BUT you also owe a loan shark $5K. That means you're worse then broke. The weekly juice will be relentless. Soon you'll owe him $20K and the juice will be $1,000/week. Then he'll own you, won't he?

Do you own a car? Do you plan on living in your car after Aug. 8? Better scratch that plan; you will likely be signing the pink slip over to your loan shark very soon.

You don't mention a job. Do you have a job? Did you used to have a job? Could you get one now if you tried? You're going to need a job because—chip porn notwithstanding—you're clearly not making a living from gambling.

As for that credit card debt, it's time to file for bankruptcy. You'll want to talk to a consumer credit counselor (try https://www.consumercredit.com/about...s/los-angeles/), but that's what they'll tell you. Because unless you make $100K/year, live frugally for years, and quit gambling completely, there's no way you're ever paying that off.

You say you're ready to take responsibility for ****ing up your life. OK, prove it. Your only gambling goal should be to quit gambling. Join GA. Get off Two Plus Two. Self-ban yourself from all California casinos and card rooms (see https://oag.ca.gov/gambling/exclusion_self). Try to build some kind of reasonable life that doesn't include poker or gambling in any form.

Best of luck to you, but the path you're on—you're going to need a tent.

Assuming you did win $2745 use your "life roll" of $5000 and $250 of the winnings and get rid of the loan shark.

If I thought you'd listen to good life advice I'd advise you to read the post from agamblerthen but since I don't my first sentence is advice to a degen that wants a better chance at surviving as a degen as long as possible before they hit bottom or sunrun to their dreams. Good luck.

Yeah, pay off the loan shark, file bankcruptcy, and grind 1/2 with the leftover 2500$ in cash. If you are actually crushing, and run well, you have a chance to spin that up to 5k before 8th of August, which is enough to grind 1/2, and get a tiny Appartement for 1k per month, i guess?

Good luck, mate!

I’m currently in process of selling as much of my possessions as I can so that I can move out. Trying to reduce all my possessions down to just 1-2 suitcases of clothes and essentials.

I am unable to file for bankruptcy at the moment, it’s a little bit complicated to explain, but I am also holding off on it because I still believe that I can recoup my losses and pay off my debts in due time.

My plan after August 8th is to travel to Vegas and grind poker.

During that time, I will stay in Vegas hotels using comps.

I am also giving my dog to a friend as I can’t have him with me on this journey.

On my way to Vegas, made a pit stop at an Indian Casino, hit $450 off slots using $300 free play (i don’t play slots unless it’s using free play)



3 more hours until I make it to Caesar’s Palace. Enjoying listening to Phil Galfond.

Might be me in a few weeks

I’m Seven Stars tier at Caesars Palace and they gave me $1,750 ($250 x 7 vouchers) in free play for table games.

I managed to convert $1,750 into $720~ cash + $1,250 remaining free play. These are play until you lose vouchers, so I’m praying to run good. I will be at Caesars until I run out of vouchers, then I will head over to an MGM property (Aria or Bellagio) to grind 2/3 NLHE or 5/5 PLO for 2 days.

Ended up getting +$3,000~ from Caesars off free play.

Their poker room is trash. Spread 1/3 NLHE, average age 50 yrs old. Excited to be in Vdara. Going to grind Aria and perhaps Bellagio for the next 3 days. My first time staying in Vdara and I got the doggo with me, handing him over to a friend next week so this will be our last week together for the time being.

Looking forward to posting some hand history once I get into some spots.

Good luck man, seems like a desperate situation - hopefully can claw your way out of it. My “boring” life advice would be - pay off the loan shark immediately, exploration of filing for bankruptcy, seek employment for income stability while continuing to grind poker on the side.

That said, if you are still gung-ho on poker exclusively to escape the hole you are in, I would still recommend paying off the loan shark with your recent winnings as a 260% APR loan will be crippling to maintaining your poker/liferoll expenses.

Thanks for the advice. Learned a new word today too. I’m adamant that I’m going with the latter option. There is a Chinese saying: “When a man falls, he gets up from where he fallen”.

I will be paying off the loan shark once I hit a $10k bankroll. I just can’t afford to pay him off right now and leave myself with nothing.

Sitting at Aria 2/5 (buy in is $300-$1,500) I’m sitting with $500.

Let’s run good

Actually your "life roll" is much larger than you seem to believe. How often will Caesars give you $1750 in free play? How much food credit do you have? How many free rooms? Yaamava gives you $300 how often? Imagine that comes with food credit and rooms as well. To get this level of giveaway you obviously gave them a lot of action in the past. Loan sharks are for fools; pay him off.

Caesars gives about 5-10k a month in free play (4K max and small 1-2k ones every week).

Food is comped, it’s based off play. I’m not sure how long I can get away with this before they start to reduce my free play/food and room comps. Rooms I suppose I can get as many as I want?

Yaamava gives about $300 a week, along with a $75 dinner.

I swung over a mil to get to this point. It’s like I want to tell my full story but it’s a bore if I don’t make this comeback. So I’m working on this comeback first.

I’m gonna work on paying off loan shark. I wouldn’t have the roll I have right now without the starting loan.

Can’t really tell if I’m just running good or players here are bad? Lots of standard spots and spots where I’m bluffing with air but given the pot size and action, I just know nobody can call. Not too exciting. The biggest pot I played on this table was as followed:

We are playing 2/5. I have K9 off in the BB, UTG opens to $25 (villain has only showed down QQ, not a lot of data but seems TAG) which has been pretty standard for this table. Folds to me and I defend. Flop comes Kh9h2x. I check, villain cbets $50, I check raise to $200, villain calls. I have $1,500~, villain has $1,300~. Turn is an off suit 5, I lead for $200. Villain calls. At this point, I put villain on KQ/KX and maybe AK. River is an off suit 7. I’m pretty sure I have the best hand here given the flush draw on board, would assume villain would’ve raised any sets on the turn. This might be a donk move, but I decided to tank, not sure if this adds to “hollywooding” a missed flush, I over bet all in, I would sometimes do this with AhQh/QhJh and I took a very aggressive polarized line. Villain tanks for over a minute and puts in the call, I table and he mucks. Session is pretty good and I’m on pace to pay back loan shark this week. ����



I’m back in the room to spend time with the doggo, deciding what to eat and will grind again after dinner. It’s tough having doggo with me cause I’m constantly worried he’s barking in the room (hence why I don’t play overnight, rather him bark in the day when most people won’t be sleeping, I’ve had security call me before about my dog barking, he usually does when he hears someone knock on another door).

Went back for a 4 hr session at 2/5, +$500~. No real notable hands, feel like at these stakes it’s just playing ABC well and exploiting certain spots, majority of players don’t get out of line and their hands are pretty face up. Also feel like action at home in CA is much better, but had conversation with someone from TX and they swear Dallas and Austin are the spots to be for poker, might travel out there to check it out in the next month.

I saw Patrick Antonius in Table 1 and also saw Dan Bilzerian at one of the other tables, probably PLO.

Can’t help but worry that doggo is barking, so sticking with plan not to play overnight. Will be back for more 2/5 in the morning.

You do not want action you want profit. Much easier to profit when there are no notable hands and you are winning slow but sure which limits variance. You deserve credit for controlling yourself here; must be hard after playing at a level where you can lose a million to win $500 and not think that was less than one bet a year ago. Focus on your goals and hopefully soon you will be back with your doggo.

You’re right and thank you. I celebrated my 21st birthday playing $1/$2 at Commerce Casino. Through the years, I’ve played as high as $50/$100 in home games. What I’m going through right now is very humbling. When it comes down to it, I’ve simply put myself in a position of no choice.

Ran into a cooler today with JJ on a KQ6J rainbow board. Not sure if I could’ve gotten away by just calling the turn, but turn jam seemed unnecessary, lost focus for a second. Ended up +$500~. One more day before I can go back to Caesar’s for a $1,000 freeplay and then possibly head home or extend stay. This life style gets abit lonely.

Hand of the trip thus far

$2/$5
I open MP $25 with Qh10h and CO flats. We’re heads up to a flop of QsJs3d. I check, villain bets $40 and I check raise to $140. Villain calls. Turn is 9c. I check and villain checks. River is a blank, I check and villain insta-shoves all in for $1k, I cover. In real time, I’m honestly thinking “what in the f*ck donkey kong bet is that?” I’m actually flustered but in moments like this, I remind myself to calm down and breathe. I take a deep breath and really think about the situation. I’m not looking for live reads, but I recalled a previous hand that happened not so long ago where villain runner runner-ed a full house and elected to 1/4 value bet in a decent sized pot. This probably isn’t enough for me to justify anything, but I just wasn’t convinced, my gut says he would’ve bet $100~ if he had anything and everything else that I know about poker is telling me just fold, even if he’s bluffing it’s a good bet. There’s also a little bit of pressure cause by now the table is staring at the same pot as I am and this huge overbet and I can feel they think I’m never going to call. I also am not rolled to make this call. But this is where legends are made, lol donkaments, I flick in the call and villain shows K-10… sike, villain says good call and I table my hand. I can see the shock on everyone’s faces. This was a big spot for me and I trusted myself. That is the essence of my journey. The journey of trusting myself and trusting where ever life takes me.

K-10 is the nuts bro on the board you described

I will be entering a $750,000 guaranteed free roll poker tournament on 7/27. These are invite only and consist of all the high limit pit game players. The blind structures are super duper turbo and not designed to be “grinded” it’s gonna be a quick 1-2 hr tournament I believe.

I never run good in these tournaments for some reason, but I’m praying for a change this time.

Yes I know that. Villain did not table his hand, I was only joking that he did. Surely he was on busted spades and didn’t think I could call without k10

$2/5
Villain straddles $10, I limp on the button with Ah10d (maniac on my direct left has been raising 100% preflop, so I was actually prepared to limp-raise), maniac calls (bad read lol) and villain raises to $60. I flat and maniac folds (tf). We are heads up to flop Ad4d4h. Villain bets $150, I call. Turn is 6h, villain bets $300, I call. River is 9c, villain goes all in with a covering stack, I have ~$1,200. Villain hasn’t been out of line all game but I did see a big river bluff so I know he’s capable. There is some history with him and I took an interesting line in a hand earlier in the day where I was setting up a river shove bluff but I ended up hitting a set. I have a feeling that villain was steamed and hence took this same line against me on a very similar board. I ended up tank calling and villain tables KJo, I scoop and once again feel good about going with my gut.

Headed to Caesar’s tomorrow for some FP and will go back to California for 2 days before coming back to Vegas on the weekend.

Just ended an overnight session and as I walk back to my room, I kind of thought to myself, why even post all this? Like who really cares, am I posting this to inspire others, not really because most people wouldn’t even put themselves in my situation or am I doing this to prove a point, not really either… I think about all the silent assassins at the tables, those crushers that don’t care about recognition, respect.

Not sure if I want to continue posting, I’m not even that interested in thinking about past hands, cause I know there is no perfect way to play poker and that’s truly what makes the game beautiful.

Gonna head back to Cali and pay off the loan shark.

If you’re reading this, just know that if you truly believe in something, just do it.

Whether you continue posting or not, I appreciate you sharing it. I would be interested to hear about the run up and collapse, though I realize that may be hard to revisit.

I'm in a bad situation right now too. And it seems poker may be my only way out in this terrible job market.

Best of luck to you OP. I'll be rooting for ya. Glad you left LA so I don't run into you at my tables lol.