Hello guys

I am portuguese 33 years old guy.
I've been playing poker for many many years, I was an MTT reg with very good results but.... everything went down because of gambling adiction. I lost all the money I've made all these years mostly on slot machines, all the money I was winning from poker I destroyed on casinos until I reach 0 balance.
Now I am trying to rebuild myself mentally, financialy and keep pursuing my dream... playing poker.

I create this thread to find some motivation, some help and to always remember myself to not gamble anymore!

I will play cash games, starting on NL5z, from the bottom because I have no bankroll

Wish me luck guys, I need all the strenght to overcome this and suceed!

PS: sorry for my bad english

If you are a gambling addict, poker can't be part of your solution. Poker is gambling, full stop.

Hello there

I completely disagree wih you, poker is not gambling.

I lived trough poker many years. poker is skill for me but I respect your opinion.

cheers and tanks for commenting

Finished the session for today!
had a really good one, played well, run well, happy day

Here is the results of my last 3 sessions, since I beginning this new goal

depends on how much control you have. it CAN be gambling

He clearly understand what gambling is. He begins at 5NL trying to build from scratch doing it the proper way. These dad comments so ******ed.

GL son

Thanks for the comments, as I mentioned I played poker many years, I was a MTT regular, I studied a lot, had a tons of coaching, I am on my habitat. and if you guys play poker you should know that this is not gambling at all, I mean for a recreational player it might be.

Tomorrow we fight again on the tables <3

Thanks for the support bro!

It's okay, people don't know me, it's legit that they can think those things.

I mean it's gambling with the possibility of being +EV, problem I see is you're going to constantly be exposed to these other casino games, either online or live, and what's to stop you from going back to those while going through a rough patch?

This is a good point. To prevent such an occurrence, it might be helpful for OP to have some form of accountability, like maybe a blog that he knows he'll have to update. Oh wait

GL OP

I think op should put his while roll on blackjack hands. I build a $100 roll to $2300. But op you gotta learn to sit on 7 and not hit and let dealer hit till he busts. That's my secret stragegy

this

I tend to agree more with this. It's like a drug addict thinking a couple of drinks will be ok. For some that might be true, but for most it's just the same thing with a different label. I hope you're right OP and it turns out that you can keep your addiction under control while playing poker, but you have to be prepared to accept it if that isn't the case and get out without losing everything again.

good point! no one with a PGC blog has ever gone busto from bad decision making!

whats even more ****ed is the people encouraging OP to continue doing something which has ruined his life, no different than the people who post in the Paisting PGC thread. Let me ask you in a universe where poker doesnt exist vs in this universe where it does which one does OP have a better life in? its clearly the first one

If you want to learn how to do it right, ask the pman. Prayer, meditation, and rest are the key to a successful poker career.

Hello , i'm from Portugal too

and also have a blog here

GL!

So you played poker before, built a roll, than played -ev games until you were busto - why do you think this won't happen again? I've never heard of alcoholics going through recovery than going back to the bar and having 1 drink only.

Olá parceiro!

vou passar por lá e seguir! GL

Hey guys

Small update, I haven't been playing a lot on this christmas season what is normal.
But i reached a 300euro rakeback on pokerstars, huge boost on bankroll










PS: I am not understanding why people is being toxic... but ok, this a forum on internet!
I still and I will always disagree when people put poker and gambling in the same sentence

I understand what you saying but I never conect poker to gambling, I don't have the adrenaline, the impulse, the adiction with poker. because for me is a skill game, I am not gambling!
many days, I don't even want to play poker but I need to mentalize myself that I have to, in order to put volume, to put the hours and etc!

First poker is gambling; at least NLHE is, as the best player in the world is barely a 2-1 favorite vs a three year old that says all-in blind every hand in a 50BB freeze out. It is however if you are sufficiently skilled versus your opponents gambling where you have the edge. FWIW I'd recommend you adopt a mandatory week of not playing every month as a way of monitoring that you are not becoming subtly addicted. Bona fortuna.

People can't stop themselves. It's like all the 50 year old's+ that keeps drooling in the newspaper comment section on facebook. They have this urge to talk negative **** and be a smart-ass. Building a bankroll from scratch with proper BR management combined with realistic goals can be a healthy way to get back into the swing of things. You can get into some good habits instead of spontaneously wanting to gamble all the time. Going all-in on poker can give purpose in life.
Losing $150 on slots is now 15 hard worked buy-ins lost at 10nl.
$250 is a 10 buy-in shot at 25nl lost. If you ever feel tempted to gamble just think about the opportunity you're wasting on your poker journey whether its taking a shot at higher stakes or losing the momentum.

I've had some addictive gambling periods on slots and what not but never was it in any way in conflict with how i approached poker. Gambling is a rush whilst building a roll is very hard work, slow and doesn't feed the dopamine that playing slots etc does.

And btw many alcoholics can have one drink and be fine whilst others cannot. Life isn't black and white you miserable fecks.

I root for OP. Btw there is a discord for 2-100NL players where you can discuss hands, talk poker etc if you're interested.

First, I have no animosity nor negativity towards OP or anyone else posting here. I just want to clarify that everyone is kidding themselves if they believe that poker is not gambling. Gambling is fine. I do it, you do it, everyone does it to some extent every day.

Your name is GamblingAdict. If you're looking to change your life, but you're an addict you probably ought to avoid triggers for your addiction. How do you handle a 10BI downswing or 30k breakeven stretch?

Being +EV does not make it "not gambling." Suppose a casino installed a bank of 101% payout slot machines 101 players pay a dollar each and 1 player wins $100. Would you say playing it is not gambling? Adding an element of skill to it does not change the principal. You still need gamblers to make the game run. Variance makes the world go around in these games. Nobody would play chess for meaningful stakes money against top computers.

Then there is the question of time investment, cost of living, and opportunity cost of not doing something else.

Why would anyone even say "GL OP" if luck were not involved and PH won every time?

This is something a badreg might say lol.

good post, you could maybe argue playing 5NL with a 9 BB/100 edge is not gambling, but what happens when OP wants to start making real money that can pay the bills? he is going to move up to higher stakes where his edge is tiny or maybe he doesnt have an edge at all but convinces himself he does, the line between not gambling and gambling gets blurred very quickly

i havent heard someone use badreg as an insult in 10+ years, its 2023 m8, most badregs have moved on from poker and are doing more with their lives than the goodregs who are stuck at their computer grinding out smaller and smaller edges and paying higher and higher rake. sorry your mind is stuck in 2010