Any Winning Players Out There Beat a Gambling Addiction?
10-02-2010
, 06:04 PM
To OP's Question:
I started out my gambling adventures playing blackjack. I was probably about 23 years old. First time won $3k. Worst possible thing ever, this money is so easy!!!!!! I spent about a year and a half as a total degen. It was really really bad. I'm talking about I owned a business and lost a lot of the business money bad. So bad that my bank shut down my account cause of the withdrawals from my business account at casino ATM's. Yeah that wasn't embarrassing..........
Since this was a family owned business, my mom eventually found out when the numbers weren't right. It was bad, but was the best thing cause I promised her I wouldn't gamble anymore. And I pretty much stuck to that promise.
So over the course of the next few years after that I get into poker. Well Mom sees me playing online and of course I get the "you promised etc etc etc"
I then show her that I had only deposited like $20, and by this time I had run it up to maybe $300 or so, and I got the well be careful, if you blow any money I'll disown you speech.
Her attitude changed when checks from the sites kept coming in regularly. Then I would go to the bike, bink a donkament hand her a G spot and all of the sudden it was, "so when are you going to play again?" It was getting obvious that it wasn't a fluke.
Guess what, my mom who made me promise not to gamble then became my biggest poker supporter and even bankrolled me, which got me going and able to build a real bankroll. She even sold pieces of my action for little homegrown BAP's to her old lady friends in the "Red Hat" club or whatever. I made some of those ladys with fixed incomes nice little chunks on a $50 investment, and they love me too.
Now when I go to vegas or whatever, I see the table games and it almost makes me physically ill to look at them. I think of the money that I blew in my gambling infancy and I just want to kick myself so hard. But i learned a valuable lesson, and have since earned back all the dough I lost in spades.
What I love about poker now, is that it lets me indulge my inner Degen without feeling guilty about it, cause I know I am a plus ev player. I can still take that trip to vegas, and not have the drive of shame back to LA. (That drive of shame when busto from BJ is the worst, and I did it many times)
The bottom line is, you got to have the willpower to not go to the pit. It's like telling an alcoholic to be able to go into a bar and only drink wine coolers, it's not easy. Perhaps you don't have the willpower to do that. If that is the case then completely stopping is the only way to go. I hope you have the willpower cause poker is just too much fun to give up cold turkey
Hopefully my experience can help you a bit.
I started out my gambling adventures playing blackjack. I was probably about 23 years old. First time won $3k. Worst possible thing ever, this money is so easy!!!!!! I spent about a year and a half as a total degen. It was really really bad. I'm talking about I owned a business and lost a lot of the business money bad. So bad that my bank shut down my account cause of the withdrawals from my business account at casino ATM's. Yeah that wasn't embarrassing..........
Since this was a family owned business, my mom eventually found out when the numbers weren't right. It was bad, but was the best thing cause I promised her I wouldn't gamble anymore. And I pretty much stuck to that promise.
So over the course of the next few years after that I get into poker. Well Mom sees me playing online and of course I get the "you promised etc etc etc"
I then show her that I had only deposited like $20, and by this time I had run it up to maybe $300 or so, and I got the well be careful, if you blow any money I'll disown you speech.
Her attitude changed when checks from the sites kept coming in regularly. Then I would go to the bike, bink a donkament hand her a G spot and all of the sudden it was, "so when are you going to play again?" It was getting obvious that it wasn't a fluke.
Guess what, my mom who made me promise not to gamble then became my biggest poker supporter and even bankrolled me, which got me going and able to build a real bankroll. She even sold pieces of my action for little homegrown BAP's to her old lady friends in the "Red Hat" club or whatever. I made some of those ladys with fixed incomes nice little chunks on a $50 investment, and they love me too.
Now when I go to vegas or whatever, I see the table games and it almost makes me physically ill to look at them. I think of the money that I blew in my gambling infancy and I just want to kick myself so hard. But i learned a valuable lesson, and have since earned back all the dough I lost in spades.
What I love about poker now, is that it lets me indulge my inner Degen without feeling guilty about it, cause I know I am a plus ev player. I can still take that trip to vegas, and not have the drive of shame back to LA. (That drive of shame when busto from BJ is the worst, and I did it many times)
The bottom line is, you got to have the willpower to not go to the pit. It's like telling an alcoholic to be able to go into a bar and only drink wine coolers, it's not easy. Perhaps you don't have the willpower to do that. If that is the case then completely stopping is the only way to go. I hope you have the willpower cause poker is just too much fun to give up cold turkey
Hopefully my experience can help you a bit.
10-02-2010
, 06:37 PM
However, i never took the easy road in my mind glorifying my ability to kick it in relation to everybody else suffering from them and inability to kick it with the ease i did. It's 2010 people, wake up and smell the genetic code. We are all walking different paths and suffer similar and different hurdles in non-comparable qualities and quantities.
Especially in addictions genetics make up for the larger part of the equasion (the other mostly upbringing) that sets the bar of difficulty. I find it mindnumblingy narrowminded so many people still think along the lines: "hey it's easy for me, so if it's so hard for him he must be a lower/weaker lifeform than i am".
Yes, i guess this makes me angry because so much unnecessary downgrading towards people suffering from these tendencies is the result of that outlook, it is truly hurtful despite its obvious ignorance.
Last edited by Riina; 10-02-2010 at 06:44 PM.
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