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People that try to scam others for poker funding money and hope they can raise it up are silly.

Gl keeping the winnings if you do manage to ever hit it big because god knows you can't hold onto nothing because look where you're at right now.

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I just now read through the whole thread and let me state this emphatically: Everything the initial op has stated is 100% true. I am not going to come on here and try to minimize anything or justify anything. I have a serious compulsive gambling addiction which i think it is safe to say, has ruined my life in so many ways. I really did graduate from Penn State in 1999 with a degree in Chemical Engineering and had the whole world at my feet. Instead of working hard at my job and doing things the right way, i chose to use any excuse to gamble and gamble and gamble and gamble. I became so compulsively addicted that not only did I get fired from various jobs as an engineer and a sales engineer, I also started getting a nice welcome to the criminal justice system because I was a degen who needed and wanted money to play.

I would also like to state that I am actually relieved that this thread was started because in all likelihood it would have happened eventually anyways. I promise to be open and answer any questions any of you 2+2ers have for me because since I have been an active participant in NVG for over 2 1/2 years, it is only right to do so.

I will now write a brief summary of what led up to me "hustling money" at airports(which will be in my next post soon) and if any good can come out of this thread I am hoping that I can eventually be forgiven and hope to turn my life around. I know that some that have posted about me on here have had personal interactions with me at a table or on 2+2 and might not ever like me - that's fine, I understand in life you are not going to get along with everyone. All I know that it is depressing and sad that I am 39 years old and feel the need to embarrass myself at an airport to try and scrounge up a few hundred bucks(which will only be used to try and turn it into more money playing paigow). This airport thing has really become a never ending cycle.

1)give story to try and get money
2)gamble money to try and win more money so I don't have to go to airport anymore
3)Lose all of the money in the pit and go back to #1 or win money, leave, come back the next day thinking i can win more money and proceed to lose it all

I also want to quickly add this: Mike "Little Man" Sica knew about what I was doing at airports for a few years. That is why he offered to back me a couple of years ago. Him and I sat down together and we had a very long talk(early 2012). He always had a soft spot for me over the years since I met him at the end of 2004 at the Taj. He knew I had a gambling problem and how I couldn't trust myself with large amounts of money. He always helped me out with some "going away" money from these different venues because 9 times out of 10 I would lose everything playing paigow before the poker tournaments were even over. He didn't want me to have to go to the airport and give dumb stories for a few hundred bucks. He offered to put me in tournaments and he would hold onto any of my winnings so I wouldn't lose the money back in the pits. He was like a father to me and he wanted me to hit that "big score" that we all want so I would never have to borrow/lie/hustle money from anyone again. I came close a few times before he died but just couldn't do it.

FURST!!!

Edit: Ok bro, I guess you deserve some small amount of credit for coming forward and admitting to everything. Have you ever thought about asking to be banned from all casinos for life? It really seems like at this point no amount of self-help is going to do it for you. You're hopelessly addicted to gambling and it's just going to continue to ruin your life. Even if you hit that one big score you will only degen it all away after. Quit poker, ask all online sites and live casinos to ban you, and try to move on with your life in some other fashion. Seems like the only thing to do, however difficult it may be for you. Don't be like the Chino Rheems and the Edogs of the world who know they have serious problems but continue to gamble thinking it will solve things. It's a never ending cycle of delusion and self-destruction.

Well this is going to be interesting

Im glad mike came out about this. I had no idea hed used me as a reference in his staking thread.

I think this is a brave admission and I'm curious to hear more.

I can't believe this.

Where have you been the past couple of days? Playing tournaments? Hustling at the airport? Playing Pai Gow? All of the above?

Would you consider self-prostitution rather than ripping off innocent victims passing through airports?


With those stunning looks you could easily get through 150 clients per-day to muster up your $300.

You have been hustling people at airports for several years?

It's really brave to admit all of that here, but honestly I think you deserve to be in jail right now. That probably would not help with your gambling problem, but at least no one else is getting scammed.

btw: Am I the only one who thought "Breaking Bad 2" after reading the first paragraph?

If you care to feed the gossip hungry, want to tell us about the arrest(s)?

If he really wants to move forward and start a new life fresh then he should reveal all.

Brilliant

Agree with both parts.

I actually did a cursory search for self-exclusion policies a while ago during one of Sheldon Adelson's finer moments. After all, online poker rooms always have them, but do B&M rooms? Of course (as most of you already know), the answer to that is yes. MGM and Caesars certainly do, as do several others.

Oddly, I couldn't find a self-exclusion policy or even a responsible gaming page at Venetian, but save that for another thread.

Edit: oops, I just noticed he said he's writing his second post (-1 on the reading comprehension). I'll let him finish before I ask anything further.

Props for the honesty and owning up to this. Please take the advice to self ban from all casinos. Doing anything less is a terrible idea. There is so much more to life than running it up in the pit (or tournaments), and it sounds like there's plenty of things you can accomplish if you put your mind to it, based on your education and what not, although it's not going to be a fun time when people Google your name thanks to this thread.


Also, I'm interested if you played table games in the same casino, and if anyone from the casino ever approached you about having a gambling problem?


"Grease is my friend" guy is Pinkman obv.

Ive known him for several years. He has a gambling addiction and has been trying to work thru it.

Im really disappointed that he resorted to this airport scam.

Little man had him under control and had him on a budget after some big scores in Atlantic city.

Without someone to help him control his finances, the lure of the pits just took over.

Compulsive gambling is a disease and shouldn't be mocked by people in this forum.

Mr. Borovetz:

I think it is very brave of you to come forward and admit what went wrong. I have nothing but admiration for a first big step like that.

My advice for you:

--If you love poker more than the chemical engineering sales job, by all means stay with it....Only do it at very small stakes for now.

--Be humble. Keep a low profile as much as you can. Stay on top of your game and work your way up in stakes once more. Rebuild your self-respect.

--Feel the urge to play Pai-Gow? Remember it is just an URGE to play. A body feeling. Let the body urge to play the pit games flow through you no matter how hard it feels. Avoid the pit games AT ALL COSTS and let the urge run its course through your body like a temporary poison. It WILL subside.

Honor Little Man Sica's memory and stick with what you're best at: Live poker.

Best of luck to you.

I don't want to waste tons and tons of space on my backstory but I feel it is important to try and explain what led me to live this double life of poker player and pit gambler/airport hustler.

I started getting really heavy into gambling right after I graduated from Penn State in 1999. I took a job with Dupont as a chem eng in Clinton Iowa(the middle of nowhere) and I absolutely hated it. I was super depressed and realized right away that there were 3 riverboat casinos within a 10 minute drive from my apartment. Before long I was calling in sick to work, gambling at these boats almost every hour of the day. I soon lost all my money, maxed out my new credit card and had to take out a loan from the credit union to pay my rent. Within 2 months I was fired and given a $7500 severance check(I was shocked, $7500 for 2 months of not showing up for work??) I told my parents what happened and they didn't understand any of this. They are both hard working people, how could they understand gambling/instant gratification lifestyles ,etc... My parents actually hired some financial planner for me in Iowa to manage the $7500 and told me to go to Gamblers Anonymous immediately. I did and at the same time was looking on monster.com for a new job in a better city. I was telling myself that I only went off the deep end gambling because I was in a boring place with a boring job. I wish that was why.

Found a new job around March 2000 with an industrial gas company in Irvine California. It was a sales job and they gave you a car and base salary was $50,000 plus 20-25k in commission. I also was given a gas credit card, laptop, cellphone and $5000 relocation bonus check. I thought my troubles were over. Well before I left Iowa I was told by GA members that I had to go to meetings in California or I would relapse. I wish I would have listened. I didn't go to any meetings and within 1 month I spotted all the LA card clubs and visited them all. Of course it was only a matter of time before I lost all of my money again and started writing bad checks. I learned a game called paigow at these places and it became my game of choice. Soon I had no money at all and I called my father begging him for a loan. I told him California was an expensive place to live and that I didn't have enough money to cover my rent. My father trusted me, wanted to believe me and wired me $6000. That money was gone in 2 hours. Soon after I was fired once again, the car taken away and was left with no job, no money and I didn't know what to do.

After I was fired, I was basically living in these casinos. Hollywood Park had at the time an upstairs "sleeping room" and if you played enough they would let you sleep upstairs. That place became my 2nd home and it was awful. I was desperate for money and after getting fired from my 2nd job, my parents and any other family members cut me off. I started calling a few of my good college friends, giving them any story I could think of and begging them for some money. They western unioned me a few thousand and all I did was gamble it away. My apartment complex in Irvine then told me they were starting eviction proceedings so I was so stressed I couldn't even think straight.

Around the end of September I was just walking around Hawaiian Gardens Casino when I was approached by these 2 black guys(not being racist, just mentioning they were black). They told me that they have seen me around a lot and asked me if I needed money. Needed money??? I heard that and I perked up real fast. Of course I needed money I told them. The 1 guy told me that he knew a guy who worked for a company and that he could get his hands on a few "big" checks made out to the company from certain vendors or something. He told me that his buddy could change the paid out name on the check to my name and that we could deposit the checks and split the money 3 ways. He asked me if I had a checking account and I told him yes. Basically he wanted me to deposit "altered" checks made payable to me in my bank account and withdraw money every day. Me being in total despair, desperate and not thinking clearly told him okay. He said even if they eventually catch on it would be years and that nothing would really happen to me. I don't know if I even thought of the consequences of all of this - all I thought of was how I could get my hands on thousands of dollars to play paigow with. So, within a few days I deposited $24,000 approximately of 4 altered checks into my bank account and started withdrawing the money. The 1st time I withdrew $6000 I believe and the next day I withdrew $4400. The 3rd day however, the bank got suspicious and stalled me while they called the police. When the police showed up those 2 guys who were always waiting in their car outside the bank were gone and I was arrested for 1 count(initially) of defrauding a financial institution. Welcome to my introduction to the criminal justice system.

I will continue this in my next post within a few minutes.

He can't play poker when there's Pai Gow or any pit game nearby, that is horrible advice. Telling him it's just an urge is meaningless, he obviously cannot control that urge and probably never will be able to. Please don't enable him any further by telling him to continue to play poker. It is just another form of gambling really, even if he has an edge, it will always be a gateway for him into more degenerate activities. He needs to self ban from every casino in the country and lose the option to play poker as fair sacrifice.

Next question, why the hell did you always use your real name for your scams?

I was taken into custody and booked into the Anaheim Police/Booking area and my bail was $10,000. I called another really close college friend/roommate and asked him if he could bail me out. After some coercing he called a bondsman in Anaheim and got me released. I was told that some detectives were going to follow up and speak with me but my 1st act was to try and hire a lawyer. Amazingly I hadn't gambled all of the money that was split with me on the 1st 2 withdrawals so I had about $2700 hidden in my soon to be evicted apartment. I looked up lawyers in the phone book(seriously) and eventually found a guy who was willing to take my case for $2500. Looking back no "good" lawyer would only take $2500 for this but he was fairly new and I had no other option imo. Believe it or not I was still hanging out in casinos, begging for money from anyone I could, even dealers I had previously tipped when I had won on occasion. I mean, these dealers work their butt off and I am begging them for a $25 dollar chip so I can "run it up" hopefully. It was pathetic. Eventually, my attorney called me and said that he was able to negotiate a deal for me. He told me that I was charged with 7 felonies and that he was able to get them to drop 3 of them and that I would plead guilty to 4 felonies and get 90 days in jail and 3 years felony probation. Again, looking back I would have never taken that deal(especially since I had no criminal record) but since my parents weren't speaking to me and I had no one advising me about anything, I listened to him and accepted that crappy offer. I ended up pleading guilty to 1)felony altered document
2)felony defrauding a financial institution 3)felony 2nd degree burglary and 4)felony forgery. I was scared about this 90 day Orange County Jail part and I found this inpatient Jewish rehab in LA that dealt with all types of addictions. I told my attorney about it and he successfully got the DA to allow me to go to this rehab for 6 months mandatory instead of the 90 days of jail time. The sad part is I ultimately ended up going to the jail in Orange County for 90 days anyways months later.

I will continue with this in my next post(few minutes).

Next post coming in a few minutes

This. Please this.

Maybe the real life dude from Owning Mahowny can help. Or the ghost of Stu Unger.

#mentalhealth

Car Chasm: I understand exactly where you are coming from, but I will respectfully disagree with what you said (at least to some extent). This entails a long discussion, but severe gambling addicts are dealing with VERY STRONG urges to do self-destructive gambling (ie. -EV pit games on an impulsive whim).

I will be the first to admit that it won't be an easy road at all. Most addicts don't realize that the urges are usually bodily in nature, and that they are strong FEELINGS or URGES to gamble on senseless stuff. Those feelings don't last forever, and to let them course through you over 10-20-30 minutes in an episode will usually see those urges subside. It really is like a temporary poison, and the urge WILL NOT LAST FOREVER (critical to understand this!).

Just my two cents. I know my opinion may be controversial, yet I do think it can be good emergency advice for an addict if it's not being used as an entire life plan for an aspiring pro poker player.

forget about self-banning from casinos its pointless you could just find somewhere/something to gamble on
its good that you are just admitting to all this
get your ass back to GA


he probably used his real name so he would get caught