These stories are golden ^^^^

+1 mirrion

I saw this thread, figured I would relate my odyssey into gambling, drugs, and the high life. I've always been a sicko gambler, started shooting dice on a daily basis in high school as a freshman. Every lunch, break, PE class, we were shooting in the hallways, staircase, bathrooms, etc. I already was surrounded by a crew of young budding gamblers. The only kids with enough flow to shoot with us at this point were bloods or kids involved in slanging, so the game often became violent and one guy was actually thrown through a window from the second story over a $20 roll lol. I was stacking about $100 to $200 a week at 14 mainly through luck and the fact that they would make the most -EV prop bets on certain numbers that even a ****** would understand was a losing proposition.
By the time I graduated I had quite a large gambling roll (~10k after all the girls, drugs, booze, and other stupid expenses) all through shooting dice. At this point, I started heading out to local indian casinos where I could play BJ at 18 and in retrospect went on an unbelievably lucky stretch where I won like 10 out of 12 sessions and the 10k had ballooned to around 30K in a few months. I was still shooting dice probably two or three times a week but now the only people who could afford to shoot the amounts we were playing for was a crew of two or three big time dealers (at the end of the night we would go up to $1k a roll). I was doing ok at the dice but I had already caught the table game bug and was a regular at the local casino usually going with one of my boss buddies and playing all night.
At this point I'm around 21, we started getting into backgammon although I was by far the most novice, but obviously that wouldn't stop me. The biggest boss was one of my best friends and one day we started playing at $25 a point and after getting beat up kicked it up to $50 a point, then $100 a point, etc. and I ended up losing more than $30k in a three day marathon where I got crushed by bad luck and no real skill at the game. My buddy had a crew of guys working for him would come to his place throughout the marathon to re up, drop off cash, etc. and the look on their faces was priceless as they saw these two degens playing for over 50 hours straight, with bricks of cash on the table. Needless to say, it was time to rebuild.
We also started playing poker around this time, without chipsets, dealer buttons, etc. This was right before the 2003 WSOP so no limit hold em was a new and exciting adventure. We played with stacks of 5s and 100s and would play with four or five guys all anteing $5 and then the gambling would commence. Almost saw a dudes head get blown off when one of the bosses thought a straight beat a flush and I had to get on the internet to show him the hand rankings before this guy got murdered lol. So, after the backgammon debacle and poor money management, I only had a few K to my name and gambling was the only avenue (at least in my mind) to make it back. I was already clearly better at poker than the rest of the crew and after reading super system 1 was ready for the poker games at the casino. Started playing 2-5 which had a capped buy in of 200 and fluctuated between this and the 5-10 taking shots trying to run it up. After a year and a lot of valuable and expensive poker lessons, ended up smashing the 2-5 for around 20k and then crushing the 5-10 for another 30k in a span of one or two months. I started playing the 10-20 on the regular and my first session ended up winning a $10k pot when my flopped set rivered a boat versus a guy's flopped flush. Needless to say, I was hooked on the no limit rush. Over the next two years, I stacked well over $400k probably playing twice a week and living a boss life of strippers, blow, bottle service and vacations. This was the golden age of poker droolers and the various assortment of middle eastern nationalities and asian cash business owners donating at the table was like printing money.
I still played BJ during my monthly forays (sometimes more) to Vegas and the run good I had experienced when I first started playing abruptly ended. I would blast off $20k in two shoes and laugh it off, go up to the room snort a line the size of California of raw and order two hookers and sodomize the two of them. Rinse and repeat on a monthly basis. After all, I always had my ATM at the poker game anyways. My peak roll at this point was ~$500k.
In 2005 I headed to the WSOP planning on playing like four or five events and cash games and staying for a few weeks. I brought 150K in cash with me and checked in the Bellagio. Walk by Club Prive and see Sammy Farha, Michael Jordan and some other rando celebrity degens gambling it up. After racking a fatty, I come down and start gambling with Farha. He was probably stuck around $250K but sitting on close to a million in chips and I brought maybe $50k with me to the table in cash. He is a super douche bag and I immediately took a dislike to him. This was when you could play with cash at the BJ table so after he starts rolling his eyes after I pull out the first 5K band (I believe the table was $1k minimum) I just whip out all the cash and put it in bricks on the table and never chipped up. Needless to say, we both got murdered and there was so much of my cash in the drop box that they couldnt fit anymore dollars in it and had someone come to replace it. Unfortunately went back up to the room, grabbed the rest of the cash and lost the rest of it in a blaze of glory. I think I had like $45 dollars left on me after being in the casino for less than 5 hours. I ended up doing over a ball of some super blow, watching some porno in the room and driving back to CA chain smoking with a bloody nose like less than 12 hours later.
After this nightmare, I was on mega tilt, depression mode and ended up blowing another $200k on poker and table games in CA, all within two or three months.
At this point, I probably had $100k in cash and was a raging bull. I was cognizant enough to realize that my mindset wasnt right for poker, gambling, casino lifestyle so after whining with my old gangster friends they said why dont you put the rest of your flow on the street and let it earn for you. Sounded like a good idea after I just polished off $400k in like three or four months. So, I started investing in wall 'street' and began stacking major loot almost immediately. Made up my losses in less than a year and all of my old bad habits were once again affordable. I was spending well over $300k a year living the life of a playboy and gambler.
My boy was running the clubs in Hollywood so we had a non-stop flow of models, beautiful women, sluts, etc. I remember going down to Cabo with my boy renting a three story villa on the beach and having three supermodels stay for a week down there with us. Orgies, blow, alcohol non stop for like five days. It was like we were playing duck duck goose with these sluts. After we gave them their return tickets and sent them on their way to the airport, we already had two other models en route. I was laughing out loud thinking that the new girls would run into the departing ones at the airport because the second group did not get along with the first one.
Flash forward a few years later, and one of my 'business' associates ends up getting pinched in a major task force investigation and I end up getting squeezed too. Had to pay one of the most high profile criminal defense attorneys an upfront retainer of $100k (in cash lol) and battling this **** out for a year. End up walking scot free but was looking at a long vacation in the big house. Needless to say, this was a major eye opener and rearranged my priorities. Stepped away from the street and quit gambling for good. I allow myself to lose about $1000 a month at the local dive on hot spot tickets, but the amount is trivial and it feels therapeutic. Still in the action kinda lol.

Beat: Lost more than a milly playing table games in a four or five year span
Brag: Probably ****ed more models than Esfandiari and beat a case that would have sent me to the slammer for the foreseeable future
Variance: I still lose over $10k a year playing ****ing hot spot

Rock solid first post, sir (I'm just assuming it's all true, way more fun that way).

great fiction ITT

I've always been a gambler. Since the age of about 12 I can remember playing fruit machines at lunch time. I'd take my pocket money and head down the local cafe where I'd plough every penny I'd got into them.
If I won I'd go back to school telling everyone how I'd caned the machines, never mentioning the days when I'd go without lunch because I'd blown the lot.

As I grew older it got worse. I got a job and that was my cue. I'd blow my wages in no time on machines.

Then the worst thing that could have happened, happened. I met up with a bloke who loved horse racing. I started by following him around the betting shops, watching him spunk away his wages, but I was enthralled. I ended up having a go myself, and guess what.. i won.. Yes, I could pick the winners. So I began to bet bigger. Only now the luck wasn't with me. Slowly but surely my losses were more than my winnings, but I couldn't stop. I had to keep going. One big hit and I'd be laughing..

My fiancee at the time knew nothing, and I bet every single penny I could get on horses or fruit machines. I'd blow my months salary in a matter of hours. Bills started to go unpaid, letters were piling up in drawers. I hit it all from her. I took out credit cards, loans, I borrowed money from friends. Anything I could get to gamble, I would get it. I pawned posessions. I stole money from work ( which they to this day never knew about ). I borrowed from friends, family, strangers. I used every conceivable excuse you can imagine to get money.

I even went so low as to steal flowers from a graveyard, when I'd blown the last £10 I had on a horse race, and I was supposed to buy flowers for my wifes nans funeral.

I had absolutely no shame at all.

Eventually it all came on top, and the mortgage company called in the mortgage. I'd known about it for months, but did nothing at all. Just kept spending. Friends began to disapper as I got known for being a scrounger and a liar.

It all came to a head when I could no longer hide it from my family. The bank were reposessing my house in three days. Rather than face the music I put on my coat, walked down the road, stuck out my thumb and hitch hiked to London. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't care about my wife (we'd now married ) or my family. I just wanted it all to go away. The problem was, it wasn't going away.

I got into London and walked around aimlessly. I remember walking over tower bridge, looking down at the water and thinking "I'd be better off dead.. they'd all be better off if I were dead, and I thought about taking a leap. One problem, I am a gutless coward, and couldn't bring myself to do it.

The day went on, and I walked about begging money off people to buy a packet of cigarettes or something to eat. I remember standing outside a bank wondering if it was worth pretending to have a gun and stealing some money. Again, I didn't have the balls.

Eventually I sat outside the houses of pariliament and it dawned on me. I broke into tears and sat sobbing like a baby for what must have been an hour. A policeman came up to me asking what was wrong, and I blurted the whole story out. How I'd lied, cheated, stole, and lost the house my wife and I had spent so long trying to save up for.

He called for a police car, and they took me to a police station. I was made to ring my parents at 1am in the morning, waking them up. I had to explain everything on the phone to them, where I was, what was happening.

They drove to pick me up, and when they arrived at the police station, they didn't say a word. they didn't have to. I could see how hurt they were. As we drove home I couildn't speak to them. I just sat looking out the window thinking what an absolute let down of a son I was.

Then came the really hard part. I had to sit and tell my wife what I'd done. How I'd gambled away every single penny we had. We didn't have anywhere to go, we had no home ( or we wouldn't have in 48 hours ).

I sat waiting for the dreaded words "its over.. I am leaving". But she didn't say them. She just burst into tears and said "we can get through it".

God my heart was breaking. How could I have done this to her. I vowed there and then that I would never do it again, and to this day I've never played a fruit machine or bet on a horse again.

I play poker, which she doesn't like, but she accepts, and every deposit I make is made with her knowing how much its for and where the money is coming from. If theres bills to pay then I go without my poker. Simple as that.

Yes I've pissed away my bankrolls stupidly. I've had good times, I've had bad times, but everytime I get to the stage where I contemplate chasing my winnings, or risking more than I can really afford, I close my eyes and picture the look on my wifes face when I had to tell her I'd gambled away her house, her pride and joy.. then I take a step back.

We've been married almost 18 years now, we have the most wonderful son you can imagine, and I know for a fact that I don't deserve all the good things I've got in life. A good job, a nice house, a marvellous wife and son.. I could and should have lost the lot that night back in 1996.

I've been as degen as you can possibly get. I've cheated, I've lied, I've begged, I've borrowed and I've stolen. I am not proud of what I've done, but I am proud to say that with the greatest wife anyone could ever have, I've come through the other side, and if anyone reading this is heading down that path, then please for the love of god, stop.... If not for yourselves, for your family... Its true what they say. you never learn till you hit rock bottom..

^
Wow...thanks for sharing. Pretty powerful story. Very glad that things ended up good for you.

I'm a bigger degen than you. I'm here at 1.43am having blown a whole 2 BI's whilst high on Nestle coffee, listening to Genesis. I might never get that $8 back. Once she finds out i'm probably gonna be kicked out.

She being your mum obviously

Those last few are amazing and well written. So also were quite a few over the last few months.

I don't want to post too much non-content, yet there's so many stories posted here that are excellent. I'm often fighting the urge to post a "wow that was a great read". So whether or not you get a reply, know that there are dozens of us, at the least, who read and appreciated your contribution.

Great 2 stories, but can the reformed degens please not leave us with a moral to the story at the end? Degens wanna/gonna Degen

GTFO



MOAR PLZ

Another great story

And no matter how degen you are, it's really not that difficult to get rid of your most -EV forms of gambling. Slot machines, scratch tickets, horses, etc. Stick to Poker and reduced vig sport betting if you really need the action. The EV ain't so bad and at least you'll be using your brain a little.

Well i laughed.

Ty.

2 great stories....

In 2007 (or whenever the hell cap plo games got introduced) my friend decided to 'back' me for 600$ on full tilt under the assumption that I'd be super aggressive with the bankroll and we'd either lose 600 or run it up big. I busted it playing 3 200$ tourneys. We deposit 600 more next sunday- same thing. The next day we decide to do 600 more....this time I took it to the cap plo tables. 6 hours later, I'm at 8k, playing the highest stakes where I could have two tables with two buyins each in my account. By the end of playing about 40 hours out of the next 50, I'm at about 25k, having played the 25/50 cap tables and running insanely hot and actually playing not terribly. At this point, he told me we should cash out most of it and buy stupid things. I said playing 25/50 uncapped was a better idea. 15 minutes and a few flips later, I was busto.

^^
Boss!

so so sick..

to think, for a split second I thought a degen story might have a happy ending...

silly me

A favorite of mine is the dude with food stamps or some kind of welfare money he could only spend at the grocery store. When busto, he bought as much soda as he could, poured them out in the parking lot and got redemption value on the bottles, made a deposit.

I think he was also the guy that bet his roll on a single spin of roulette and powers down his pc in mid spin because he can't stand to watch.

If you know where it's at -- repost it please.

I think those are different guys. The power down pc guy I remember to hear from the podcast. The guy put on enya or something, awesome story

I have posted in here a few times detailing my meager degen stories and feelings in comparison to some of the great stories I've sifted here itt.

I still partake in degen'ing. Pokers rigged. AH!

Anyway if this thread has not already been mentioned itt it surely has to be:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...group-1142919/

Guy lost his liferoll in party poker casino. Like $300 K or sumthin. Surely it deserves its own thread, but figured some of this threads members would want to see it if they havent already heard of it.

I was the guy you are talking about and i cant find the post. I had gift certifcates to a store and had no $$$ so i used over 500 bucks to buy soda then pour them out in my sink/lie to the workers telling them i had an epic party later that night.. i managed to cash them all in and make a semi small deposit to last a very shrot while. i cant find the post its in here somewhere.

I also was the same degen who made a thread few yrs ago about betting 10k on a hand of blackjack and getting AA and couldnt split cuz no $$$. Then hit the hand out and got 2 10s to bust and lose 10k.... when in reality if i had 10k on me to split i wouldve won 20k making 2 21s, instead of losing the 10k bet. FML!

altho i can happily say i havent played BJ in at least 9 months, its outta my system.

A story with a happy ending at last!

Every time Mark posts that story, I am obligated to say that he stole that from an earlier poster.

wp