^^^^^ king niche is obv the king here ^^^^^

LARRY KING IS A DEGEN!

Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from Larry King's autobiography, "My Remarkable Journey," published by Weinstein Books and available at bookstores nationwide. Larry King anchors "Larry King Live at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.


Larry King recalls a much-needed win at the track during one of the lowest points of his life.

I was thirty-seven years old. (In 1971). I had no job. I had a couple hundred thousand dollars in debts. And a four-year-old daughter. I'd take Chaia to our secret park on our visiting days. That's when the pain cut the deepest -- looking at my daughter and knowing I had no way to support her.

Things got bleaker and bleaker. I became a recluse. By late May, I was down to forty-two dollars. My rent was paid only until the end of the month. I locked myself in my apartment wondering how bad things could possibly get. Pretty soon I wouldn't even be able to afford cigarettes. I remembered a night when I was a young man in New York, alone, cold, and without cigarettes or the money to buy them -- I had smashed open a vending machine to get a pack.

A friend called up and told me to start living like a human being again. He invited me to the track. I had nothing better to do, and I figured it would be good therapy to get out and have lunch with a friend and watch the horses come down the stretch.

I'll never forget that day. I put on a Pierre Cardin jeans outfit that had no pockets and drove to Calder Race Course. I can still see the horses warming up before the third race. There was a horse called Lady Forli -- a filly running against males.


Normally, female horses don't beat males. We're talking cheap horses. I scanned the board and saw that she was 70-1. But my eyes really opened when I looked at the racing form. Racetrack people talk to each other. So I turned to the guy next to me and said, "You know, this horse, three races back, won in more or less the same company. Why is she 70-1?"

"Well," the guy said, "there's a couple of new horses here."

"Yeah, but she should be, like, 20-1. Not 70--1."

Screw it. I bet ten dollars on the horse to win. But I kept looking at the horse. The more I looked at this horse, the more I liked it. So I bet exactas. I bet Lady Forli on top of every other horse and below every other horse. Now I had what's called a wheel.


I kept looking at the horse. Wait a minute, I told myself, I've got four dollars left. I have a pack of cigarettes. I've gotta give the valet two bucks. That still leaves me with money to bet a trifecta.

My birthday is November 19. Lady Forli was number 11. So I bet 11 to win, 1 to place, and 9 to show.

Now I had bets in for 11 on top, 11 on bottom, and 11 to win. And I had a trifecta -- 11-1-9.


When the race began, I had two dollars left to my name -- and that was for the valet.

They broke out of the gate. The 1 broke on top, the 9 ran second, and the 11 came out third. The 11 passed the 9, passed the 1, and they ran in a straight line all around the track. There was no question about it. The 11 won by five lengths. The 1 was three lengths ahead of the 9. I had every winning ticket. I had it to win. I had the exacta. I had the trifecta. I collected nearly eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars!

It had to be one of the happiest moments of my life -- certainly the most exciting. But I had no pockets.

So I stuffed all the money in my jacket. It was bundled up. I didn't know what to do with it. I ran out of the track. The valet attendant came over and said, "You leaving so early?"

"Yeah."

"Bad day, Mr. King?"

I tipped him fifty dollars. The guy nearly fainted.

I had to go somewhere, to stop and make sure it was real. I drove to a vacant lot, which is now called Dolphin Stadium. I parked among the weeds and opened up my jacket. All the money spilled out. I counted out about seventy-nine hundred dollars.


I paid my child support for the next year. I paid my rent for a year. I bought twenty cartons of cigarettes and stacked them up in my apartment, and I filled the refrigerator.

Up to that point, that may have been the happiest moment of my life. Now, today, if I go to the track and win $8,000, it's very nice, but it won't affect my life one iota. It's nice to win. But when you really need it ...

Epic degen story, thanks for posting

^^Pretty good story, but degen stories really shouldn't have a happy ending!

I once went on tilt and deposit $600 into an online casino. I played blackjack and ran it up to 1K in a couple minutes. I became greedy then decided to play some more. I ran it up to 2K, 5k, 8k, 10k, then finally 12k. I just can't stop playing, so I lost it all + deposit another $2500 and lost it too. I can only bet 2 hands at $250 max each. I somehow won 20X of my deposit and lost it all. It all happened within 3 days.

p.s. I was a losing poker player and I work for $10/hr. Imagine how much 15k (3k, my actual loss) is to me.

I like Larry King.

Grimstar rocks the Grimstar

/thread

i almost vomited reading this

It seemed so familiar, the feeling. Yes – I’d definitely been there before. And the worst thing is, every time this has happened, a part of me feels kind of relieved – in a “mission accomplished” way. I think I’ve got a bit of a problem.


After desperately trying to run up my last couple of hundred dollars and donating it all to a lucky regular at a HU PLO400 table within a minute and 16 seconds (oh and before you even start - the last time I busted my roll, I already learned that you get dealt four cards and all that.. so I clearly knew what I was doing!!1), I calmly placed the laptop on my side and stared at the wall with a blank look on my face.


How many times have I been in this exact situation? No one could tell. Oh, the memories that started running through my head. It felt like one of the many good old degenerate days in 2007/2008 back home in Estonia. For example, how could I forget the day when I was just sitting in my apartment in the Old Town (which I was renting because I was 18 years old, “baller” and generally frickin’ awesome) on a Saturday afternoon, counting the empty beer bottles from the previous night (93), trying to remember if the chick I’d just sent away had been any good in bed and most importantly thinking: “brilliant – it’s the time of the month again.. so where the hell am I going to find the rent money this time”.

A few hundred EEK (Estonian currency – around 20 USD) in my pocket, I was still sitting there on my couch. I’ve got this weird thing with American Idol and other similar shows involving music. I just love them to the point where you could call it obsessive and secretly wish I was on there. So I opened one of my favourite episodes of AI but nothing. Still hung-over and still at least 600-700 USD short of rent. Next, I tried my luck with some porn. Nope – nice try, though.

“Maybe I’ve got a few FPPs on PokerStars that I can run up”, I thought. “YES!!!!”, I yelled about 11 seconds later while jumping up from my couch. You’re right, my dear readers – I had a whopping $2.66 on my account. All I had to do next was steal a few blinds at a NL5 table, buy into the $3+R MTT, drink 7 cups of coffee and there I was the next morning – dead tired but about 1700 USD richer. Time to go to bed.

“What?” I mumbled, picking up the phone while still half asleep

“Where are you?” my best friend asked

F*CK!!! It was Sunday and it was on. I had already missed the first couple of minutes. Now, let me get this straight. I was damn baller, I was the real deal. So it’s obviously not that I couldn’t afford a TV or anything. I just didn’t need one. TVs are for ****. Yeah, that’s what it is!! Right..?

Anyway, I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and my coat, jumped into my boots (yes, it was winter and it was snowing.. but it was an emergency and who needs a shirt anyway!) and 4 minutes later I was there, sitting on the couch at my best friend’s place and watching “Kaks takti ette” (an Estonian singing competition) with a smile on my face. Life was treating me well. However, there was no way I could resist installing PokerStars on his laptop. Just in case there’s some fish sitting in a table or a huge overlay on a tourney – “the usual”, you know. And what a brilliant coincidence: just when I figured I’d been officially crowned as the king of MTTs and that I was way over-rolled for pretty much anything really, Sunday Million was coming up shortly!

5 Red Bulls, few hours of Sunday Million, another 3-4 hours of $230 Turbo HU SNGs and I sadly had to admit – I wasn’t quite over-rolled for these games after all. I only wished I’d left a few dollars for the $3+R...

I still had a few notes of cash in my pocket, so I threw on my coat again in addition to the awkward enough combo of shorts and a button-up shirt I borrowed, drove to this little 24h pizza place and bought...


...


...


...


A pack of Marlboro Lights – and I don’t even smoke! As a matter of fact, I sincerely hate smoking and I always have.

I drove back to my friend’s place, smoked 1/3 of the pack of cigarettes in a turbo-mode, feeling horribly sick. After that, I lay down on the couch and fell asleep. Somehow, it all just felt right.


[.. that's the first post of my new blog]

Ahhh, fresh degens

I spent 5k in a strip club and didn't get laid or even a pee pee touch, I think I win.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I like this thread therefore

this is messed up. what movie is that from?

People ask me why I dont get another girlfriend.

Excuse: I say I am not ready.

Truth: I think girlfriends are -ev.

Not a gambling one but thought I'd share.

To set the scene: £1-a-pint night at a night club.

Wake up in my bed in pyjamas at 6am with a dry mouth. Absolutely no recollection of the night before. Roll over. Hello... something squidgy in my pants. Realise that I'd **** myself. Walk to the bathroom, take of the pj bottoms and drop the **** into the toilet. Get in the shower and push lumps of **** off the backs of my legs with my hands. Get cleaned up. Go down stairs to put the pjs in the washing machine and get a glass of water. I open the kitchen door and see the oven door is open and it's full of puke. I had also left a log square in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Good times

more stories plz

lol thanks for sharing

has devon (savage gamble) posted or his stories told. i dont think i can do them justice but needless to say he more than lives up to his name.

first met him at commerce obv. 'animal' of course.

biggest game i saw him play was 1k/2k at borg w/ folks whose names i can't remember atm. he had i htink 50k or so in front of him bug was swinging around. i was playing 80 and a short while later he came up to me and asked what i had on me. i said prob not enough, what do you need? he said well 30k would be a start. i'm like dude, i'm playing 80 :-( ... i can't cover ya.

i honestly do like the guy. very cool and holy CRAP a fun guy to be around. i dont know many that can keep up w/ him though lol.

there's another story i was told about a guy who borrowed 2k from him roomate w/o him knowing. went to casino proceeded to run up that 2k in bj to A WHOPPING 300k. casino comped suite. degen lost it all back. owed roomate 2k...

Barron

That's a good one.

lol, wp sir

Was 18 at the time started playing poker, deposited 50$ like 4 times and ran it up to 200 playing HU sng and lost it all the time.
Got sick of depositing 50 all the time so i maxed my CC for 900$ or so and ran it to like 4900 within 3 days, Asked for a withdraw of 1000$ and i thought 3900 was gonna be my bank roll online, As it takes 24 days for the poker site to verify and accept the withdraw i still had the 900, i could just cansel the withdraw.
Long story short i never recieved that 900 withdrawl .

Edit: First of many posts in an epic topic

not LOL
not funny at all

This is supposed to be a "Degen Stories Thread" not an "I Have Poor Judgement in Friendship Choices Thread"