Originally Posted by STLNolaWoj
ok 1st post guys, couldnt resist this thread. My degenning prbly started when my dad used to take me to the horse track when i was 16. I quickly became hooked and since you only had to be 17 to gamble at the track, i quickly started blowing paychecks and maxing out ATM daily limits. Once i started college, instead of being at class I'd be at the track. Never really won anything big, a few times I had some near 5k wins (woulda been a lot for me at the time). Anyways so this is pretty much destroying my life, u know the whole lying to family & g-friend, maxing out C-cards w/cash advances, overdrawing bank account etc. I musta been stuck about 30k from age 17-21. @21 of course I added the casino to my list of hobbies. Craps, BJ, and even video poker. Had mild success but mostly losses thru about a year of playing.
Now, here comes the COMPLETE TRAIN WRECK. So after always blowing off g-friend, she breaks up w/me (together for 5 years). I dont care at the time & am only thinking about gambling, still going to the boats and track. By now I'm so far in debt and working at sh**ty min wage job I decide to do a 'smart' thing and withdraw from college the 1st week (I was a senior going into this final year...bye bye education). I got a refund check of about 5k. I feel like a baller as I proceed to go every day to the boat with the money and playing in the high limit baccarat room. The 1st day was almost a disaster as on the way there about 8am I approached a toll plaza and 'thought' that I had seen the gate go up after throwing the coins in. Well with the sun shining directly in my face, I proceed to drive through. Problem: the gate never went up, and I smashed right through it leaving a big yellow smattering of paint across my windshield. Im so scared that I get off at the nearest exit and proceed to the casino through side streets and thought for sure I was gonna get pulled over or somethin. So maybe this was a bad sign of things to come b/c i kid u not from buying in w/5k betting 100/200/300 a hand i was left with $350. To make a long story short, after 12 hours I make a miraculous comeback and end up winning about 800 for the day (this included a $500 Lay against the 10 on the dice table that hit on the 1st roll lol). I proceed to go back 3 days in a row w/my whole roll and win between 500-1000 each day. Finally the 4th day I'm getting killed, mega-tilting, and proceed to blow the whole roll betting 500, 800, even 1000 a hand. It was so pathetic that when i was down to my last couple hundred I had 'check-changed' for red chips. The pitboss comps me and my friend a whole pizza afterwards. Most expensive $7500 freakin pizza i've ever eaten in my life. Only thing I wanted to do was drive off the expressway exit ramp into this giant quarry that was there. My dad finds out, kicks me out of the house, and now i'm homeless staying in motel 6's in run down areas b/c theyre only like 28 bucks a night and i had a tiny bit of room on my credit cards. Every night i pulled out my bottle of vodka and a pocket knife and i would contemplate that 'thought'. Finally my mom takes me in and i get a job (o i forgot to mention that when i dropped outta school, i got fired from my job for not showing up b/c i was at the boat from like 8pm til 11am). Oh and top of all this my dad convinces me to file for bankruptcy b/c im in mega c-card debt and they were all comin after me for collections and court proceedings. Do any of u know anyone that filed for bankruptcy at 21????
So now livin w/mom i decide to join the world of online poker. (I had just lost $5000 to my bookie on NCAA BB that I never paid off so I was chasing that with poker) B/c this is so long already i'll just try to summarize. Here is a quick list of the pokers sites i played and what happened to me on them....Paradise - banned b/c I wrote multiple bad echecks thru fire pay. Pacific - banned myself from losing too much. Absolute - banned myself after mulitple poker losses and losing paycheck in 30 minutes on the blackjack. Party Poker - ran BJ up to $12,000 and lost it all in the next night. Banned myself. Bodog- banned b/c they say I bounced an echeck.
Then I started doing bad things at my job to fund my poker/casino/horse habit. I started 'borrowing' the closing deposit from my work. The 1st time I had almost lost it playing BJ at the boat but got lucky to get it back and break even. Not learning that I almost had a disaster, the very next night I did it again and lost the whole deposit (like $1200). I had to tell my dad and he gave me the money to put in the store's bank so that no one would find out the next day at closing. So now i'm chasing again and decide to take a title loan on my car for 1500. Lose that at the track an hour later. F*ck!! Why am i so degen?! Mom kicks me out b/c of my gambling and dad takes me back in. I take out 2nd title loan and payday loan to pay off the 1st so i dont lose my p.o.s. car to the repo men. Now i'm really chasing so i start writing 'credit card checks' to myself w/the new post-bankruptcy credit card i got and take the $ out before it gets denied. Did this 3 days in a row and blew all the money at the track each day. C-card gets shutdown after this as well as bank being negative 800.
I finally move away and get back into school for 2 classes so that i could get a financial aid refund of like 5k. The 1st week im a good boy and pay bills and dont gamble. But sure enough i get on a huge BJ rush at the casino. Up like 2200 in 4 days. 5th day i go to the OTB (off track betting for horses) IDK why i did, but i went busto there. So pissed, i proceed to blow my 5k student aid refund chasing on BJ and baccarat. Get dropped from school b/c i stopped going getting F's in both classes (1st time in over 90 credits i ever got an F). I had so many comps on my casino card that I just ate meals there everyday since i had no $ to buy store-food. Eventually cable got shut off. Electric almost got shutoff until i echecked them and negged like 500 again in another bank. I evenutally ran outta comps and had to have mom send me oatmeal and other crap that i lived on. As a last chance before getting evicted i was invited to blackjack tournament w/108 ppl where top 7 got paid. 1st got 10k, 2nd 2500, etc. I finished 6th b/c 2 guys below me in $$ passed me on final hand. 1st guy doubles down on 14 (vs a 3 up card) and gets a 6, 2nd guy splits 10's and gets a another 10 and a 2; he splits the 10s again and gets another 10 and stays, and he doubles on the 12 and gets a 7 to make 19. So I take $250 for 6th place, 4th and 5th got 750 each. My rent was $750, due in 4 days. B*tch! So I take the 250 to the bacarrat table tryin to get to 750 and i get to about 625 before mega cooler and ultimately go broke. I get evicted eventually. I am now 27 living in dads basement completely broke, collecting 111/week unemployment and 99/month food stamps in mega debt w/credit score of probably negative-something and collectors calling me 17 times a day. I have also put on about 45 lbs from depression. FML
Beats (the bad ones): lost 5-year g-friend, bankruptcy at 21, mega student loan debt, college career f'd, lost 12k party poker BJ in 1 night, 7500 lost on baccarat in 1 day, multiple bank accounts overdrawn, almost got car repo'd, evicted.
There is so much more but this already too long. Sorry guys for making it so long. And I wish like some of the other stories on here I coulda captured my emotions better through all those times. O and I'll mention 1 more thing. During 2 days in my APT the casino gave away free apple pies for video poker play. I had no comps at the time or $ for store-food (f'ing degen me i'd rather use my last $1.25 for a spin on video poker than for a box of macaroni and cheese at the store). So for 2 days straight I ate apple pie for breakfast lunch and dinner. And I didnt have any freakin milk.
