I turned 18 in February of 2006. Ever since then, my dad and I have been going to Indian casinos 3 to 4 nights a week. He is a teacher and doesn't like the crowds on the weekends so we go on week nights, stay till about 4 or 5 AM then he goes to work on no sleep and I go to class. When we go, he plays blackjack and I play poker(I end up at the BJ tables cause of ape tilt).
We both lose a **** ton of money. We make sure to take the daily limit out of the ATM before midnight so if we lose we can take out more then. He is in debt from gambling 50k and about 15-20 of it is money he has given me. We have swongs every night of anywhere from 3k to -5k. Every casino in the area knows us by name and it's very depressing. My girlfriend broke up with me cause of it. I have no friends. I can't find a job because the last one I had I stole 600$ from. FML.

With all of that said, we're going again tonight! Ship it!

I once had to ask dealer my tips back (after i go broke) just so I can gambool more.

not that great of stories but
a couple seasons ago i bet on NCAA basketball knowing nothing about it, only because a player on a team had the same name as me. the team did pretty well during the regular season and i ran up $200 or so to about $2200. they made it far in the bracket and i was up to about $6200. they get to either the elite 8 or the final 4, i forget which, and they play a SICK team. so of course i take most of it, bet against my namesake's team who is a big dog, and of course they win. that was about 90% of the money to my name. i ran up the rest on bodog real quickly to a few thousand, and for some reason decided to stake a friend online who had done real well playing 2-5nl live and it was all lost in 2 hours. i later found out he was a multi accounter and think he may have dumped it to himself

One day i woke up too late to bet on sunday baseball day games, the only action was WNBA basketball. I don't remember who i bet on but of course i lost. I was talking about it in some poker room with a friend and the poker room manager overheard and called me a not nice name for a homosexual.

ive lost hundreds betting on mario kart/mario party/monopoly junior played with real money, any other stupid game you can think of

Funniest part of this is that the kid growing up with no dad, learning his way in the world from grade 6 will have a much better shot at making it as a poker player. Him leaving improves his sons poker ev, lol. He has no bankroll mgmt and lies to himself and his family. (who can be plus ev in cash games and also a never casher outer? He is someone i wouldnt want in a game i was playing and the only other guy I wouldnt ever play with was one who broke his hand on his girlfriends face.....and yeah he played with her money......course he got shot at that game a year later. (not fing kidding)

favorite degen stories (part I):

Mike Matusow http://www.cardplayer.com/magazine/article/14935

some excerpts from the interview:

MK: Did you do much gambling while you were incarcerated?

MM: They played a game called Casino, which I don't even remember how to play. But I managed to lose $200,000 in jail. Before going away, I put a couple hundred thousand in my sports-betting account. I knew I would be bored and needed to be in action on Saturdays and Sundays. I did really well for a while, but toward the end of the football season, I went crazy and bet $100,000 on a couple games and lost them both.

MK: Did you care?

MM: Not really.

MK: Does the notion of going broke bother you?

MM: I have people I can borrow money from. I don't worry about money. When things get bad, my mom asks how I will pay bills. I say, "Ma, shut up. Have I ever worried about money?" I don't worry about money. Somebody will always loan me money. I'm a great poker player. People will always loan money to great poker players. If they think you can't play, though, you're f---ed. Plus, I know I can borrow $300,000 cash on my house in one day.

MK: Yeah. But you wouldn't risk your house on poker, especially if you've already lost enough money to have gotten to that point in the first place.

MM: Sure I would. I've done it many times and paid it back.

MK: How did you get into playing poker?

MM: My family moved from L.A. to Las Vegas when I was 10, and I was never into gambling till after I turned 18. That's when my friend Loren had me play video poker. I won $85 and that was the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life. I became completely addicted to video poker.

MK: Literally addicted?

MM: Literally. I was a compulsive degenerate. It got to the point where I would steal money so I could go play.

MK: You must have realized that it was a losing proposition.

MM: I'm telling you, I was addicted. And I enjoyed it. There was something about the speed and compulsiveness. Finally, I went to G.A. - only twice, though - after I realized that I couldn't quit. But then I found real poker, and it helped me to wean my way off this sickness.

MK: It's pretty funny that a guy would use poker to wean himself off gambling.

MM: I first learned to play poker in 1991. I was playing video poker alongside Steve Samaroff, a guy who grinds it out at $20-$40. He asked if I'd like to learn something that would keep me from ever having to work again. I looked at him like he was nuts. But he taught me how to play.


MK: That sounds pretty self-destructive.

MM: I loved football. I still do. I'm still a degenerate. Come football season, the bookies all call me. I go off for anywhere from $200,000 to half a million every football season. I know I will lose all the money, but I can't quit because I love it so much.
-------

I remember reading somewhere that when he was addicted to video poker Mike Matusow developed repetitive stress disorder in his arm from pulling the lever on the machine.

favorite degen stories (part II)

Scotty Nguyen http://www.cardplayer.com/magazine/article/15300

I dealt poker off and on for two years at Harrah's Casino and the Golden Nugget. I learned a bit and started playing $1-$3 stud at the Stardust. At first, I went broke every night, baby! Then I learned how to play hold'em. I started at $5-$10, then moved up to $10-$20 and $20-$40. I was winning, and quit my job. The last paycheck I ever got was $270. Six months later, I had a million dollars and I was only 23 years old. But I lost it all in four hours playing craps at Caesars Palace. I had four boxes packed with money. You couldn't even slip a $100 bill in it. Then, all in one day, it was gone. It made me stronger and was an important lesson to learn.

The most degen thing Ive ever seen happened at EVO a few years back. It was the height of the Marvel vs Capcom 2 craze which just brought out the egos in everyone and lead to money matches and sht talking by everyone. After some general video game degen betting one of the pro players starts bragging about his manhood. Another player retorts that there is no way he is of any substantial size and it ends in literal dick measuring contest officiated by one of the weird video game groupie girls who was way more than happy to do it. MvC2 is evil and just brings out the degen in everyone.

Why the hell not? On a certain level you just got to say '**** his family/life' because poker is about winning money, not giving breaks to sick degens who will lose it all anyway.

Edit to add: Then again, I don't really have a soul and 100% would not care if my play at a table caused someone to commit suicide/get a divorce/etc.

Re-edit to add: Even though probably they would take my money, and leave me

damn just read all 14 pages and loved it

i play 25NL with a 1k roll and my largest downswing was 3 buyins. i am a degen.

lol

Havn't told this much but:

Been playing fulltime for about 2.5 years now and in my first 6 months of playing on full time I lost half my roll in one night. Current online roll was about $20,000 and I had started off my normal day playin 10/20 limit (2 tbles). I was getting dismantled so I quickly jumped to 15/30, lose about 500 jump to 30/60, lose another $1000 jump to 50/100 where I was playing HU. After another quick $2000 I decided to finish my night off in a 100/200 game. Total damage when I went to bed: over $10,000 and half my roll gone. I felt totally numb like I couldn't believe what just happened, basically had to hold back tears and went to bed in a cold sweat wondering how I was going to recover.

But did..... and have a very solid roll and still palying full time

went bowling with a couple friends the other night (also 2p2ers) got 10:1 for any amount from a friend that i couldnt bowl a strike left handed and succeeded, only bet 20$ though

then just messing around, threw strike the very next throw lefty


and i once flipped with same friend for 500$, 10s vs AK (had 10s ldo), godda** mutherf**ker spikes A on flop dakuqgfqkuyfgtqwigfqwio
name on here is JsTs, he a real idiot scandi boy

How I go to sleep every night anyway. You get used to it after awhile.

haha

Brilliant, it was Enya what did it for ya.

couldnt not stop lol'ing

LOLLLL at the Matusow and Scotty stories!

moarr.

Yeah, but usually you want to pick your side before putting a ring on her finger and knocking her up.

Years ago, I was playing nolimit draw one day in Artichoke Joes in San Bruno, California. I had a few hundred dollars on the table. Maybe 7 or 8 hundred. That was all the money I had. That was it, my bankroll, whatever you want to call it.

I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich from the waitress. I think they were a $1.95 back then.

When the waitress came back with my sandwich, I was just standing up. She took a look at the green felt on the table in front of the seat I was leaving and said to me, "You can't pay for this damn sandwich, can you?".

Well, she was right, I couldn't. I was busted. I hadn't been playing with the rent money cause I owned an RV that was right there in the parking lot (my girlfriend had an apartment, whatever you do don't go busted if your girlfriend is pissed at you). But, I was busted.

She paid for the sandwich. The next day I borrowed 20 bucks to buy into the ten cent ante, no blind afternoon game and within a week had a few thousand and had given her $5 to pay for the sandwich and a little juice.

I used that site freepokercash and used about a thousand fake names on party to get the free money, probably got about 400 bucks in all, never came close to cashing any of it out

No, way before this

In the last year I have bought 3 laptops and I pay monthly insurance on accidental damage for all of them!

Buy all the same model, only one insurance policy required. ducy?

There was a guy who used to hang around the casino and play roulette his name was STAR..everyone used to crack jokes and say he was prolly a flamer with a name like that..he was kind of old the skin on his forearms was very loose...he had a tattoo of a teardrop that was all blurred and looked like makeup..one night I had won 21k playing 5/10 and I left because a fish left and the rest of the table were nit on nits...so im walking past the roulette and I see STAR standing there..he always had an old ass walkman and a roy orbison tape he used to like listening to blue bayou when he was winning and crying when he was losing..this night he lost 14 spins in a row on black and missed so many single numbers it was disgusting..I said Hi STAR hows it going..he did not say a word.. I could hear that song crying coming through his big ass fluffy tyre headphones these were like the ones from the 80s that the kids from ET had ..he doesnt respond and just stares into space and his cheeks go all red and then they puff up and he makes some weird random grunty tilt noise and a big glob of spit hits the roulette wheel..then he takes a deep sigh and says If I lose this I am going home to kill myself..im like WTF STAR...He says this is it..ive been gambling 40 years Im almost a dead man..i have cataracts..my hips are gone everyone thinks im a qu eer..im like who cares if people think you are q ueer..it doesnt mean you are!.he said but I am a qu eer..this was a tough moment..He puts his last bet on.. thousands spread over numbers..I give him an extra 1k on number 3 because thats my number and pat him on the back..i say come on lets go as the wheel spins..we miss everything..and just to top it off his tape starts getting chewed up roy oprbison starts to sound like a choir of chipmunks.. he opens up his walkman and tape goes everywhere and then he manages to treat it like trip wire, he hits the deck knocking over all the chips on the way down..then he starts crying and punching his walkman saying it killed roy..people look embarrased..He got up and called a random woman "a slut with herpes probably"..I escort him out of the casino and he says I wish I was a terrorist so I could bomb that place then come back and piss on the ashes..im going home to kill myself bye.. .im like heh as he walks off ..cya STAR grind on the mind!!!! next day I find out he blew the back of his throat out with a glock 40