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Gambling Degenerate, do I need help?

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,896 ✭✭✭✭phantom_lord


    latenia wrote:
    Hand histories on Personal Issues :eek: Now I've seen it all.

    Seriously though, you have to give up all table games immediately-it's been said already but worth repeating-you cannot win at these. Start to keep detailed, honest financial records and give yourself 3 months to show a profit. If that's not happening then quit.

    lol!

    yeah, I've always kept records of my results.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,163 ✭✭✭✭Boston


    lol!

    yeah, I've always kept records of my results.

    but not what you win or loose?

    Tbh you don't seem to think you have a problem, and there's nothing much that can be said in that regard if that's how you feel. However you have been given some pretty good advice on avoiding Gambling becoming a problem if it isn't already.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,080 ✭✭✭HiCloy



    Dealt to poor_people_lol [Tc Qh]

    Such a screenname won't get you much respect in PI!

    Yes agree with previous posters concentrate on college, but on education and enjoying it, it's best time of your life for many people.

    Any stay away from roulette blackjack, coinflips, 2 flies going up the wall etc


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,714 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    Shane,

    -- You have an undoubted talent and aptitude for the game (you know this)

    -- Wagering on other forms of gambling and gaming is negative EV. The house has an unassailable edge in house games (unless you card count to a genius level while playing blackjack); and betting on sports and horses requires a massive amount of research to be put in before you can consider yourself to have an edge over the trader (you know this)

    -- A solid, mistake free poker player with extraordinary discipline and tenacity to grind will be a much more bankable prospect as a poker pro than a Stu Ungar type genius who pisses money away like a loon when not at the table (you know this)

    -- The prospect of gambling as a sole means of income (much like setting up your own business) brings with it high levels of risk and possible stress. There is nothing to stop you playing too long; playing on tilt; playing while tired. There is nothing to stop you becoming overinvolved; in bad health; distant from friends and family; cut off (you know this)

    -- The economy is booming in this country at the moment and there are plenty of jobs and ways of making money out there - both part - time and full - time. At the moment, qualifications are not essential to pull in a decent weekly wage. But economies go in cycles, and the value of a third level qualification should be clear. It is not the be all and end all, but it opens doors and provides options (you know this)

    -- College is a wonderful opportunity to booze like there is no tomorrow; meet different people; get involved in various hobbies and interests; develop and deepen the way you think about things; fcuk off to various parts of the world (I think you know this too)


    I myself am not the most disciplined and self - motivated person you will ever meet. To be quite honest, I am glad that I only discovered poker right at the very end of my time in college as it could have completely consumed my time there. But I doubt whether I would have the mental fortitude (or the game) to grind poker on the inter - web for a living. You laugh at my chosen focus on tourneys, but I think that you forget that I play the game as a hobby, and enjoy the rollercoaster gambit and finallity of the tournament format. I would probably be unable to sit online four tabling 20k hands a week. It is not something that appeals to me as, if poker became my job - it would lose it's allure to me quite quickly.

    What is my point with all of this? My point is that you are fully aware of what you are doing, and what you have chosen to do since last August. You know what your mistakes were. As such, I think that your immediate problem is that you are bored with the game. You killed the Fitz for a couple of months, it became a grind and you didn't find the second wind within neccesary to see out a cold run of cards. You escaped online. It was a new and different experience of poker. You killed it moving up the levels in double quick time. You hit 1 / 2 maybe a bit fast, hit some bad variance - and now you are struggling to find the inner strength to drop down and grind your way back up again.

    But maybe your ultimate problem is that you pick things up quite fast - throw yourself into them, but are never really there for the long haul. From a poker perspective, the difficulty of the long haul can manifest itself in 1500 BB downswings or 35k breakeven stretches. I am playing 18 months. I am currently on the worst run of cards I have experienced in that time. But I have absolutely no comprehension whatsoever of how bad I can actually run.

    My advice is to have a little think about what type of personallity you have. If you come to the conclusion that you pick up and drop things regularly and constantly need new challenges, then quit after this weekend; withdraw all of your online monies; uninstall all of your poker clients from your laptop. Get your exams, go job hunting or look into work overseas and a bit of travelling for the Summer. You will either move onto something else by chance, or poker will reel you back in. It seems that abillity is not something that would prevent you progressing in the poker world, but your general personallity might.

    In any case, I will see you on Friday. Go and give it a fcuking lash and run well. If I can get a big result, you are more than capable. :)

    Good luck.


  • Subscribers Posts: 32,872 ✭✭✭✭5starpool


    Nice post Lloyd.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,896 ✭✭✭✭phantom_lord


    thanks Lloyd, as usual, a well written, well thought out, reply.

    I'll prob reply in more depth to your post in a while.

    but this paragraph from a pm I sent to someone talking about this post seemed relevent to what u said.
    I truly am burnt out, I used to yearn to play, I used to play sessions nearly every day of the week. I kinda have an addictive personality, I find a new interest and throw myself into it 110% to the exclusion of all else.

    Now, I hardly play at all anymore, and i'm losing interest in the game, which is probably impacting heavily on my results. I'd love to cash this weekend and then have enough cash to take a break for a good month or two.
    I've played over 100k hands this year, kinda feeling it now.


    all the gamboooling house game stuff is in the past and I just threw it in to add a healthy bit of degeneracy to the story btw!

    I don;t laugh at tournaments really, it's just a way to rub u up a bit, lol.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,896 ✭✭✭✭phantom_lord


    Boston wrote:
    but not what you win or loose?
    umm, did u read what I said?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,163 ✭✭✭✭Boston


    umm, did u read what I said?

    Yes


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,341 ✭✭✭✭Chucky the tree


    Boston wrote:
    Yes



    So which part of "i have always kept records of my results" went over your head?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,163 ✭✭✭✭Boston


    So which part of "i have always kept records of my results" went over your head?

    As I understand it, its pretty standard in games like poker to keep a record of previous games in order to improve your skills at the game. However an earlier post would indicate that he doesn't keep track of profit in the same manner, resorting to an estimate of his winnings. The records he has of earning appear to be incidental and not out of deliberate intent, is my point. This suggests what his priorities are.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,896 ✭✭✭✭phantom_lord


    em, well, no, my records are an account of my profit ands loss for each session that I played. I just didn't bother checking up my excel speadsheet to tell you exactly how much I made.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,724 ✭✭✭eoghan104


    Hey Shane,

    From all of your posts in this thread it is clear to me that you do not think you have a detremental gambling problem. I agree and i don't think you should worry to much about ticking questions from a form for GA. The important questions on that questionairre for me were about affecting your family's well being and breaking the law to pay for gambling. You answered no to these questions and if you didnt then i would say yes you need to get help.

    Your a young guy and have the world at your feet. You say you are still doing well in college so obviousley you can balance gambling and education very well. When i was in college i spent most days in the bookies and studied rarely. I got a 2:1 and was delighted with that. If you enjoy gambling and playing poker and are not hurting anyone in the process then why not? Im sure some of your college friends spend all week getting drunk. Can they look down on you for gambling?

    Your story about busting your bankroll on Punto should only be a worry for you if it happens again. A mistake is only a mistake if you dont learn from it. I spent months building up a 3k bankroll on PP only to bust it on roulllete using the exact same "formula" of doubling your bets. It took about ten mins to lose the lot and i did it sitting in work. That was scary. I take it as a learning experience and its something i'll never do again.

    Basically I think that as long as your having fun and not hurting anyone then i say do as you please. Gambling is a horrible addiction that can ruin your life but so is drinking and drug abuse. All of these things done in moderation are fun and part of life.

    Im rambling now so ill stop! Best of luck in the IO.......

    Eoghan.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,434 ✭✭✭cardshark202


    I failed college because of poker. It has kind consumed me at times, but it has paid for my current round the world trip and I like the freedom that playing poker can give you. I don't really regret screwing up in college because of poker, but I am annoyed with myself about it because I spent 4 years in college and have ended up with nothing to show for it bar the experience. I will still advise anyone to try and finish college anyway, you never know when a degree will come in handy. The best part about no college is that I get to bum about(more than before) and go anywhere I want in the world, the worst part is the shame that I sometimes feel because my course was easy and it took a spectacularly retarded lack of effort to fail it.

    Shane, you will always be a loser if you continue to haemorrhage off money on table games, -EV bets and other degenerate gambling. Cut all that out and just play within your bankroll and see how you go. Playing poker full time may not be for you if you can't get any discipline. I had similar discipline problems before I started playing poker more seriously, apart from the fact that I have always hated table games and stuff so I have focussed all my gambling energies into poker.

    Bleh


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,714 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    Interesting Post Reggie. And travelling around the world FTW!!


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