Originally posted by AlwaysTheFish
I’ve been playing online poker for over a decade now. Started on Planet Poker and then moved to Party Poker. First 4-5 years were good. Games were easy and I was making 50-70K a year. I knew I was not playing my best game most of the time (because of my gambling addiction), but it didn’t matter that much (even though it should have) – I was able to win in spite of not playing optimally. The other players were even worse. I did nothing to improve my game, nor did I work on my addiction. Around that time live poker games started here in Prague where I currently live and they were easy too. I was able to live an easy life, playing, by today’s standards, a very mediocre poker game.
Fast forward a few years, the games got tougher, the players got better, my urge to gamble got worse and come 2007 I was not able to win any more. But I continued playing anyway, kidding myself that I can still beat the games if I only had discipline…
The truth of the matter is I could no longer beat the games even if I played my A game 100% of the time (which is humanly impossible). There are players out there that CAN beat the games, but I’m not one of them. And there’s very few of them nowadays. 10 years ago, 30% of all the players were winning players. Nowadays it’s fewer than 5%. Everything else goes to the rake.
So, why do I still play, knowing I can never win? Because I’m a compulsive gambler.
When you, Steve, say you can beat all the bookies at sportsbetting I think you’re kidding yourself. But even if you could, it’s only good till your first bad beat, that alone will trigger the real gambler in you and you’ll go and chase that money playing black jack. And it’s not gonna change. William is right, you will never be able to control your gambling. Never! You might be able to find the strenght to totally refrain from it, but you will never be able to control it. Not only will you not be able to control it, but it will get worse. 10 years ago, a few bad beats were not enought to tilt me. Now, a single bad beat and I’m steaming out of my ears. And everyone here, including me, knows that bad beats are part of the deal. Had it not been for good beats and bad beats, had it not been for fluctoations, there would be no gambling. So, I’m thinking to myself, why would I even consider playing when I know a single bad beat (which in inevitable) will cause me to tilt and burn my money… And I don’t have answer to that, other than I am a compulsive gambler.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoon
i think we think because weve did it before we can do it again. Because we had good ***** and good memories we link that with gambling and think we can create good ***** and memories again. We cant. Thats why is i said we’re kidding ourselves and living in the past. It may have been fun, pleasurable and exciting at some stage but those days are long gone. We remember or want to remember the good but forget the bad. The awful ***** when realisation sets in that we just lost a years wage for some ppl or more.
Gambling is ****. Sooner you can quit the sooner you will live a good and happy life again. Ive realised that if you think things cant get worse, they most certainly can. A **** of a lot worse.
