Gambling (683 hits)
Category: Business & FinancialRating: 0.5 on 7 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <ddas85.at.optonline.net> (View user info) at 2004-04-20 12:21:08 EDT
It started out as some harmless fun. It's once a week, $5 to play - and you get to meet some new and interesting people. You win a nice bit of cash, and you have some fun with it. Why not invest some more into this fun and easy game of poker? You start playing more, and people you meet tell you about other games that are going on. Pretty soon, buying in for $5 would start you off at a big disadvantage. $10 buy in becomes the norm, then $20. Games are on almost every night. By this time, you've lost all your early winnings and are probably down for the year overall. You start playing $1/$2 blind games where buy-ins of $50 or $100 are not at all uncommon.
Because after all, all it takes is one good hand right? Like beating someone's full house with a four of a kind. Those are the hands you dream of at night. Memories come to you, memories of nights when you bought in for a single $20 and left with $120, nights where nothing could go wrong and you imagined yourself to be Matt Damon at the end of Rounders. But how often does that happen? More likely you'll win a little bit, then lose it all. Then you'll buy more chips, throwing good money in after bad. After that, all you need to do is double up in one hand, and you're back to even for the night, right?
Through all this, you tell yourself that it's just a hobby, like any other game. But of course, it's not just another game. In most games, "Its not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game". Not this game. Forget everything you've learned. In this game, it's totally about whether you win or lose. And not just the game - we're talking about winning or losing money here. And that really does change everything.
People will do funny things when cash is involved. You suspect people of manipulating the cards when they get high pocket pairs a bit more often than is probable. You notice people taking their antes back after they fold, when the winner of the pot isn't looking. Even your own morals start to slip a little bit. After all, the universe screwed you out of that big pot that should have been yours last game. Why should you be held to such high standards? You no longer tell people when they've given you too much change. When people forget to collect their debts from you for a while, you conveniently forget to remind them, until the debt is completely forgotten. You even borrow money from your roommate's desk without telling him, hoping to win it back and replace it before he notices.
Eventually you realize your problem for what it is: an addiction. The knowledge that what you are doing is harmful, and the desire to continue doing that thing despite that knowledge. The constant cycle of quitting, then falling back in, quitting, then falling back in, again and again, until the promises you make to yourself to stop don't even mean anything any more, not even to you. The way your mind completely reverses itself when the object of your addiction comes near you. Your inhibitions, your vows to quit, melt away like sandcastles in the tide. After another loss, you tell yourself that this time will be the time you really quit. You really want to believe yourself.
User Reviews
Submitted by MandaPanda (user info) at 2005-12-27 00:08:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I won a Massachusetts Lottery Hold em poker party pack. Yay me!
I gave the card to my Dad, so he's now entered (again) to go to a tournament with all the other winners, and he could walk out of there with 10 million. *crosses fingers*
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2005-12-26 23:46:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Meh.
Submitted by PoTtY (user info) at 2005-12-26 23:20:29 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
You know, reading something in second person is pretty fucking annoying.
Submitted by PizzaEagle (user info) at 2004-04-20 18:13:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
5000? ouch. good thing i didn't have that much money or i probably would have lost as much
Submitted by hairycoo (user info) at 2004-04-20 12:58:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I started texas holdem last month and lost $5000 in 3 weeks. All of the pros must have been loving me. I thought I might retire now I'm too emotional for Poker.
Submitted by hendrixjrr (user info) at 2004-04-20 12:33:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This reminds me of Ashy Larry stealing money from his girlfriend to shoot some dice.
Submitted by WillZone (user info) at 2004-04-20 12:27:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I wore my extra loose pants for nothing. Nothing!
-- Homer Simpson
New Kid on the Block