Hi there,

Just wanted to share my story. Hopefully this is the right step towards recovery. I started playing poker at a young age with my family because that’s what they liked to do… Just small games for 5 dollar buy-ins so it was just friendly. After winning a couple of times in my youth I found that it was fun and a bit of a thrill to make some quick extra money but that’s all it was. It was just for fun.
At the time around 18 years old I was all set to go to college in an NCAA school as I got scouted for hockey . It was late January when I was picking my girlfriend up from her house but got into a car accident on my way there (not my fault) and after I thought nothing of it. There was just damage to my car. The next morning I couldn’t get out of bed. I had multiple fractures in my vertebrae.

This led to depression, knowing that my hockey dreams have come to an abrupt halt and I was basically bedridden for months and anything I did was very painful. That’s when I found online poker. I didn’t have to get out of bed for it and it was fun

. The moment I turned 18 I started to play online poker and again was excited by the thrill. I ended up with 2 credit cards with 1000 dollars each on them and I deposited it into a couple of casino and poker rooms and lost it within a couple months….this led to depression and collections and then I decided to go to college… I met my second girlfriend there and things were going great for 8 months I was finally starting to be able to pay my bills off everything was awesome but I had the itch to gamble and she said you have to choose me or gamblings and in the heat of the argument I chose gambling and she kicked me out. With nowhere to go and 200 dollars to my name I went to the casino…. And the very first hand I had was KK in Texas hold ’em… Needless to say I was excited by this…. The pot was all in… A 400 dollar pot and the other guy flips Aces over and I’m stuck with no money and abandoned. My sister had to pick me up from 3 hours away.

Debt was piling up. I thought that ok a big win is coming and your stress will go away. But the debt never went away. At the height of my addiction I was buying prepaid master cards with 90 percent of my paycheques and just losing it all. So while I’m still in more debt than I have ever been and I am struggling to pay for everyday needs I am hoping that cutting this habit will be the best thing for me in the long run. I just hope I can stay away.