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hey matthew. welcome!If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoon
Originally posted by alwaysthefish
Hey xinstory, haven’t seen you in 2 days, just wanted to check on you. All OK?
Also, I have a friend who is a gambler himself and he said what happened to you is not your fault at all. So go easy on yourself :))
I’m still following this sorry story about the compulsive gambler whose brother in law put 90k
in his bank account. The guy lost 53k of it. So what? He should consider himself lucky to have
not lost it all. What ***** puts 90k in a gambler’s bank account? Not this *****! You should
ask him about that in the next post. It’s not his fault. It was a setup.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoon
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonHey xinstory, haven’t seen you in 2 days, just wanted to check on you. All OK.
Also, I have a friend who is a gambler himself and he said what happened to you is not your fault at all. So go easy on yourself :))
I’m still following this sorry story about the compulsive gambler whose brother in law put 90k
in his bank account. The guy lost 53k of it. So what? He should consider himself lucky to have
not lost it all. What ***** puts 90k in a gambler’s bank account? Not this *****! You should
ask him about that in the next post. It’s not his fault. It was a setup.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonHey David and welcome here. Thanks for sharing. It’s important to realize that you need help and you can’t fight this disease on your own. Just as you couldn’t fight a whole range of other diseases on your own. You need help.
Also, realize that what you’ve lost so far is gone. You can’t win it back. What you maybe could do is not lose more. This of course is easier said than done. I wish you best of luck!
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonI don’t really remember, it was a long time ago. I know we visited Bucarest and Timisoara and if I remember correctly we even skied one time somewhere in Romania.
And yes, I love Eastern Europe, if no for other reason, then for its women!!! :)))
How’s your day 3 going?
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonI’m actually driving though Poland to get there. I’ve been to Romania actually a few ***** when I was a kid. I’m from Yugoslavia (Serbia) originally. Left over 20 years ago though. My mom’s grandfather was born in Romania, but he was a Hungarian himself. Long story…
Where in Romania are you?If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonI haven’t gambled for exactly 1 month now. 2 days ago my brain tried to trick me into believing that if I played solid poker (my A game that is) I could actually make money. I came close to installing poker software, but then realized I have blocking software installed. I quickly realized I installed that software for a reason, came to this site, read a couple of posts and forgot about gambling. I just know I can’t beat the games and it’s such a waste in time in addition to wasting money.
I’m on my way to Ukraine now and I used to play live poker there a lot, anytime we went there. Small games, a lot of fun, good food. I hope, however, I won’t give in. If I weren’t a compulsive gambler I could go there have fun with the boys, play for a couple of hours and then, win or lose, leave. But being a compulsive gambler a visit there could open a door to something very ugly and unpleasant.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonHey xinstory, I feel for you. One thing, however, in your last sentence you state "there will be no more gambling in my life". You don’t know this. I personally find it important not to state with great certainty something very uncertain. There will probably be more gambling in your life. A few months from now, the dust will settle and you’ll forget how you felt today. You’ll think it’s not all that bad and you might give in to a little temptation again.
OK, about your family, what are you going to tell them? Of course you can tell them the truth, but you can also decide to ***. ***** is easier and often ***** better. But it ***** to be done properly, you need to get creative. Here’s an example off the top of my head: You can tell them that you fell in love with this Russian girl, she was somehow involved with the Russian mafia and they were threatening to hurt both of you unless you pay them lots of money. See the movie "Birthday girl".
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonhey stanciuelete and welcome to this forum. yes, quitting gambling is hard. Most people here will tell you it’s hard, but you can do it. Well, the truth is, you may or may not be able to quit gambling. Quitting gambling is very hard. Or to rephrase W. Churchill "quitting gambling is very easy, I must have quit a thousand *****".
Installing K9 on your mobile device won’t help. If you’re on an android device install gamblock. It’s pricey though. But it’ll be well worth it. But if there’s a bookie across the street and you get paid cash every day, it’s very hard. I’ve been there. I worked as a waiter over 20 years ago and I would blow all my hard-earned money playing slots in Amsterdam. Then one day, coming home from work, I wanted to go and play slots again, but instead, without thinking, I started running home as fast as I could. I literally ran, I ran for life. And I stopped playing slots then. It still amazes me that I was able to do that and that it worked. Totally amazes me to this day. I did continue going to casino and losing there, something I was fighting for decades. But I never went back to slots since that run for life.
There’s no universal answer, find out what works for you. Experiment. Most people here swear by "one day at a time" mantra and it’s fine as long as it works for them. It’s not something that worked for me, so you have to experiment.
Worse comes to worse, find a goon and tell him you’ll pay him 5K euros (or whatever is a lot of money to you) if he ever catches you gambling. Sign a paper stating so. See how that works out for ya. Worked out for me.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonhey Vicky. Coming here every day helped me fight my urge a lot. I haven’t gambled for 23 days now and I didn’t even have to struggle a lot. Various posts here reinforce that miserable feeling I have when I gamble and I’ve been able to stay away.
I know and I understand it’s a work in progress and I could easily give in again. So, I’m not complacent, but I’m grateful for finding this site with so many of you I can relate to.
You do want to, in addition to coming here daily, make as many obstacles as possible. Block your online account, ban yourself with real casinos, distroy your credit cards if you have to. Not having temptations is much easier and better than fighting them.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonGreat posts San. Thank you! I’ve been reading a lot of posts since I joined this forum a few days ago and I’ve been enjoying them – if that’s the right word. Posts where things turn out well or seem on the right track, I was happy to read because they gave me hope that there’s a chance for all of us. And the posts where relapses and other predicaments were discussed I still liked reading because… well, because misery loves company…
But it wasn’t until I read your post that I had to stop and think. About my little boy, about wasting so much time gambling last several years, about how short life is and how vulnarable we all are.
I wish you all the best San.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonI am now able to go days, even weeks without gambling. Something I wasn’t able to do until a couple of years ago. But it doesn’t matter, when I do play, I still lose everything I’m able to lose for that particular period. Granted, not playing for days / weeks is good as I rediscover other things in my life, but financially there’s no big difference.
I’m not complacent when I don’t play for weeks. I’m happy, but not complacent. I’m happy, but I’m also nervous for I know there’s a danger I will go back into it. I am grateful when I’m not playing, but I’m fearful for I know I’m not cured. I don’t know if there is a cure for me. A cure in the sense that I would be able to play once a month with friends for a few hours and come morning, win or lose, leave without the urge to chase. I’d consider myself cured if I was able to play once in a while for fun, with a predetermined amount and leave, leave a loser, if / when I lose that amount. And not chase the money I lost. I’ve lost so much money chasing. For no reason. I remember, I’d go to a casino, played, won 4K, then took a couple of bad beats and gave most of it back, but I was still 1K up. I knew that in the mean time I got tired, my game deteriorated, but I would still stay and chase the money that I had won and then lost. And instead of going home with 1K in profits I’d go home losing 2K. On endless occasions.
I can ***** situations where I was able to leave a loser on fingers of one hand.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonOriginally posted by gamblingsucks
exercising is a great way to feel good, clear your head, regain your focus and keep on track. Its helped me a lot.
It is indeed. I’m too lazy to do any heavy stuff. I bought membership to a gym, but I never go there, just too lazy. But what I do do is I walk a lot. I bought a pedometer and I walk 15-20K steps every day listening to audio books. I’ve been doing it for years, but now I made it my business to make at least 15K steps a day.
And it does help a lot, as you say.
If you dine with the devil, bring a long spoonI’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