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Addiction or Hobby?

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  1. checkitdown checkitdown is offline

    Cedar Rapids, IA
    United States

    Posts: 29
    Joined: Feb 05

    Nov 30th, 2005 (11/30/2005 6:11pm)

    What determines whether poker has become an addiction, or if it remains a hobby in someone's life? I can say with certainty that I'm not addicted to poker, but for a few weeks when I continually lost money, I questioned my motives. This is an article I posted in my blog about a week ago, and it was the first time I was actually honest with myself in regards to my poker habits.

    <span>Before these past 3 months, I never really understood what poker players meant by being in a funk for more than a week. In the year and a half of playing, I'd never experienced any sort of long term losing streak. These past three months, however, has put me on the brink of losing control. </span>

    <span>It all started after a 3rd place finish in a $30 tournament on UB. Since then, that money has vanished. I haven't taken profit out of a website for 3 months, and I've never ever had that happen, even when I first started playing. Lately, if I put $100 in and take out $50, I consider it a victory. </span>

    <span>In the early stages, I was taking a lot of bad beats. Bad beats happen and I understand that, but the amount of bad beats I was dealing with was taking a toll on my emotions. I was afraid to play hands for fear of beats, and eventually I was blinding myself out of tournaments. I started to realize this, then pressed too much in tournaments, getting my money in frequently with the worst cards. </span>

    <span>I lose and I lose, but I still feel like I'm better than 9 out of every 10 players at any stakes. Call me arrogant, cocky, confident, but that's how I feel, so I figure that if I move up to bigger stakes, I can make my money back a little quicker and suffer fewer bad beats. This just started to compound the problem as you might imagine.</span>

    <span>I am a college kid, and today I officially ended up breaking even for the fall semester. This doesn't sound too bad, but when you're unemployed and are paying for school, it creates a bit of a problem in regards to entertainment expenses. I've uninstalled UltimateBet and won't be playing for a long time not because I don't want to, but because I can't afford to play anymore. The money I won in that $30 tourney was leftover money from the summer, and now that I've burned all that, I have no money I feel like I can afford to lose.</span>

    <span>No matter how high the stakes, how out of control, and how many bad beats I took, I feel very confident about my skills, and I feel more confident about myself as a person to know that I am and always have played with only the poker money I could afford to lose. As close as I was to the line of "gambling addiction", I feel like I haven't and won't cross it, because I'm not playing with money that I can't afford to lose. </span>

    <span>Until I get a full time job, the stakes I play, if any, are going to be quite small.
    </span>
    I haven't played anything over a $1 SNG for the past week, and I don't seem to be having serious withdrawals so I'm sure I'll be ok without poker for a few months, but what defines addiction? Is it playing with money you can't afford to lose, or is it something else? Sorry for the length of this post, you're all probably too tired to respond now that you've been reading for so long. By the way, I still love poker and plan to play again when I can afford it, so don't assume this is an "I quit" post.

    Thanks for any replies

    -Checkitdown
  2. BUCKINATOR BUCKINATOR is offline

    Hoopeston, IL
    United States

    Posts: 3,041
    Joined: Aug 05

    Dec 1st, 2005 (12/1/2005 12:38am) in reply to checkitdown

    F anyone that gives you a hard time about this. You are doing the right thing. I as well am taking some time off leading up to Jan. I am gonna try to squirrel away as much money as i can so my time down at the pca is'nt on low fundage.
  3. parlad parlad is offline

    San Bernardino, CA
    United States

    Posts: 45
    Joined: Nov 05

    Dec 1st, 2005 (12/1/2005 12:39am) in reply to BUCKINATOR

    I bet you I dont have an addiction : D ....and i call it a Hobb-diction
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