In the boom and bust cycles of the poker economy, almost anyone can go broke if they are not careful. Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim; all the greats have been broke (or near broke) at one time or another, so why should Average Joe be ashamed when he scrapes bottom? Well, when you are playing poker for income and you are irresponsible with your bankroll, it can be hard to admit you messed up, and even harder to make the changes necessary to turn things around. Last year, long time Pocketfiver mhoddi, known on some sites as “rarely sober,” found himself in that predicament, due to losing much of his bankroll on other forms of gambling outside of poker. His story is a cautionary tale, but also an inspiring one.

First, a little background: mhoddi is Canadian and went to McGill University where he graduated with a major in Business Communications. It was there he met his future wife, an American citizen. After graduation they got married in the States and he began the process of obtaining the proper papers to go to work in the U.S. Mhoddi waited a year for the temporary Visa which should have taken less than four months. It was during that waiting period he discovered online poker.

He had played poker for a couple years before that in friendly home games, but never very seriously. Online poker allowed him to make a little bit of extra cash while he waited for his paperwork to come through. At the end of that year he was playing at a pretty high level, but still didn’t think of it as a job. When the Visa finally came through he went to work. He didn’t last long in the “real world” though.

“I did the 9-5 accounting thing for a while, and absolutely hated it. I was making more money playing poker, and my wife had just finished her stint at Teach for America, so we decided to travel for a while and enjoy life while we could.”

Enjoy it they did. Mhoddi had a great deal of success in poker. He was crushing tournaments on Bodog and Paradise, accumulating wins left and right. If he had stuck to Poker, things would have been just fine. Unfortunately a casual interest in sportsbetting began to eat up more and more of his poker profits. A wise man once said that the worst thing that can happen to a novice gambler is for him to win the first time he steps into a casino. Nothing gets you hooked more than the rush of easy money and mhoddi‘s initial experience with sportsbetting was that he could turn his love of sports into extra cash.

Successful at first with lower stakes bets, mhoddi found himself lacking the time to devote to poker, so he upped the stakes with the bookmakers. He had his ups and downs but was never worse than even. Then he went on a big downswing. That’s where the trouble began. He tried to recover by chasing his losses. Things went from bad to worse and he found himself borrowing money from friends in order to make bets. At the beginning of this year he was broke, owing money and at a loss for what to do about it.

Lenny: When did you realize you had a problem?

Mhoddi: It’s funny. Sportsbetting is such a rollercoaster that it’s hard to admit you have a problem while doing it. You can go on a heater and win thousands of dollars in week, only to lose it all and more the following week. I think that the potential for another great streak is what makes it so hard to walk away while down. It really wasn’t until December that it actually sunk in how deep I was, and what I was doing to our bank account.

Lenny: What did you do about it?

Mhoddi: I finally came to grips with what I was doing and told my wife the whole story. I had borrowed from a variety of people throughout the year, but always paid back when I said I would except for four guys. I spoke to those guys in January, when I was at rock bottom, and explained everything that had happened. I told them they would get their money back as soon as I had it, but I had no idea how long it would take. I wasn’t working, I had absolutely no money left online, and there was no way that I could take anything out of our account to redeposit.

Lenny: What are you doing now to stay away from sportsbooks?

Mhoddi: Nothing really. I realized how much money it cost me before, so I have absolutely no desire to make bets anymore. I’ve always had a lot of will power, so it hasn’t been hard. I’ve actually really enjoyed watching all of the nail biters during March Madness. It’s so much more fun to just enjoy the game rather than living and dying on every basket in the final 5 minutes. I’ll still enter pools if they’re a playoff or season long thing, just not nightly wagers.

Lenny: Do you feel staying in the Poker community is a temptation to return to other less +EV games?

Mhoddi: Not for me. I can understand how it might for some people, but I know how well poker has treated me and I have already learned my lesson from venturing into other areas.

Lenny: Tell me a bit about your rebuild. Did you grind your way back up, or did you have a backer?

Mhoddi: Well, as I mentioned, I had nothing online and still owed money in January. A good friend put a little cash into his account on Bodog and let me play under his name. I had sworn not to bet any sports, but that was his way of monitoring me, which was fine with me. Through a steady grind I worked that up to a pretty healthy amount, enough to pay back that stake and clear one of my debts. I put what was left on Stars and started playing a mix of MTTs and ring games, but nothing was going right.

My account was down to $277 in February when I decided to play the $3 rebuy, which I don’t think I had ever done before. I ended up chopping it for $2600. I was thrilled to have money on the site again. With that confidence, I went on to win the nightly $10 rebuy for almost 13K and two days later I won a $100+9 freezeout for almost 8K. Those wins allowed me to pay everyone back and finally get some much needed money back into our bank account.

The big wins put mhoddi back on his feet and since then he has continued to play very well. He has had a number of final tables recently, including a few near misses for more big scores. When it comes down to it, he is very lucky. Lucky to have friends who were patient and understanding, lucky to have someone who believed in him enough to give him one more chance, and luckiest of all to have a wife who would forgive him after putting their livelihood at risk. The easy come, easy go lifestyle of some poker players is all well and good if you are young and single, but it is another thing entirely when you have a family to think of. I am glad things turned out ok for him, and wish him the best of luck in the future.