My name is a Tommy. I am a cigarette addict.

And simple as that, I quit. Once it was taught to me, in a way that sunk and stuck, that it's only natural to have cravings you idiot, you're an addict, and that's what addicts do, they have cravings. You're not weak. You're not even defective. Your an addict.


As simple as that, I quit. After it finally took hold in my proud skull that I can't beat cigarettes. That's not an option. No matter what I do from here out, it doesn't matter if I never smoke again or if I start back up tomorrow, I will always, no matter what, and it's completely beyond my control, like my eye color, it's not like I have an option in the matter, and this is the most freeing sensation, to simply know that I will always be a cigarette addict.


And simple as that, I quit. Two months now. My god I've been tested, in all the ways that I failed before, in the 20 or so times that I've

"tried" to quit. I had no shot then, because I was trying to do something that was impossible. I was trying to become someone who is not a cigarette addict.


Now, here's the clincher. And you have to be an addict to realize how true it is. The most beautiful revelation. Again, taught to me, recently. There are two ways to make a cigarette craving go away. One way is to smoke. The other way is to not smoke. Either way, in moments, the craving passes.


As planets go, it's a good one, Earth is.


Tommy

smoking is compulsive

gambling is compulsive

to some, even sex is compulsive


not sure about posting on forums????


anyway, do you plan to abandon any other compulsion since you have now done one???

keep it up(quitting)..when i quit 2 pack+/day habit, i put an open pack of cigarets on the dresser, and every morning said "i am tuffer than you, i've cracked every cold deck that's ever been dealt", and just said no matter what, i won't have a cigaret that day. cravings not there after about 5 years..gl

First time I tried to quit was 68. After many tries I'm half way into my 3rd yr clean.


Your attitude seems good.


The cravings do pass.


Good Luck.

Tommy - I sense a little philosophical attitude in that post that I found a bit refreshing. You should read some Spinoza or Epicurus. Of couse, do not let that detract from poker or the addiction that you have finially accepted.


The earth is a good planet? You are becoming Panglossian.


Zeno

Good work. I quit a little over 7 years ago. I never understood how people said it was a dirty, filthy habit. What are they talking about? I enjoyed every cigarette I ever smoked, from the first to the last. A soft-pack Marlboro Red is one of the best things ever. If I were diagnosed with a terminal disease a carton of Marlboros is the first thing I would get leaving the doctor's office.


The cravings really do subside. Once in a while I will see someone smoking and want one. But it's pretty rare now and much easier to resist.


When it comes to quitting cigarettes, anything that works for you is right. I'm glad I quit and hope you are successful too.

Congratulations. As an intelligent person, don't you feel silly for not doing this before? I know I did. I've been free for three years now.


As far as being an addict for life, I'm not so sure. I sometimes have a smoke on New Year's Eve or on other 'special occasions' and do not feel the urge to start up again.


But I only smoked 2 1/2 packs a day for over 25 years.

yeah marlboro country, can here the tunes, kinda ironic the marlboro man died of lung cancer and became an anti-smoking spokesman...but, i was glad my clothes did not stink..no burn holes..much less frequent cols, i think it's a stupid habit...gl counselor...

After many attempts during the 30 yrs I smoked, I know better than to have just one. I'm envious. One Camel straight now and I'm hooked again.

i ain't gonna find out...gl

If I could smoke one a day I would never have quit. If I smoked one I would be at a pack a day the next day I think. It is amazing 3-Bet can have one.


No other tobacco product is like this for me. I can smoke a cigar and not want a cigarette or a bunch of cigars. I can bum some Copenhagen from someone and not want more. (Not that I like it much at the time) But cigarettes are different.

I don't smoke, so I'm not sure what cigarettes cost, but as a guess, each 3 or 4 packs not purchased yield enough savings for a helluva nice fruit plate.


Besides, I understand the poker gods frequently smile upon those who give up smoking. How have you been running lately?


/images/wink.gif

Part of the reason I can't get hooked again is that now they taste like shit. It's hard to understand how people get started, given how bad these things taste.


And don't get me started on all the cool stuff you get to cough up the next day...

theres like 2000 added ingredients to cigarettes. so go figure.


brad


p.s. (smoked a little as a kid so feel qualified to post in this thread /images/smile.gif )

If I smoke a cigar I inhale.


I chewed Copenhagen for a yr. Nothing was harder to quit. Thank god Camels were there to take the edge off. I put in a chew in the morning and kept reloading until bedtime. I found spitting disgusting so I never did. I remember playing in LA and having to go into the bathroom to reload. Not like MT where you can keep your spit cup on the table.

Thanks Tommy -


I do not smoke (apart from the odd cigar) - but

I need to break some habits as well. I need to get

some _long term discipline_ (which is pretty much like stopping a bad habit).


I have some bad habits

* like calling on the river in PL Omaha with top and bottom pair. if somebody bets in PLO they have trips or better most of the time. I have lost

lots this way.

* on-line: I can play excellent poker, often double up in less than an hour (say from $100 to $200 in PLHE and PLO) and then start to play too many hands just to loose it all.At the moment I am breaking even on-line but I could have been a big winner if I just showed some _discipline_.


I need to break these costly habits - I reckon we all started this way (I have just been playing a couple of years) but to become better

discipline (at least in online and cash games) must be one of the greatest skills of them all.

I am not talking about becoming the predictable guy who only plays AA-JJ, or becoming a calling station.


What I am after is the discipline to do the right

play when you _obviously_ have the worst of it or

the discipline to not steam after losing with AK

vs K8 (after flopping Kxx, betting $200 all-in

only to get called by K8 man who then hits his 8

on the river).


What are the trade tricks for getting the discipline? Maybe one of these self-help books

or are there in deed chapters in poker books I should read (I think I have read enough - my theoretical knowledge of the game is sound, I beat the advisors in the Turbo poker games 80%

of the time on the toughest games etc).


OK - I am off for another can of Coke.


NoDiscipline

I quit 14 years ago on a bet. I was at a dance club and I told my roommate I'd quit for a year if he would go flop around on the dance floor like he was having a siezure. He did and it started a fad at that particular club. There was a large "clean spot" on the floor when he got up. I never started up again. A pack of smokes cost $1.50 back then. They're up over $4 in Washington state now. I still consider myself a smoker. I don't smoke now because I'd just have to quit again, and I don't want to go through that again.

i agree.

i enjoy every cigarette i smoke. but i do realize that it is killing me. not only is it unhealthy in its direct effects, it really doesn't provide one with any desire at all to exercise. just to make sure you have enough food in your body that smoking doesn't make you sick. i have smoked since i was 14 years old, (im now 23) and i still smoke about a pack a day. ive cut down to ultra lights, but that was recently. until then, i smoked malboro reds, at least a pack a day. sometimes i smoked lucky strikes, just because. but i need to quit. thanks for the post tommy. now the rest of us chumps have something to read and say "if tommy can do it, i sure as hell better be able to."


i remember back in high school, when i smoked menthols. one prom night, i managed to smoke 3 packs of cigarettes that day and at the party afterwards. i was also violently ill from drinking too much southern comfort and having no idea of tolerance. the next day, i saw the movie 'schindler's list' and the guy smokes like a fiend in that movie. my mouth literally dripped with salivation every time he was smoking, and i wanted to smoke so bad, but had to wait. this is horrifying to me, and i thought id share it with you.

so, you apparently know a bit about philosophy, historically and conceptually. tell me, do you have formal training in this field? or have you just read a whole lot? i have been out of school for a while (i didn't have the $$ to finish) and never even REALLY got started on my philosophy degree. im just curious on your thoughts about the study of philosophy and where and how to go about doing so. im looking to get back into school in the fall. im looking at going to University of Illinois at Chicago. ive heard and read good things about their program and they are relatively cheap, being a state school and all. but im not sure that that is the place to be.


just soliciting your thoughts...


baggins

I just recently read results of a study that appeared in many newspapers that ultra light and low tar cigarettes are NO BETTER for you than the full flavor variety, and may actually be more harmful. This is especially true if you switched from reds to ultra lights; you usually overcompensate on ur drags to get the same nicotine rush which results in toxins being inhaled more deeply into the lungs. Ultralight cigarettes use the same tobacco as full flavor, they just provide more "ventilation holes" on the cigarette itself. Unfortunately, these holes are often blocked by your lips or fingers depending how you smoke your cigarette. DEFINITELY try to quit, but do not be misled that light cigarettes are healthier...might as well enjoy the reds.


Jeff

Go for it. Nothing, not even poker can improve you like the study of philosophy. That is if youre the kind of person who can grab the bull by the horns. In my little old department at Mississippi State you can tell the philosophers from the future lawyers (sophists). The future lawyers come to class, say nothing, and leave. The philosophers stand at the union, or the philosophy department, or the local coffie shop and argue with each other. Sometimes just for the fun of it, but mostly trying to reach some synthesys. Either way you will gain something, but guess which one gains more.


Be warned however, if you actually study philosophy you will walk away with precious few answers, and many more questions.

"What I am after is the discipline to do the right play when you _obviously_ have the worst of it or the discipline to not steam after losing with AK vs K8 (after flopping Kxx, betting $200 all-in only to get called by K8 man who then hits his 8 on the river).


What are the trade tricks for getting the discipline?"


I've used dozens of mental gadgets over the years, such as practicing bad beats in my car and in bed, such as telling myself it'd be stranger still if AK DIDN'T lose to K8 lots of times, such as reminding myself that plumbing and fruit plates are luxuries, such as, and this is the main one that permeates everything, keeping my expectations way low.


Tommy

Baggins (Bilbo?). Philosophy has been a study of mine for many years but I have no formal (scholastic) training. I am self taught, just as you must teach yourself to play poker. I have always been an advid reader and find philosophy a fasinating study. A few of my old college friends took class in it and we use to have good discussions (I took classical comedy instead of a philosophy class). One of them went on to get a Phd in Philosophy and is now a Professor at a eastern catholic universtiy. He is the token atheist on the staff. A fact I relish and also find very amusing. He studies the Mind/Body problem. In philosophy there are very few solutions but a bus load of problems.


If you have the determiation to really finish something that will not be easy to complete then you should go back and get a degree. A degree in philosophy will not be that financially useful - but it can provide a good framework for living well and be a springborad for other endeavors. But when you graduate you will probably have to drive a truck to pay off all your debts (I'm being a cynic). I don't mean to discourge you - but teaching is about all that a philosoghy degree can do ecomonically and most people go on to get higher degrees - or become lawyers as Mississippi Gambler so adroitly pointed out.


I do not like giving serious life advice as it can lead to uninteaded disaster. But since most of life is an uninteaded disaster anyway perhaps you should take mine.


As an aside, two excellent books (if you don't have them)to start your philosophical studies are: A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell and The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant. Amazon.com should have them or any large bookstore. By the way, do not neglect eastern thought in any self study or formal education that you may undertake.


To paraphrase Socrates -


An unexamined life is not worth living.


Best of luck - Zeno.

Jeez, Ed I, you're hardcore. Are you from MT. or something. Copenhagen is probably the most physically addictive, but I never liked it enough to do it all the time.

I used to argue with the professor in class or other philosophy students outside of class and became a lawyer anyway. I guess I hated the idea of either getting a PhD or working at a pool hall, so I chose the middle course.


I'd say go back to school regardless. If you like philosophy do it. If you like something else better do that. There's always law school to make money if you don't like anything else. :-)

What I ment to refer to were those students who just view philosophy as one way to a degree so they can enter law school, but have no wish to engage in philosophy as an activity.


However i still stand behind lawyer = sophist

Panglossian? There you go quoting some half-assed philosopher.


Murray

Sounds like a law firm doesn't it. O.K. lets not get started - because it will never end and the string will be the longest and least read thing on S&M's illustrious forum. So yes; half-assed is right. But at least Voltaire had a wit and he could turn a phrase like few ever could. And his Philosophical Dictionary is pleasent and amusing to read if not that profound.


I concide - you win the pot. Please don't bring anything else up. Lets get back to poker!


-Zeno

Australia, NSW

I pack of 25's = about $9

Most of which is state gov excise.

thanks for the input.


i have studied a small bit of philosophy, and i really enjoyed wrapping my mind around ideas and seeing where they lead. i have several friends who have degrees in philosophy, and we have great discussions about the most important stuff to the most trivial arguments ever. the important thing is that we sit and discuss and share ideas, and bounce them off each other.


as far as economic viability, that doesn't concern me as much. ideally, i'll live near a cardroom of some sort, and can bolster my meager earnings as a whatever (truck driver, teacher, 'sandwich artist', etc.) by playing a little poker.


as a side note, think about what school of thought the ideal poker player would come from. with all the bad beats and the long arduous grind that the game can be sometimes, i think that a sense of stoicism really aids in making it through the doldrums.

i know what you mean about telling the difference. along with some other phil. classes i took an intro course (intro to aesthetics). it was like being in high school. you hear the gears in their brains just starting to crank, and get so excited when an original (if flawed) thought would squeak out of their heads. while most of the discussions were the 2 phil. majors in the class talking, and then the teacher trying bring the rest of the class through the discussion with us. it was fun though. i liked my ancient and medieval phil. class better though. i liked arguing aristotle with the proffessor. too bad i stopped going...


i have decided to get back into it, and for lack of a better place to do it, i think i am going to try to enroll in University of Illinois Chicago for the fall.


oooohhh. and i love kierkegaard. what a guy!!

oh yeah, baggins as in the baggins of the shire. i like frodo more, but...

Well done Tommy.


I actually have exactly the same story, I used to fight the cravings when I gave up smoking too, and came off 2nd best. It only took about 4 hours and I was smoking again.


This last time I stopped, I accepted the cravings, and I now have not had a cigarette for 8 months.


I was a big coffee drinker too, and I gave that up about 2 weeks after I gave up smoking. It is not so hard after all.


That is probably the path to giving up gambling too, but I choose to gamble, because what else would there be in life for me.

Stoicism! I mentioned this very thought in a previous thread (Tilted "who was that guy anyway")in this same forum. So I obviously agree with you.


Best Regards,


Zeno

Sounds like a good friend.

i must have forgotten, or overlooked it or something.