[uw_madtown]

I've glanced over them before, but never actually filled them out. Saw them brought up in CroShow's thread and thought it'd be interesting to see other serious poker players' answers and a discussion of the questions.

Answer Yes or No only. You can justify the ones you answer Yes to at the end.

TWENTY QUESTIONS
Most compulsive gamblers will answer yes to at least seven of these questions.

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling? Yes
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy? No
3. Did gambling affect your reputation? Yes
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling? No
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties? Yes
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency? No
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses? No
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more? Yes
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone? No
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling? No
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling? No
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures? Yes
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family? No
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned? Yes
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble? No
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling? No
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping? Yes
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble? No
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling? No
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling? No

Total: 7/20

Discussion of those 7 "Yes"s:

1: I've skipped class to play poker. Of course, I regularly skipped class before taking up poker. So while I must answer Yes, it's not specific to poker. And if I had a job at the moment, I would NOT skip work to play.

3: People are stupid, and my father is semi-proud that I'm doing well playing online. So I'd imagine there's a few people from back home who think I'm a degenerate gambler by now.

5: It's my income for extra spending money. I'm not sure if that's "solving financial difficulties" or not. But if I wasn't pulling in some poker money, that'd mean less beer money, and I consider that a financial difficulty.

8: After a good upswing, of course I have the urge to get back on Party and keep it going. After a big loss, I'm the opposite -- it's hard to get motivated to sign back on the next day.

12: Of course. That's just proper bankroll management. If I ever want to get to 5/10 and beyond, I need to spend LESS of my bankroll, not more.

14: Of course. If I'm still feeling awake and the games are good, and I don't have anything I'm supposed to be doing that playing longer would conflict with, then I'll gladly stick around an extra couple hours.

17: Yes. 8-tabling for a few hours and then trying to sleep doesn't work very well. Cards get stuck in my head and I keep playing in my sleep. I'll usually wait a half hour before going to bed.



I think the biggest flaw in the questions when applied to poker players is that it mainly focuses on actions, not emotions. For example, questions like 8, 14, and 17 should examine the motivation behind those actions, not the actions themselves -- there's a huge difference between gambling longer than you planned because you're stuck $2k at blackjack and you want to win it back and gambling longer than you planned because there's a real juicy 20/40 table going at your local cardbarn. Do you have trouble sleeping because you're sick to your stomach after losing $500, or because playing 8-tables damn near gives you an epileptic fit?

Similarly, I question the inclusion of the reputation question. MOST people who gamble recreationally will take a hit in reputation from someone they know, whether they're an addict or not.

And, as many people have said previously, most justifications to these questions that are true for a serious, winning poker player sound VERY SIMILAR to the justifications an addict would spout if confronted. Which is frustrating.

Anyway, other people want to comment on the questions or fill it out and discuss why you say yes to certain questions (or no to others)?