[Softrock]

Hope this isn't one of those cocky answers but for me it was at age 10. I realized that most everyone else just wanted the thrill of gambling and didn't even think about odds etc. We used to play Blackjack with a ten cent betting limit (this is 1960 and we were kids). We played that dealer took all pushes and there was no bonus for a blackjack - ie. you just won your bet. I volunteered to be the dealer/banker and the other kids thought I was the fool for putting so much at risk since I couldn't "control" how much was bet. I made alot of spending money in college playing poker and made a killing while in the military. I actually wasn't that great but I knew I was a whole lot better than the competition - I was at least trying to think and analyze my play - most of the others were just gambling. Here's the key, however, I KNEW MY LIMITATIONS. Basically, I knew that all I had to do was make sure I played with people who were worse than me and I could win consistently.

I had a Great Uncle who was sort of the Blacksheep of the family because he was a pool hustler. He was actually the Pacific Coast Billiards Champion 3 years running in the 1930's (three cushion billiards - this guy had all sort of charts and really studied the game - that was an eye-opener itself). As a young teenager I asked him how good you had to be to make money playing pool and his answer was something to the effect of: "You don't actually have to be very good at all. You just have to make sure you are better than your comepetition". That lesson crystallized in my mind what I had known intuitively from the prior Blackjack game.

And it's still true. I still want to learn so I push the envelope. However, I know at what level I could play and win consistently if that was my only goal. (Did I mention that keeping your ego out of it really helps?).