[Vincent Lepore]

Hi Al,

This is a very interesting thread. At first I thought that this fellow was just posting this as a joke. Or at least as a sarcastic look at those poker players that claim that poker is not gambling. I confess to the latter.

I'm still not convinced that something of this nature was not the intent of the OP but I don't think it matters. What makes this interesting to me aside from the addiction aspect of the thread is just what does it take to change the beliefs of long time poker players whether they are losers or winners for that matter.

Most people that play poker for some short period of time begin to believe that they know how to play the game. I think this is because most people experience some form of short term success which makes them believe that they know how to play wheteher or not they really do understand the game. I've seen this type of belief through exhibeted behavior in many gambling games especially craps.

I do not know much about the causes of any addiction nor how to cure any of them. I used to believe that education was the key to freeing oneself from an addiction. I don't doubt that I was very wrong about this. But in the realm of poker, something I feel that I know a little about, I am pretty sure that education is the key to success. I believe that a person that has been playing for many years and has been a consistent loser, then realizes that it is because of how he plays the game might just be able to become a winning player if he accepted his short comings and focused on learning winning concepts.

I have found that once someone understands what constitutes proper poker play they will either play according to those concepts or quit playing poker altogether. I believe it has something to do with intelligence.

So if I were going to advise this fellow on how to either become a winning poker player or quit poker altogether I would tell him to read and heed everything that Sklansky and Malmuth have written on the subject of poker playing and accept it as gospel. Once he accomplishes this he might just be cured. Well, I hope so anyway.

An old buddy,

Vince