Do I have a gambling problem?

[d10]

Well if you really don't want anyone to hold back, here's what I'm getting out of your post:

Your personality as conveyed by this post has a lot in common with typical loose aggressive poker players. I would take an even money bet that says you are also a loose aggressive player. Although you may have shown a profit so far with this style of play, it's not a style that will make you a winner in the long run. Of course you may be disciplined enough to hold back your natural tendencies at the poker table and play solid poker, but again I would bet that you don't.

First of all you're playing slots and Black Jack, not that there's anything wrong with that if you're doing it for entertainment value and fully realize that you must expect to lose money playing, but given your statement it doesn't look like that was your motive for playing. If you don't have the discipline to avoid -EV games it's hard to believe you have the discipline to avoid -EV situations at the poker table. And in poker it's too easy to be a losing player, you can't afford to play anything where you don't have the edge, so again I think most people reading your post will have a hard time believing that you play poker in a way where you can expect to win.

Second of all, if you're waiting on a single pay check before you're able to play poker again, you either don't understand the concept of bankroll management, or you don't care. And if you don't care, you probably don't fully understand the short term variance involved in poker. So either way I don't believe you have a solid understanding of all the concepts necessary to be a winning poker player.

Not to mention you're taking every chance you get to justify your most recent losses and trying hard to convince everyone you're a winning player. I think you have doubts about that, you won't admit that to anyone, but you do wonder sometimes if you actually are winning at this game, and you want some validation from us. So this post is probably not what you wanted, but you asked me not to hold back, so I wont.

So do you have a gambling problem? I don't know, there's really not enough information in your post to make a conclusion. I think it's unlikely that you're a winning poker player. But that has nothing to do with a gambling problem. If you use all or even a good percentage of your next paycheck to play poker, then I would think you have a gambling problem. If you choose to ignore what this post and others are telling you then I would think you have a gambling problem.