Are you addicted? 20 questions courtesy of GA

[Greg J]

I'm a little surprised at the ammount of people here too. I answered yes to 3. Who hasn't had a little trouble sleeping thinking about cards though? (I have issue sleeping anyway.)

[Shoe]

Like others have said, all serious players who make a living or extra income from poker are going to be somewhat compulsive. I also think that most of us would quit playing (those of us who study our game and carefully track our results), if it became apparent that we were a losing player.

1. Yes, assuming that quitting my job to play poker counts as losing time from work.
2. I'm counting this as a yes, since losing streaks can take a toll on me.
3. Yes, I am known as the idiot who quit his good paying job who is now destined to failure (even though I am winning).
4. No
5. Yes, considering it is now my sole source of income.
6. Yes and no, I can't imagine ever going back to a job, but I still work hard and am as ambitious as ever, and i'm becoming more efficient as I play more and more tables. With that being said going to count this one as no.
7. Absolutely. Unless I really get my ass handed to me, then I might take a couple days off.
8. Absolutely.
9. Nope, and hopefully never will.
10. No, and never will.
11. No, and never will.
12. Yes, I prefer to use good bankroll management.
13. No, I am destined to be single forever.
14. Of course.
15. No, atleast not that I'm aware of.
16. No, i'm too honest for my own good.
17. No, I don't think so, but I normally have trouble sleeping.
18. No
19. No, I have had the urge to go celebrate my good fortunes in poker though.
20. No

So that gives me a score of 7. I could have possibly answered yes on 2-3 of the others, but they were a bit iffy.

[threadkiller]

Answered yes to 4, 14, and maybe 15. But I could say the same thing by replacing the word "poker" with "eating Taco Bell" or "reading my favorite travel discussion board." (In fact, one of the nice side effects of playing online is that I eat less on evenings when I play a couple of hours online!)

So what the **** does that prove?

[MrX]

Would you consider a career in sales "gambling?"

It seems that many of our established "jobs" are really gambling in some way or another.

[MicroBob]

Haven't read Lorinda's and MSSunshine's replies yet. I am guessing many of mine will not be unsimilar.
Went over these earlier tonight with my GF. We were quite amused.


1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to poker?
Actually...this is probably a no.

2. Has poker ever made your home life unhappy?
Yes...Sometimes the losing streaks REALLY suck.

3. Did poker affect your reputation?
Yes....For example, If I were to apply for a job in today's workplace I have to consider how they would react if I said "I'm a professional poker player." I think it affects my reputation.

4. Have you ever felt remorse after poker?
No.

5. Did you ever play poker to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
Yes. I pay the rent and all my bills by playing poker.

6. Did poker cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
Yes. The simple nature of poker to be able to grind out a living at low-limits makes it difficult to find the motivation to fulfill my potential to become a better player at the higher limits. It's just too easy to not take the significant risks or put forth the serious study-time.

7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
Yes...but not immediately. but I have often-times thought "well...I've lost the past couple days and I DO have bills to pay so I guess I better get at it again."

8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
Yes. I oftentimes tell myself "I can't just let myself cut my work-week short just because things have been going well. I should play more and hopefully continue to grind-out more wins."

9. Did you often play poker until your last dollar was gone?
No.

10. Did you ever borrow to finance your poker?
Yes. My Dad wants to stake me $1000 on the party cruise.

11. Have you ever sold anything to finance poker?
Yes. My whole income is part of my poker bankroll. If I sell an old TV or a couple of used books for $10 then this income goes into my total 'roll' which essentially is used to 'finance poker'.

12. Were you reluctant to use "poker money" for normal expenditures?
Yes....I'm reluctant to make my normal expenditures PERIOD. And all of my 'normal' expenditures come from 'poker money'.
I get a bill from the gas/electric company and I'm reluctant to pay it because I simply don't like paying bills and I think I'm getting ripped-off.

13. Did poker make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
Yes. You should have seen the amount of coffee I consumed during my raked-hands marathon week promotion for example. I completely disregarded my own welfare during this stretch. I also blame poker for my medicore diet and lack of exercise (although prior to poker I had a variety of other excuses....but it's all poker's fault now).

14. Did you ever play poker longer than you had planned?
Yes. Happened just the other night for example. I had already decided to play 'one last tournament' before turning in. Didn't really expect to go very far but I reached the final table which was certainly a better finish than I had 'planned'. There have also been nights where I forced myself to stay in games with super-fish no matter how tired I was. One of these was last year with the P.O.T. smoker who now posts here as brown-thumb.

15. Have you ever played poker to escape worry or trouble?
Yes. If I don't play poker than I will be in serious trouble and will be worried about paying the bills (among other things). I play poker so that I can escape the worry of having no money to my name.

16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance poker?
Yes. Technically the act of playing online-poker in is illegal in and of itself in some states.
I've also played in private-games for real-money (dimes and quarters) that I'm not sure are technically legal or not.

17. Did poker cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Yes. The fleixibility of my work-schedule sometimes leads to some strange work-hours.

18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to play poker?
Yes. I get disappointed if I know I play a hand badly and expect better of myself. I get an urge to study...and to try again and get it right. This is essentially how I have been able to improve my game.

19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of poker?
no. Typically I'll celebrate good fortune FROM poker with a few hours (or longer) of NOT playing poker. For example...when I learned that I had won the party-cruise I celebrated in a non-poker fashion.

20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your poker?
See the previous response on all the coffee I drank during the raked-hands marathon. If that wasn't self-destruction then I don't know what is.


Looks like I have a serious addiction.

[Pokeraddict]

I am not addicted to poker!!!!

[JackWilson]

A lot of these questions cannot just be changed to say "poker" instead of "gambling" because even though poker might be a form of gambling, it is very different from most other forms of gambling in the sense that for a number of players it is a +EV endeavour. Questions like:

5. Did you ever play poker to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?

11. Have you ever sold anything to finance poker?

12. Were you reluctant to use "poker money" for normal expenditures?

and

14. Did you ever play poker longer than you had planned?

are questions to which a positive answer would be considered worrisome if we were talking about -EV gambling but in the case of poker there are very good logical and rational explanations for all of these.

[Reef]

and I'm addicted... so what's your point?

[Gator]

They have these twenty questions to see if you are addicted and they make it way to easy to qualify!
(this is not an original quote, but I like it)

[underaged]

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to poker?
12. Were you reluctant to use "poker money" for normal expenditures?



Yes to both. No to the rest.