I am a 34 year old, single male, living in California. I decided to
start this blog mainly to chart and keep a record for my quest to gamble 365
days straight. But I will also use it as a gambling journal and a place
for me to vent and brag to the world somewhat anonymously. This first blog will
be a touch long. Most will not be this long. This will be longer
though as I will give you my background and gambling history.
A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to
see if I can gamble for 365 days straight. I play poker about 200 days a
year anyway in my local cardroom and on my trips to Nevada
(when online poker was easily accessible and widespread in the US I played
poker literally 350 days a year), so just adding another 165 days does not seem
like it would be that difficult.
The rules are that I have to make at least
$5 in wagers every day for 365 days straight, and it can be on everything and
anything. It can be playing poker (minimum requirement would be playing
long enough to post $5 in blinds or make at least one $5 bet or call), bet
sports (a $5 bet or five $1 bets for example), playing credit card roulette at
lunch with friends or coworkers (which I don't usually run that well in but
usually cannot resist playing), or something simple as buying $5 worth of lotto
tickets at the liquor store. The only other rule is that the money must
be won or lost that day. If I place a bet for Friday's basketball game on
Thursday, the bet counts on Friday, not Thursday. I must be in action on
that day.
You may say or think that $5 is so
cheap. You are right. That is why I am the Disciplined
Degenerate. I work a full time office job with benefits, I drive a brand
new car, and I am a responsible person. I have been gambling for most of
my post teen life and had some big wins and losses but I gamble on a bankroll
and have never not been able to pay a bill or buy food because of
gambling. I have never been busto. Most gamblers go busto, even
some of the greats. You often hear that every good player needs to go
busto or go broke to joint the club of "true legends" or "true
players." That is just a pathetic excuse for someone to shrug off
their lack of focus, skill, or discipline. The worst thing that can happen to a
gambler is to be out of the game. Better in the game grinding than
sitting out. I have an extreme amount of discipline and for the most part
I NEVER TILT. You may think it is impossible but it is actually pretty
easy for me. I realize that gambling and specifically poker is a long
term game and if I lose with AA to 54 I don't need to win the money back that
hand or that night even. If you have a bankroll and you stay in the game
the opportunity will be there. I am not saying I always play perfectly,
because that is far from true. But I don't make major, wild mistakes due
to emotion, frustration, or ego. Almost all gamblers and poker players
do. Even the good ones. Plus, I like money. Tilt is just expensive, plain and simple.
So the reason I am limiting myself to $5 a
day is to protect myself if I have a terrible losing streak or come across some
real world financial hardships. I can keep the streak going with some
small bets while the storm passes. And $5 should be enough for anyone who
really loves to gamble anyway. The following story is attributed to the
famous gambler Nicholas Andreas
"Nick the Greek" Dandolos.
Near the end of his life Dandolos was near
broke and playing $5 limit Draw poker games in Gardena, CA.
When asked by a fellow player how he could once play for millions and now be
playing for such small stakes, Dandolos supposedly replied "Hey, it's
action, isn't it?"
That is me in a
nutshell. I play for money and I love to make money but I also love
gambling. It is something that feels right to me. I love the
matching of wits, the challenge of beating the game and applying logic and math
to a problem and coming up with the correct answer (Money!). Action is action and if I
am in the game I am happy and there is still a chance to earn.
It probably
doesn't hurt that I am winner lifetime at Poker and probably break even in
Sports Betting (I have actually beaten NFL and NCAA football
over the past two seasons). I have never had a
losing year at poker and until last year never had more than two losing months
in a year. Last year was my worst year playing poker and I still
won thousands of dollars and had 8 winning months out of 12.
That is another reason I want to do this blog. I want to prove and show to people that gambling is not always a bad thing. It has a terrible stigma about it and I think it gets a bad rap. I am going to prove that not only is not not an unhealthy habit, that it is a profitable habit for me. I am going to gamble for 365 days straight and I will be a winner when it is all said and done. Even if you are a losing player it doesn't have to be this terrible thing. It is not always an expensive addiction. Throwing $10 down on a football game and enjoying the game on your couch for three hours can be a lot more fun and a heck of a lot cheaper than going to the movies. And how often do you go to the movies and get paid to watch? In some cases that happens in my scenario. Gambling is not evil. It is not a vice. Like anything else if you let it get out of control it can be, but in and of itself it is not a bad thing.
I learned poker on
the internet to begin with. After just a couple of deposits of $50 I
started winning. I played some cash games but mainly crushed the $5 and
$10 Sit and Go's on Paradise Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Poker Stars. The
first time I ever played live poker was in North Lake Tahoe in a $2-6 spread
limit game and the first hand I was dealt was AA. I won the pot and I
have beat live poker ever since. Since the downfall of online poker I
play live exclusively. I like live poker better for the most part.
There are days when I miss online poker and get sick of some of the scumbags
and losers that frequent casinos and card rooms, but I have also made nice
friendships and met great people in cardrooms as well.
I play a
conservative poker game. I play ABC poker for the most part and it has
worked well for me. I open up and make moves occasionally (more than
people who I play regularly with think) but for the most part I play good
cards, because it gets the money and the risk is less.
These days I play
4 or 5 nights a week, for 2-4 hours after work in my local cardroom. I
make a trip to Vegas 2-3 times a year and I go to Reno or Tahoe and surrounding Indian Casinos
occasionally. Sports and Poker is about 80-90% of my gambling but I do
like to play the table games occasionally such as Blackjack and Roulette.
I play craps every now and then but when I hear "line away" four or
five straight times (almost every time I play that damn game) I quit. I
never take big hits or losses in those games though. They are losing
games in the long run and I stick to poker to make money and sports for low
variance fun and the occasional winning season.
I have always
enjoyed betting sports for fun and a few years ago I decided to try to start
beating the game (which means beating the spread and the juice). I am not
an ignorant optimist and I know that to beat sports long term you have to have
an amazing gift and knack for it or more likely have to put in hours and hours
of study a day. I don't really have that much time but I do study and
follow the trends and crunch the numbers to do the best I can. And my results,
for a pretty inexperienced amateur have been decent. I started out
betting football regularly in 2008. I did very well and at the end of the
regular season I was ahead of the NFL and College Football by at least 15
units. (I typically flat bet, just one unit per game in my sports
betting. Maybe one game every couple of weeks that I really like will
tempt me to bet 2 or 3 units, and about once a year I will find a 4 or 5 unit
bet). I got crushed in the playoffs and bowls that season and finished
about even that year. The next season I took it more seriously and was
super confident going into the season and I managed to get down about 20-25 units
halfway during the season. I couldn't pick a game to save my life for
about 5 weeks in the first half of the season. I managed to win a little
back and finished down about 15 units on the year.
2010 was a great
year for me in sports betting (95% football). I went 78-62 and finished
ahead 6.5 units. That may not sound like a big win or very impressive but
when you are an amateur and you do it for fun and make money over 140 bets,
that is a tremendous success. In football in 2011 I got off to a terrible
start and was stuck about 13 units at one point but thanks to a couple of 4
unit wins (Fade the Notre Dame Fighting Irish!) I finished the year at 102-102
and ahead 0.3 units! I was very happy to once again beat the juice over
204 bets. And what that meant was over a 2 year period, I beat football
with a decent sample size.
In the 2011-2012
year I also decided to start betting NBA and NCAA basketball full time. I grew up playing basketball and played in high school and know the game well, but never really bet it. I
started terribly at 20-32 and down nearly 15 units. But I am learning and
getting better and right now at this time I am 93-88 and down only 0.4
units! I have a chance to finish ahead a winner my first year ever in
basketball! I am very excited about that. The money is
insignificant obviously. My real earnings in gambling come from
poker. I just enjoy the challenge of sports betting and just want to beat
the game even if for just $1.
So after two good
years of football betting and nice comeback in basketball I did it...yes, I
have jumped head first into the world of baseball betting. I am a big A's
fan and have followed baseball most of my life but it is by far the sport I
have bet less than any other. So far so good. Early in the year I
am 10-10 and ahead 0.3 units.
So that is my
gambling background. I will post my daily bets, thoughts, and results on
this blog. I will also share stories from my past. Including a 24
hour poker session last year and some cool Vegas stories.
Now, I have a bet
on the Nationals Marlins under and I need to check the score.
Disciplined
Degenerate.
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