Taking a 365 day break from all forms of gambling...

bodogjoe, you are a 1 to 5 player on on line sports and you play 5 to 6 way parlays to win 25 to 50 bucks and you spend 150 - 200 dollars a year.

what the fuck.

 im not sure what kind of girl your wife is ... but if you really do love her and she's a good girl than you should cut the shit.

it's all addiction. just because you have a degree in psychology does not mean that you can treat yourself. messier11 probably gave the best advice ... the right GA meetings would probably help you the most.

best of luck with the wife and baby kap .... i can tell you're a good dude from the way people responded to you.

Kap, first off congrats to you and your wife on having a baby

I dont know how long you have been gambling for, but i have been doing this shit for 30 years and everyday when am placing my bets, i say to myself, why did i ever have to get this very bad habit. Why couldnt have i got interested in some other hobby?

I grew up with gambling all around me, so it was tough not to fall right into it.  I was around bookies all my life, even answering the phones for many years for some very big operations.  One of the biggest things i learned while working the phones is, the bettors almost always lose, no matter what guys on here say. Unless your in that 5-10 percent group of bettors who win, all your doing is wasting time and money gambling everyday.

In those 30 years i have had good years and i have had bad years.

Now i cant walk away from this shit, because its to in grained in my life, but my advice to you is, if you can stop gambling for a year, dont come back to this shit after the year is up because no matter how much you think you will be more disciplined with your money and believe you wont get buried again, it will happen again and again. Its human nature for bettors to start chasing when they fall behind. Move onto a differnt chapter in your life and save your money from this bad habit. In 20 years, you will be thanking me for this advice.

Gambling is just way to stressful and really does take years off your life.  Gamblers have the number one suicide rate.

Lastly dont even bother making mind bets, because all that will do is cause you to lose your mind.

Take care and good luck with whatever you do my friend

cd

p.s. if after a years time away and you still want to gamble, then just enter contests like the hilton etc etc, because the truth is if you cant hit a decent win percent in those contests, then you really werent gonna win betting single plays.  I won a 25k one in 2004, great feeling.

Carib has a good contest for 250 for the year.

But like i said before, walk away and in 20 years you will have so much money you wont know what to do with it. {you could always send me some then}

well said man

Russian novelist Dostoevsky was a confirmed gambler, he wrote his novels under the pressure of mounting bills, and his gambling served to increase the pressure. Though the narrator of The Gambler, his partly biographical novel, Dostoevsky describes an initial depression at the sordidness of the casino, the oppressiveness of the crowd within, and the seriousness with which the gamblers concentrate on the spin of the wheel and the fate of their stakes. Forced into gambling by the need to make money, he at first succeeds and describes the irrational feeling of power which winning induces. Later he encounters a losing run but nevertheless discovers a sense of infallibility, a certainty that he cannot continue to lose indefinitely. He bets recklessly and loses his entire capital. Dostoevsky then describes the overwhelming excitement provoked by the stupid loss of a large sum. It is perhaps this reaction which distinguishes the pathological gambler: the winning or losing becomes subordinate to the thrill of gambling. The gambler in Dostoevsky's story retains his faith in his infallibility and continues to gamble with borrowed money in the certainly that he will eventually win. Most forum members would occasionally experience this superstitious feeling of uniqueness, a belief that natural mathamatical laws do not apply to them. A trait of the consumed gambler that such awareness is allowed to color their whole personality and risk everything on the basis of it.

When Jack Dempsey fought Jess Willard for the world title in 1919, Dempsey bet his purse of $10,000 at odds of 10-1 that he would beat Willard in the first round. Willard was down seven times in the opening round and took the full count. Dempsey left the ring, but his joy of winning $100,000 was short-lived: the time keeper pointed out that when a new ring canvas had been laid the bell had been muted, and that "time" had saved Willard. Dempsey returned to knock out Willard in the the 3rd round and win the title, but lost his bet. John 'Bet-A-Million' Gates made money with a barbed-wire factory, was head of a steel corp. plunged successfully into Wall St, and became a multi-millionaire. He would bet anything, provided he thought the odds were in his favor. He once won $20,000 on a train journey betting on raindrops running down a window pane. He was given his nickname of "Bet-A-Millions" after a race-track official had asked him to limit his bets to $10,000. Insulted, he immediately offered to bet a million dollars on a horse if anybody would take the bet. Nobody did.

The sentence 'He staked a fortune on the turn of a card' crystallizes gambling for all of us. To some outside the industry it suggests foolishness and irresponsibility, to us it has the same appeal as a James Bond film: there are overtones of nerves, romance, sex, the high life. In short, it means either dissipation or glamor. A card player, Nico Zographos, was the head of the Greek syndicate, with three other original members. In the early 1920s, Nico announced "Tout va" meaning that there was no limit. Nico was prepared to cover any bet that anybody wanted to make. He thus pitted the entire wealth of the syndicate against the worlds best gamblers. Nico was an intellectual, the son of a Greek professor of Political Economy. His card counting was superb. At baccarat, when six packs (312 cards) were dealt from a shoe until less than nine cards remain, the nine cards left at the end, Nico could more often than not name them. The syndicate took on the worlds most famous gamblers, winning and losing huge amounts, sometimes being nearly broke, others millionaires. Nico won a fortune from Andre Citroen, a French motor-car manufacturer, when he temporarily took control of Citroen's factory in the 1920s after Andre lost 13 million francs to Nico in one session. Andre's wife, like yours Kapono, got involved, gatecrashed the baccarat room, and pleaded with Nico not to play her husband anymore, which Nico did. Over the year, Andre lost thirty million francs to Nico, and eventually lost his business. A rich American once offered to play Nico one hand of bacarrat for a million francs, Nico suggested the best of three hands. The wager was made, Nico lost the first hand, then won the next two hands and the bet. The syndicate was honest, a Chilean finance minister once won 17 million francs from Nico, and offered to play double or quits. For the first time Nico was forced to refuse a bet, and payed up. Nico even lost heavy for a long time, and got down to his last million. This last million bankroll were on stake on one coup, in which Nico's first two cards were worth exactly nothing (King of Hearts, Queen of Spades). When Nico drew his third card and turned it over, it was the Nine of Diamonds, the best Nico could have drawn. He won and made the Nine of Diamonds his personal emblem. Nico put it on his cufflinks, yacht...everything. The syndicate was never again in danger, and it still operates today, with new members.

The urge to gamble is something more than desire to get something for nothing - there is an excitement about backing ones judgment or hunch, and allowing either elation or despair to follow a speculation on an uncertain event. Nobody can avoid gambling since nobody can tell the future. When marrying, one gambles one's happiness. Even to choose not to marry is to gamble that this will prove to be the better course. Insurance companies gamble with each policy. Insurance companies rarely go bankrupt, because of the skill of their actuaries. In other gambles, skill and judgment are irrelevant- these might be seen as true or pure gambles. Betting the toss of a coin is a true gamble. Gambling may not be a human need in the class as food, shelter or sex, but its practice is remarkably universal. Thomas Jefferson said "Information is the currency of a democracy." You haven't dropped a dime of the real national currency by virtue of the manner in which you have put your wife above all, and presented her with honest information. While you may live with a non-gambling wife, she might just pull off a 15-1 shot in having four daughters in four attempts, representing the four season that will pass in your exile from wagering.

Places to practice while you're taking a break.    

LINK

LINK

I've been through all this myself, Kap.

But... I had drugs & alcohol in the mix as well. 

I just came clean to my wife about 2 months ago that I've started gambling again.  She was more happy in the honesty, but worried I was using & drinking again.  And since I've been winning instead of losing, it does make things better.  But still, it ain't right.  She doesn't want me to gamble anymore, even though I am winning.  So she's pretty "covered her eyes" per say about the situation...

I had to break it down to her that this actually keeps me sober. 

I'm not using nor drinking (just celebrated 18 months clean time recently - take it 1 day @ a time) and I've actually been doing extremely well these past couple months, wagering on games clean & sober.

I have a routine I follow every morning, even on the weekends, and that involves sports handicapping as well.  I'm the first one up in the family (have a wife, 2 year old, and the wife is 10 weeks pregnant with our 2nd child) so I get the first 2 hours of the day to myself.  I'm an early bird.  I'm up @ 4am on the weekdays, 5am on the weekends.

I think I'm getting a little off track here...  Oh, yea, anyways, what I'm trying to say Kap is what others have said... the family comes first. 

You know deep down inside that's the right answer.  For those who aren't married, let me break down a very important way of living when you do get married:

Happy Wife  =  Happy Life

Keep the Mrs. happy and you can do whatever the fuck you want.

I've been with the same woman for almost 11 years now.  I've put her through hell and back on multiple occassions, and I'm lucky she's stayed put.  She's down for me.  She's got my back 100%.  You don't wanna ruin that, Kap.

i'm glad i've never had any problems

just ask yourself.........

WWCMPD  

If you go to therapy, DON'T make friends with anyone!!!!  

This coming from a ginger who is single and possibly doesnt even like women. Take with a grain of salt.

My wife and I (of ten years by the way July 14, 2011) have had a joint account since our marriage and yes we have argued from time to time about little things for the most part it works out just fine.  I am frankly much more surprised by people who do not have a joint account.  How can someone say this is my money and this is your money each month.  It is easier for me to understand a Prenup which ensures that whatever assets and debts you brought into the marriage is separate as well as inheritence than this seperate account business but as I always say to each their own.  If it works for you great!

No chance I'd ever have a joint account even if I was married.  It would drive me nuts to see the bill when my gal goes on a shopping spree and I'm sure it would drive her nuts to see the $850 bill for the re-built transmission for a car I drive about 400 miles a year.  It's hard enough to live with a woman......might as well have one less thing to argue about.