After playing open face chinese for 17 hours straight, I said "I think we've got a gambling problem boys". Stato, head in hands, half asleep said "I don't. I've got a sleeping problem. Because I can't stop gambling."
I've never thought of myself as addicted to no limit holdem. I've never woken up and instantly started playing. I've never had any trouble taking time off, and do so often. I miss it after a few days, but I never
need to play. I feel that I've always had a pretty balanced life style overall, and that playing poker never dominated my life, though I guess it's close at times.
However, No limit holdem has taken a back seat lately. All my thoughts and efforts are on Open Face Chinese. And I'm absolutely addicted.
I woke up yesterday around 3pm and must have taken my turn on one of my games on the app within 5 minutes. The time I was in the shower was the longest I went without taking a turn. It's 8am now and we've just finished a live game in the living room (Me, Stato, Ben and Fred) that lasted 10 hours, and I was playing for about 7 hours before then on the app.
It's the next big thing I think. Would be so epic if they ran games at DTD.
The variation we play is 7 cards, passing two with two jokers, £1 a point, which doesn't sound much, but 4 handed and with Fantasy Land (AND liberal rules to retrigger) it plays pretty big. Everyone had >500 point swings at some point.
My only swinging was up pretty much, I had 6 fantasy land retriggers on the bounce, one of them was this little beaut.
| Click to see full-size image. |
44 points in royalties (we play quads 12) and a fantasy land retrigger. Very nice
Felt like one of the most degenerate days of my life, a day in which 10 minutes didn't go by where I didn't "gamble" in some way. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It sounds like I'm bragging, like I think it's cool. I don't. It's just kinda crazy. It makes me wonder what life would be like if I didn't gamble. Sometimes I find it so mentally exhausting winning/losing money every day. Chance and luck play such a huge part of day to day life, what would it be like to have a steady income, where your expectation remained constant throughout each day? I've forgotten what life was like before I gambled. I see a huge separation between myself and and any of my non-poker friends. I wouldn't say that I was "close" with anyone outside the poker world anymore except for Victoria.
Anyway, it's 1pm now I need more sleep.
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