When did you start gambling?

I typed so damn much, I might as well get two threads out of this-

I was just thinking about the fact that I've been gambling as long as I've had disposable income. When I was 11 or 12 I started mowing lawns and making like $40-$60 per week for the grass growing months. I blew some of it playing NBA Jam with Micon at the local laser tag arena. That shit was $2 per game per person, but the winning team stayed for free, so it was kind of like gambling. When the clock was ticking down, you were thinking about not wanting to pay that two bucks and how it could buy you multiple honey buns at lunch.

Throughout middle school, usually in the summers, we would play this game called In Between (it has a lot of names) where you deal two cards into two piles, and then bet on if the next card will be between the two dealt. If the third card matches either of the first two, you have to pay double what you bet. So it lends itself to crushing (and hilarious) beats. A good win at In Between could drag you $10-$20 bucks.

I was definitely playing poker by 9th grade, but it might have been earlier than that. We played a lot of 5 card draw, like everyone does. We also played quite a bit of 7 card stud with wild cards and goofy rules like high spade in the hole shit.

When I turned 21 I was already a professional programmer. So I had more disposable money than most 21 year olds, and I made sure to dispose of all of it. Micon was day trading stocks, and going to the casino with a real Indiana license that he had gotten with someone else's birth certificate. The Saturday after my 21st birthday, we took 3 cars down to Louisville to Caesars Indiana. 5 of us sit down at my first blackjack table and the dealer looks at Micon and says "Glad to have you back with us a second night in a row, Mr. Daymeyer." We were trying so hard to not burst out laughing. So I dump about $300 at Blackjack, but have a good time. This was back when the boats had to close at 4am. At like 3:45, I'm walking out and I throw $20 in a Sphinx slot machine, and hit the bonus round for almost $450. It was too much for the buckets of quarters, so I had to get paid by the attendant. The lady placed hundred dollar bills in my outstretched palm, and counted "One hundred...two hundred...three hundred...four hundred". When your rent is $250/month, that seems like a lot of damn money. I remember looking at the stack of money and saying "god damn, gambling is awesome". And since it was my birthday, she brought me a "Happy Birthday from Caesars Indiana" coffee mug. That mug is currently on my desk at work and full of pens.

What were the first games you played for money and what were the stakes?

Gin and Tonk from about the age of 10, played a game called bite the bullet on my teens and started poker around 14 with stud. I think the more popular name for in between is Acey Duecy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jasep

Gin and Tonk from about the age of 10, played a game called bite the bullet on my teens and started poker around 14 with stud. I think the more popular name for in between is Acey Duecy

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I learned to play Gin from my mom when I was in grade school, but I don't think I've ever played for money. I don't remember how to play Tonk. I just remember that it's a ghetto game.

I have gambled since i was about 11. My friends dad taught me how to play draw poker and 7 stud and 7card no peek, and i was hooked. My 1st trip to the casino was Biloxi i played War and slots, i was down to my last few dollars and hit the jackpot on a sizzlin 7 machine and won around $350.

Has Micon always been a dickhead?

Great OP question.

I first gambled playing marbles on the grammar school parking lot. I had a +EV and settled all disputes with fist fights.

As a child I played Gin Rummy and Poker with Mrs. Mitchell, our white babysitter (we also had a delightful negress babysitter who held us by the ankles over the laundry chute when we misbehaved). Mrs. Mitchell regularly took all of my allowance plus the loose change I could clip from my parents.

Later, my older brother, Jim, taught me how to play cards.

I had a privileged, lily white upbringing and I'm damn proud of it.

Although my father was a successful businessman he also played in the biggest cash game in the area. The old man also taught me how to handicap football and basketball.

Anyway, as kids, we used to play poker on the pool table until (as I stated above), my skills improved.

So our babysitter, Mrs. Mitchell, decided she wanted to play pool instead of poker.

Bad decision. My Dad was a good pool player and taught all his kids how to shoot pool. Mrs. Mitchell sucked at pool.

I didn't play much gin or poker until college. Those were the glory days. Every college freshman thought he knew how to play cards. Few did. It was easy pickings.

Later, I read A. Alvarez's 'The Biggest Game In Town' (if you haven't read it, READ IT!) which changed my poker playing life.

I flew out to Las Vegas and railed guys like Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, Jack 'Tree Top' Straus, Amarillo Slim, et al.

That's why I respect the young players today. I played poker but, back then, I never had the confidence or balls to play with my heroes.

I played the side games but never entered a wsop event. I was awed by these guys. It will seem ridiculous to you but I felt I had no business sitting down with them.

In those days the wsop schedule was written on a chalk board in the very back of Binion's Horseshoe Casino.

They removed rows of slot machines to accommodate the wsop. It was all so confusing and exciting to me, yet I never entered one event. This happened several years in a row, way before the poker boom.

I revered these guys. They were my poker heroes.

I was pleased and shocked by the poker boom. In 2003, I was sitting at a 5/10 Kill Game at the old Mohegan Sun Poker Room when someone announced that a guy named Moneymaker won the wsop ME.

I was and still am thrilled with the poker renaissance.

Now I'm old and fearless. I can afford to enter any wsop tournament.

My wish is to make a wsop final table. If I were to win a wsop bracelet, I would weep like a child.

Welcome to PokerFraudAlert, Barry. Glad you made it over here.

I always had a fascination with gambling.

My parents went to Vegas about 1-2 times per year in the '70s and '80s, so I got an early exposure to gambling and the city of Las Vegas. My parents were only low-stakes blackjack players (and didn't play anything else), but they also enjoyed Vegas for the shows and just as a place to get away from LA for a weekend. They weren't card counters, so they were obviously -EV players, and probably lost money, but they only played like $3-5/hand so it was really just for fun. I remember my grandmother staying with me in the room in 1978 while my parents were about to go down and gamble. The 6-year-old me ran over and handed my father a dollar, and I told him to play it on a hand of blackjack for me. (Apparently I brought a few dollars to Vegas, probably to emulate my parents.) I ended up doing this a number of times over the next few years. My parents probably lied and said I won more than I did, but at least they made it realistic and didn't say I won every time (and thus also provided a good lesson that gambling doesn't equal guaranteed money.)

As I got older, I really looked forward to the day I would turn 21 and could gamble legally. Unlike other teenagers, I didn't care at all about drinking.

I first played video poker at age 15, in 1987. I was about 5'8" at the time, so I could pass for an adult (sort of), provided I played machines against the wall and tried to hide my face as much as possible. I did get kicked out of the casino a few times for being too young (they just told me to go back to my room), but I always aggressively cashed out, so I never lost more than a quarter or two when it happened. (If I didn't cash out, they would confiscate whatever money was in the machine.)

I also placed small sportsbets for like $10 each. The sportsbooks were pretty lax at the time about accepting small bets from teenagers, so I placed the bets myself, and gave the ticket to my father to cash if it won.

I played my first hand of blackjack in 1993 when I was 21. I should have gotten into card counting back then, because conditions were still VERY GOOD for it at the time, and I could have made a lot of money, even though my bankroll wasn't that big to withstand variance. I did not play any poker at the time, except for some 5-card stud with friends in a very low stakes home game occasionally.

I also played stud once or twice around 1999, I think at the Luxor, and I remember it being $0.50/$1 or something. I was also a complete donkey but didn't realize it.

I also placed smallish sportsbets online, at places like Intertops and Centrebet, for like $50 each. I believe I was an overall loser, but I didn't lose that much.

At the end of the year 2000, I made two important decisions regarding my gambling:

1) After getting beat down for $500 (a big loss for me at the time) during a weekend in Vegas in July, I decided I was an idiot for giving my money away to -EV gambling. I decided to teach myself how to count cards.

2) At the suggestion of a friend (the guy who was later known as "Good Eats!" on Pokerstars), I bought the book "Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em" by Lee Jones (yes, THAT Lee Jones), and decided to learn how to play Texas Hold 'Em. Poker was still not particularly popular at the time, and in fact no casinos spread NL games -- it was only various limit games, mostly hold 'em.

I practiced card couting on a computer program during the month of October, 2000. I ran it at super-fast speed so it would seem easy when I actually got to Vegas. Later in the month, I played my first card-counting blackjack, mostly at Imperial Palace (where the game was good at the time), and won $1400 spreading my bets from $10-$50.

I played my first hold 'em in January, 2001. It was $3/$6 at the Hustler Casino in Gardena, CA. I broke exactly even, and mostly played like a donkey (though not as bad as some other people in the game!) I really enjoyed the game and came back several times that week. I believe I lost overall during my first 2 months of play, but again, not that badly. I started playing online in February, 2001 on Planet Poker.

My first real "breakthrough" in poker was on True Poker in July, 2001. Up until then, I was a small loser in poker. I started playing the $10/$20 limit game on there (the highest they had), and it was generally a very good game, though there were also some surprisingly good players there, including some who are still in the poker scene today. I won like $9000 in my first few weeks on the site, and it was then when I realized that I might be able to make some real money in poker. Obviously I gave some back and still had a lot of improving to do, but that was kind of the turning point when I no longer sucked and came up with some strategies I still use today.

Oddly enough, True Poker was also the only poker site that I ever used to get together with a girl. This was in August, 2001. I was making a bunch of jokes in the chat one night, thinking I was just screwing around in front of a bunch of other dudes. Turned out a player with a male-looking avatar was actually a 28-year-old female, and thought I was really entertaining, so we started talking. Eventually we exchanged e-mail addresses and then phone numbers, and she told me to call her next time I came to Vegas. I did just that about a month later, got a suite at the LV Hilton (ballin'), and we pretty much had sex the whole weekend. We talked like once or twice after that, but the next time I called her number was disconnected, and I never bothered to try to find her after that. For awhile I wondered if I would eventually bump into her around Vegas, but it's been 11 years and haven't seen her, so she probably either left town and/or quit poker.

Age 7 - I would play 5 card draw with my grandpa for pennies. I don't even think they where my pennies to begin with so I don't know how much gambling was involved more of an introduction to games with wagering involved. He also taught me the rules behind stud poker but I didn't appreciate that game since it felt to me like you didn't do anything. Of course, now I love stud games & hate draw because there's less information.

Age ? - there was pogs which was legitimate gambling.

Age 13 - when I start highschool though I was a full-on degenerate. Craps in the locker room, blackjack & craps in class, poker games at lunch, and sports betting. It was never much money since everyone was a kid & broke as fuck and it wasn't every single day but it was still pretty filthy looking back.

Age 15 - I gambled more then I could afford to lose at blackjack and it took me a while to pay it back, I eventually ended up paying back more then double what I owed but it took me so long I'm still ashamed of that.

Age 16 - I started selling weed so finally starting making a little bit of money, where as before my only source of income was writing papers for other people for way less then my time was worth. I stopped playing blackjack & dice and start running poker games all the time. I had to go to summer school that year because I got dropped from so many classes for attendance issues despite still having passing grades and every single day the teacher would give out 5 minutes of work and then everyone would play cards. Mostly euchre & I would run the 5 card draw game. I ended up taking 50 bucks off my teacher the one time he played with us which was pretty cool. I'm still owed a N64 from a kid along with a few games & is the only debt I can't remember the name of the person who owes me. This was a big summer for me because I saw Rounders and was introduced to other types of poker games & stumbled across PokerStars shortly after, right before Moneymaker won the series. I deposited on Pokerstars via WU and dropped like 100 bucks inside of an hour playing micro stakes Hold`em & O8. O8 seemed like a very simple game to me, I deposited again and dropped it all in less then an hour. I concluded something was wrong because I basically never lost playing 5 card draw live, so I concluded I sucked and started reading everything I could and building up from freerolls. This is probably the most responsible thing I've ever done as I could have easily just kept depositing and dropping money. I eventually started making a lot of money dealing & still never redeposited.

Age 17 - I had become obsessed with playing, learned how much people gambled and made the announcement I was going to play poker for a living. To my parents credit neither of them told me I couldn't do such a thing though apparently this was the subject of more then one fight about how I was being raised (dad yelling at my mom).

Age 18 - Became a pro & haven't looked back. My dad appreciates what goes into it & I was actually starting to teach him to play Stud8 & Razz so he could make a living at it until Black Friday happened. My mom on the other hand still wonders when I'm going to grow up and take a job offer then pays less then half of what I make now or go to college and become an adult.

Some great stories being told here. It makes you wanting to turn the clock back and do it all over again. It's all about timing though. Being young, single, with few responsibilities, that and along with a yearning for cards and gambling, the early LV scene was the perfect sitting for many. Unfortunately, for those like myself that did have the yearning, but also just had too many responsibilities--responsibilities that prevented us from packing up and giving it a shot. We could only sit back and watch it unfold. Folks like me can live it vicariously though, through stories like these.

10yrs old - starting playing a game we called "pitching change" which was tossing change anyways you could against the wall. person to get it closest to wall without touching won. but had to touch the wall in the air first. (seems silly but was fun) also had to match bet like penny to peeny, quarter to quarter ect.

15yrs old - starting playing knock out basketball game.

16yrs old - 5 card draw poker wiht and with out jokers wild.

18- hold'em poker with friends

19 - started playing holem tournaments at local bars . mid buyin from 25-75 bucks. crushed btw.

best part about these was after the main tournament got to final table they would start another $20 buy in games wiht unlimited rebuys thru two hours. needless to say second game got bigger than the fist one most of the time.

20 - started playing online poker at FTP for fun. ended up puting 400-500 onto the site, and cashing out for about 5k and different times. i was going to deposit alot and get serious abou it and then BBBOOOOOOOOMMMM Black friday happened.

present - dont play much anymore except the every other weekend casino trip.

Started out as a kid playing Tonk and poker for nickels and dimes - my father was a huge degen and he taught all the kids to play. We played that "in between" game as well Barry - also Black Jack. He used to take us to the track and teach us about exactas and boxing your bets... how to pick horses and all his crazy theories on double initials, breeding, etc. All nonsense - he was a life loser in gambling. He'd also get us to bet on sports as we sat around watching TV. As a family, we'd bet on just about anything - things as stupid as whether or not a boxing match would end with a headbutt. I would guess age 13 is when it really came to fruition - my dad started having poker games at the house with the losers that worked for him - all sorts of odd characters who were telephone solicitors. These guys were drug addicts and outcasts - OB (Onion Breath as we affectionately referred to him) lived in a trailer... Big John had a heroin habit and drank like a fish... and Jimmy James went to jail for molesting his infant daughter. Thanks Dad! You really took great care of us kids!

But yeah the poker games were epic. Our friends from school would join in as well, and my dad used to give us money to play. When it first started out, if we lost our own money he'd reimburse us at the end of the night - it was all just for the fun of it to him. I remember discovering Texas Hold'em, and that was instantly my favorite poker game. As it was dealers choice, I called it every time the deal came around to me. I also outlawed all wild cards at our games. One year, I took my dad for over $3000, and after that, the games kind of fizzled out. Dad was pretty pissed because I never gave him any of the money back.

Years later, when poker first started up online, I happened to be stuck in the house and using the Internet as a means to socialize (long story I will tell another time), and I remember playing at Pokah.com before they even had real money tables. I used to play a lot at Artichoke Joe's in the Bay Area, if any of you are familiar. I gave most all gambling up when I had my daughter though - I also quit shooting pool. Just a huge lifestyle change... I never really went back to any of it other than playing a few SnG's here and there on Stars and a couple other sites. I did pretty well at the 6 man sit'n'gos... but never enough to live on. These days, I don't play at all, and rarely miss it. But gambling is still in my blood. I'll make prop bets with my daughter standing in line at the grocery store as to how much the total bill will be. I guess you never lose the habit entirely.

Gambled @ 11 years of age by constantly buying and selling baseball cards with professional dealers.

Used to play version of stud call baseball with my brother when I was in Middle school

Started betting with bookies 50-100 a game in 8th 9th grade

Started playing cards with friends for money in 9th grade and played with them till my early 20s and then I started betting big money on sports.

Poker blew up in 03-04 and I got back into this and stopped sports gambling couple years ago.

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Originally Posted by Jasep

Gin and Tonk from about the age of 10, played a game called bite the bullet on my teens and started poker around 14 with stud. I think the more popular name for in between is Acey Duecy

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I started out playing pool at about the same age and tonk is a staple of southern pool halls.

I started out playing in between, blackjack, guts, black bottom and other limit games in junior high. Looking back on it, none of us knew wtf we were doing.

I grew up in a very blue collar town, none of us had a lot of money. I remember one night we were playing in between and drinking ( I think I was a senior in high school) when people were getting double and triple burned left and right. The guy dealing was famous for burning people, so much so that we called him Satan. Well, he was living up to his name. We ended up having like $600 in the middle including 3 or 4 I owe yous, one of which was mine. Nobody had the nerve to go pot and end the carnage (or could back it if they lost) so we ended up chopping it somehow...lol.

I started working at the post office at 20 years old as a transitional employee, which was a glorified temp with an opportunity to become full time eventually. I was working 6 days a week/10 hours a day and banking cash. I bought my first house shortly after my 21st b-day. A little duplex so I would have a renter to help make the payment in case I was let go. After 3 years I was hired as a career employee and finally was able to take some time off. So I went to Vegas for the first time, by myself since none of my friends could afford to go with or were able to get time off.

I stayed downtown at the Four Queens and walked over to Binion's to play some poker. I put my name on all the low limit lists and got called for 4-8 omaha hi/lo. I had barely even heard of the game! lol Thankfully, after 2 orbits I was called for 2-6 stud and moved. I remember being up like $100 somehow and racking up my profit and bringing it to the cage to cash out. Everybody very politely informed me that it was "table stakes" and I couldnt do that :o. I ended up losing it all ofcourse, it was late and one of the props finished me off at like 4 in the morning. I had no clue what a prop was at the time.

The turning point for me came in 1999. I was at a coworkers house with a few people and we watched the movie Rounders. It literally changed my life. I became obsessed with poker and read every book I could get my hands on. A few months later, thanks to governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Minnesota's first card room opened up. I played low limit holdem and was a small loser for about the first year or so. I then found my groove and started beating 2-4 through 4-8 games while table selecting like a fiend. I started final tabling a few tourneys and beating some regular home games too. Still, not for a lot though. Then the boom hit and home game leagues with crazy cash games after the tourneys started popping up. I was way ahead of everybody and crushing it.

It was about that time that I started playing online. This already reads like a novel, so I will just say that I was able to beat low limit tourneys and select non holdem cash games well enough to supplement my income nicely till black Friday. I'm no world beater, and would always get swatted down at the 5-10 limit when I tried to move up, but I had not deposited in 5 years when the DOJ ruined my second job. :(

- Started playing cards at about 6 years old and on from what I remember.
- Games like baseball, rummy, played a lot of cribbage with my grandparents including crib tournaments at their seniors hall. They used to let me play with them, easy game!
- Got Intellivision when I was around 6-8 yrs old and it came with Intellivision poker (5 card stud, 7 card stud, 5 card draw and black jack), learned to play them back then and I would crush the computer during summer break.
- Didn't start playing again until my late teens, played home games for dimes with my sisters bf and his friends. It was those crazy wild games, deuces wild, kings and little ones, crap like that but I always left with a few bucks cause they were always drinking and playing and I would be playing solid taking their money. LOL
- 2004 rolled around then I played NLH at a bar in some bar poker league and the rest is history (Local casino then the internet).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=e-1EbqXKwTw

Never gambled a dime until 2003 (when I was 26) when my brother told me he won 2 freerolls on pokerroom totalling almost a grand in a single week.

Deposited a few times, played around with it, then obsessed over it, and now still an online poker pro in 2012. I think not being a real gambler in life helped me a lot with the professional aspect. I still had to deal with the mental stuff of gambling, but just took some time to learn.

I started going to the horse races with my Dad when I was 8 or 9. I never bet though. I would just root for whoever my Dad bet on. Soon, however, he would not let me see who he bet on since I would let my mom know if and how much he won or lost. For the rest of his life anytime my Dad went to the track (4-5 times per week in retirement) all my Mom knew was that he always (whether true or not) won enough to take her out for a nice dinner. Anyways after he would no longer let me see his bet tickets, I decided I needed to make my own bets. The first time I remember asking my Dad to place a bet for me, I was probably 10. I handed him $2 out of my own money and told him to bet it to win on a certain horse. He looked at the horse in the Racing Form and then its odds on the tote board, and laughed. He asked me if I realized that the horse was off the board, meaning it's odds were greater than 99-1. I was confident I picked the winner, however and told him to make the bet. He told me to save my money, but I persisted. He left and went to place his bet and said he would place mine also. My horse wound up going off at odds like 113-1, and led wire to wire winning easily by a few lengths. For my $2 wager I was going to get back over $220....a small fortune to a 10 year old. My father, however, looked sick as he explained to me that horses like mine never win and that he thought Id be happy after the race to get my money back, so he never made the bet. I've been looking for that next long shot ever since!

-My first foray into the world of gambling came via POGS, the game where you would stack circular discs of cardboard into towers same side up and and hit the pile with a brass/metal/plastic/rubber 'slammer', getting to keep whichever POGS flipped over. If it was down to a shorter stack of POGS, you would use a lighter 'slammer' and for one remaining POG you would use a really thin tool to sort of pry the POG over. I was a shark and eventually nobody for play me for keeps. All that really mattered was how deadly your slammer arsenal was.

-Then came 8th-9th grade when friends and I would play pool, bet sports games for $5-$10 each.

-Then, being rich white kids in North Carolina, we started gambling on golf. Definitely -EV for me, lost a lot of money.

-Got into NLHE around Moneymaker time, played and watched nonstop and won a lot of money playing $20-50 buy-in cash games. Subsequently went to Vegas a couple of times, did okay in $2-$5 NL and then got into mixed games with a home game crowd. Was playing $10-$20 HORSE + 2-7 every Thursday night before moving to Nepal. Occasionally would play in NL games around town for similar stakes.

-Since being in Nepal, I bet sports occasionally and play Indian marriage for money. Lots of fun and definitely +EV for anybody who knows their way around cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Marriage

At 14 I was an arcade shark. I remember having my own bankroll of like $50 all in quarters which, at the time, might as well have been a literal goldmine. My buddy Angel and I used to troll around cutting class and would tai the bus to a couple local malls and these malls invariably had arcades and my ADD riddled brain was instantly and fatally in love.

I used to (and still do) take on all comers at street fighter 2. I get ken, you pick whoever, left or right side doesn't matter- YOU'RE DONE. I had a win steak when SF2 turbo came out of 28 wins which, if you consider each win represented a new opponent and even the worst players can be surprisingly good at times, was remarkable, even to this day. I will absolutely throw down however much cash I have on hand and play anyone at anytime if it's sf2.

The funny part is actually how I got my bankroll started- you ever see that kid who looks sad and pathetic cuz he hasn't got any money to play so he walks around hopelessly reaching into the quarter returns just praying to get lucky? That was me, except one day I hit a mini-jackpot of like $2.75 in one fell swoop and never looked back! I still remember sticking my finger past the little black metal flap not expecting much but felt my heart jump at familiar cold jagged edge of 'ol George Washington but WAIT- WHAT'S THIS??? IT'S SLIDING- THERE CAN'T BE TWO IN THERE, COULD THERE BE? Yes there was and strangely enough some quarters had become lodged up on the machine and dumped out a couple dollars into my shaking clammy palms. I felt the now of so familiar rush of endorphins and adrenalin and ran light speed to the bathroom to count my booty. I was sure to to go to juvenile hall if anyone found out and if you can believe it, at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants. Looking back what a filthy bastard I was.

From then on you literally could not get a minute on any machine I lay claim to without going through me (which was impossible) and despite being a little scrawny bag of bones I never got beat up. Actually, looking back, I am damn impressed with that little bit of history. Im telling you guys sf2 and MK were legit, but nothing NOTHING ever came close to Killer Instinct. For over a year I owned souls and eventually retired on top. No clue how good I am now as I haven't found one single KI arcade in over a decade (1997 actually, since my damn memory insists on getting stupid details annoyingly right all the time) but I bet with Sabrewolf I am still pretty fierce.

Interesting trip through the way back machine Barry. It was obviously only a matter of time before you sauntered on over and found a new home here. As one of DDs much better posters I hope you stay.

What do say Barry? Do you choochoochoose PFA? In the event of a stalemate I present to you the ultimate tiebreaker-

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

I used to (and still do) take on all comers at street fighter 2. I get ken, you pick whoever, left or right side doesn't matter- YOU'RE DONE

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I would straight punk your ass with Blanka

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...NWHIfW64bn3GiQ

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants.

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:hof

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Originally Posted by Corrigan

I would straight punk your ass with Blanka

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...NWHIfW64bn3GiQ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants.

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:hof

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Wwow BLANKA IS THE ANSWER SO SAYS THE MAGIC MAN
TELL YOU WHAT, BEST 3/5 AND WE PUT A 50 SPOT ON IT WHAT DO YOU SAY?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

At 14 I was an arcade shark. I remember having my own bankroll of like $50 all in quarters which, at the time, might as well have been a literal goldmine. My buddy Angel and I used to troll around cutting class and would tai the bus to a couple local malls and these malls invariably had arcades and my ADD riddled brain was instantly and fatally in love.

I used to (and still do) take on all comers at street fighter 2. I get ken, you pick whoever, left or right side doesn't matter- YOU'RE DONE. I had a win steak when SF2 turbo came out of 28 wins which, if you consider each win represented a new opponent and even the worst players can be surprisingly good at times, was remarkable, even to this day. I will absolutely throw down however much cash I have on hand and play anyone at anytime if it's sf2.

The funny part is actually how I got my bankroll started- you ever see that kid who looks sad and pathetic cuz he hasn't got any money to play so he walks around hopelessly reaching into the quarter returns just praying to get lucky? That was me, except one day I hit a mini-jackpot of like $2.75 in one fell swoop and never looked back! I still remember sticking my finger past the little black metal flap not expecting much but felt my heart jump at familiar cold jagged edge of 'ol George Washington but WAIT- WHAT'S THIS??? IT'S SLIDING- THERE CAN'T BE TWO IN THERE, COULD THERE BE? Yes there was and strangely enough some quarters had become lodged up on the machine and dumped out a couple dollars into my shaking clammy palms. I felt the now of so familiar rush of endorphins and adrenalin and ran light speed to the bathroom to count my booty. I was sure to to go to juvenile hall if anyone found out and if you can believe it, at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants. Looking back what a filthy bastard I was.

From then on you literally could not get a minute on any machine I lay claim to without going through me (which was impossible) and despite being a little scrawny bag of bones I never got beat up. Actually, looking back, I am damn impressed with that little bit of history. Im telling you guys sf2 and MK were legit, but nothing NOTHING ever came close to Killer Instinct. For over a year I owned souls and eventually retired on top. No clue how good I am now as I haven't found one single KI arcade in over a decade (1997 actually, since my damn memory insists on getting stupid details annoyingly right all the time) but I bet with Sabrewolf I am still pretty fierce.

Interesting trip through the way back machine Barry. It was obviously only a matter of time before you sauntered on over and found a new home here. As one of DDs much better posters I hope you stay.

What do say Barry? Do you choochoochoose PFA? In the event of a stalemate I present to you the ultimate tiebreaker-

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I've heard people argue this before and simply don't see it. Mortal Kombat owned everything in the fighting genre for years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

At 14 I was an arcade shark. I remember having my own bankroll of like $50 all in quarters which, at the time, might as well have been a literal goldmine. My buddy Angel and I used to troll around cutting class and would tai the bus to a couple local malls and these malls invariably had arcades and my ADD riddled brain was instantly and fatally in love.

I used to (and still do) take on all comers at street fighter 2. I get ken, you pick whoever, left or right side doesn't matter- YOU'RE DONE. I had a win steak when SF2 turbo came out of 28 wins which, if you consider each win represented a new opponent and even the worst players can be surprisingly good at times, was remarkable, even to this day. I will absolutely throw down however much cash I have on hand and play anyone at anytime if it's sf2.

The funny part is actually how I got my bankroll started- you ever see that kid who looks sad and pathetic cuz he hasn't got any money to play so he walks around hopelessly reaching into the quarter returns just praying to get lucky? That was me, except one day I hit a mini-jackpot of like $2.75 in one fell swoop and never looked back! I still remember sticking my finger past the little black metal flap not expecting much but felt my heart jump at familiar cold jagged edge of 'ol George Washington but WAIT- WHAT'S THIS??? IT'S SLIDING- THERE CAN'T BE TWO IN THERE, COULD THERE BE? Yes there was and strangely enough some quarters had become lodged up on the machine and dumped out a couple dollars into my shaking clammy palms. I felt the now of so familiar rush of endorphins and adrenalin and ran light speed to the bathroom to count my booty. I was sure to to go to juvenile hall if anyone found out and if you can believe it, at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants. Looking back what a filthy bastard I was.

From then on you literally could not get a minute on any machine I lay claim to without going through me (which was impossible) and despite being a little scrawny bag of bones I never got beat up. Actually, looking back, I am damn impressed with that little bit of history. Im telling you guys sf2 and MK were legit, but nothing NOTHING ever came close to Killer Instinct. For over a year I owned souls and eventually retired on top. No clue how good I am now as I haven't found one single KI arcade in over a decade (1997 actually, since my damn memory insists on getting stupid details annoyingly right all the time) but I bet with Sabrewolf I am still pretty fierce.

Interesting trip through the way back machine Barry. It was obviously only a matter of time before you sauntered on over and found a new home here. As one of DDs much better posters I hope you stay.

What do say Barry? Do you choochoochoose PFA? In the event of a stalemate I present to you the ultimate tiebreaker-

---

I've heard people argue this before and simply don't see it. Mortal Kombat owned everything.

I remember in 4th grade my friend brought up the idea of betting money on college football games. I thought it was the best idea I ever heard. I always loved gambling and sports, which is why sports betting is like uber crack for me. I remember in 6th grade the Padres were playing the Yankees in the World Series. I was even a contrarian in 6th grade, and I told everyone that they were idiots for thinking the Yankees would win. I ended up putting like $50 on the Padres (at even money), when they were probably a huge dog. I ended up losing, and I had to basically look for coins all over my house to pay for it.

Then I discovered poker and the rest is history. There was no greater rush than the first year playing poker. It was an incredible feeling. It's something I'll probably never get back. Even betting five figures on sporting events didn't seem to do it for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

-My first foray into the world of gambling came via POGS, the game where you would stack circular discs of cardboard into towers same side up and and hit the pile with a brass/metal/plastic/rubber 'slammer', getting to keep whichever POGS flipped over. If it was down to a shorter stack of POGS, you would use a lighter 'slammer' and for one remaining POG you would use a really thin tool to sort of pry the POG over. I was a shark and eventually nobody for play me for keeps. All that really mattered was how deadly your slammer arsenal was.

-Then came 8th-9th grade when friends and I would play pool, bet sports games for $5-$10 each.

-Then, being rich white kids in North Carolina, we started gambling on golf. Definitely -EV for me, lost a lot of money.

-Got into NLHE around Moneymaker time, played and watched nonstop and won a lot of money playing $20-50 buy-in cash games. Subsequently went to Vegas a couple of times, did okay in $2-$5 NL and then got into mixed games with a home game crowd. Was playing $10-$20 HORSE + 2-7 every Thursday night before moving to Nepal. Occasionally would play in NL games around town for similar stakes.

-Since being in Nepal, I bet sports occasionally and play Indian marriage for money. Lots of fun and definitely +EV for anybody who knows their way around cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Marriage

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What the hell do you do in Nepal? I went to college with Siddharta Rana, who was a close friend of Prince Paras until Paras beat the crap out of him several years ago. I think he is still one of the richest men in Nepal....Chairman of the Soaltee Group.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

I've heard people argue this before and simply don't see it. Mortal Kombat owned everything.

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You have a good point as far as a player vs player game that the MK series was better. KI and KI2 had such ridiculously long combos that if you didn't get the breaker in you would lose up to 3/4 of your energy at once so if you ever got caught it was basically over.

When I was 15



Banged my GF without a rubber.

No STD's and no preggo.

I won

I caught the gambling bug early in life at a family gathering.

Nickle and dime 5 draw poker, and a game called ship-captain-crew were the culprits. I turned a begged-for-and-begrudgingly-given-because-you-will-just-lose-it dollar from my dad into an entire coffee mug of nickles dimes quarters with even a few dollars too. It was beginners luck to the max, because at the end, my uncles were earnestly trying to relieve me of my winnings (if only to teach me that you WILL lose when gambling also) but I broke em all of their pocket change, one by one.

After that night, I was the kid in 5th grade that would bring a deck to school to play during lunch, or at recess, or on the bus. I was totally hooked on gambling.

The next step in my progression was BASEBALL CARDS. I know right? Not gambling right? Well, it sure felt like it to me. I was fortunate enough to get a 1990 Upper Deck Ben McDonald error that at the time, was worth over 60 dollars. I opened the pack, found the card, turned around and traded it for like two boxes of upper deck packs.

The standard progression ensued, in high school we played all types of poker, with the insidious in-between/acey duecy always in the fold (and, a point of contention for many an argument, that game can conspire to break ALL players, putting all the money in the middle....I have seen it happen!).

That same Baseball card gamble feeling was later attained when I turned 18.......and delved into the crack cocaine of the lotto, scratch offs lol. I blew 50 to 100 dollars at a time on Fridays, all because I used to kill one ticket in particular (monopoly) but after that game was gone, all I did was lose lol obv.

My "gambling" reached its peak well before the Moneymaker online poker boom. we would gamble on anything and everything. Including what color car would get caught at the next stoplight, or whether a certain song will be found on the radio at an exact moment. Crazy bets, and it was a ton of fun.

When online poker came around, all of it stopped. I just played poker.

Now, god bless the USA, I don't even do that.

Fuck.

PS: The last uncle that tried to break me that night in 1984, still to this day considers me a lucky-lil-shit, and has bought pieces of me online, had me place bets when I went to Vegas, and always buys me lotto tickets as gifts (but we split it, you lucky lil-shit!). I really truly believe that our bond hearkens back to that family gathering, and that very first game of poker I played. Had I lost that night, who knows if I would even be here typing this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ricky

The next step in my progression was BASEBALL CARDS. I know right? Not gambling right? Well, it sure felt like it to me. I was fortunate enough to get a 1990 Upper Deck Ben McDonald error that at the time, was worth over 60 dollars. I opened the pack, found the card, turned around and traded it for like two boxes of upper deck packs.

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error cards were always a win

http://razzball.com/wp-content/uploa...-Fuck-Face.jpg

I'm from a gambling family,
@ 8 yrs old I knew standard BJ,
going to grandma's for the weekend was like going to a casino, only I always went home w/$$$, so thought I was good.

1st trip to Tahoe-18 yrs old- thought I'd own a piece of the casino by the time I left,
lost like $ 100 in 2 hours,
long ass drive home

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shortbuspoker

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

I've heard people argue this before and simply don't see it. Mortal Kombat owned everything.

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You have a good point as far as a player vs player game that the MK series was better. KI and KI2 had such ridiculously long combos that if you didn't get the breaker in you would lose up to 3/4 of your energy at once so if you ever got caught it was basically over.

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Yeah, and tough as nails players learn all the ins and outs of both combo breaking and avoidance. With Spinal I could beat the game 3-4 times in a row, with Sabretooth it might take a buck or two. Those two players had a very strong edge against the rest of the field. Fulgor ended up being the coulda/shoulda IMO, too many variables had to be right in order to get his combos to work. MK was pivotal because it reinvented the fighting Genre which SF2 essentially created. It added a 3 dimensional feel to the game and some very diverse players. I thought it was tits until I learned that fucking Sub Zero combo (there were a couple ways to do it but essentially jump kick uppercut freeze uppercut freeze jump kick slide back kick) and then the game was so pathetically easy I lost interest. With sub zero on an arcade console I was (and probably am) invincible.

Now Killer Instinct on the other hand took all of MK's strengths and made them better with the inclusion of Combo's, combo breakers and a few other assorted tricks. Players were even MORE diverse, the colors were fantastic and you had fatalities and you could make the guy dance, a whole bunch of shit. If you loved MK then KI was actually IMO MK2. I never got into the later mortal combat games, I didn't like them at all.

I can't say for sure but you guys were probably nowhere near the level I was at. I'm telling you, I used to play crazy asians bankrolled by older family members and I destroyed them completely. Video games are like a raw talent for me. I started out getting my first nintendo when I was 8 (thanks Mom!) and over the next few years I made it a hobby to buy whatever new games came out, take them home and beat them within 24hours without ever having read the instruction manual. My mom hated me for it. Said I was wasting money, not getting enough value out of the games or something.

In my 20's I used to race people for cash with the following terms- cars have to be similar though I will give up to a 10% edge to you, whatever game whatever track I want three practice laps to learn the turns and then it's on. I bet between 20-100 per race and never *NEVER* in 5 years or so lost.

Of course that's not to say I was racing pros (though I have a few times and won/lost pretty evenly) I was kind of like prime Fedor going after the UF scrubs but then again, anyone can win at anytime if you think about it. I just happen to know when it comes to racing games I have a strong edge at high speed, I make few mistakes, and I never buckle under pressure. You think some formula1 car is so crazy fast and you smoke the computer so you are on fire right? I am your extinguisher- I guarantee it. Also most players end up going off course at some point because I get ahead, they try to go way too fast in a straightaway, forget that they need to break early to make a hairpin and poof the race is mine outright. I didn't even give a shit what game it was, GT was my fave series but I played all the others including midnight run and some gran prix games. EXCEPT NASCAR I fucking HATE nascar in all forms video game or live. Only Amercians could invent such an idiotic way to kill time and waste braincells.

Whoever thinks they got the stuff I still race from time to time. SF2, KI, MK, GT, whatever, let's do it! I ain't delaware yet!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sloppy Joe

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 408Mike

At 14 I was an arcade shark. I remember having my own bankroll of like $50 all in quarters which, at the time, might as well have been a literal goldmine. My buddy Angel and I used to troll around cutting class and would tai the bus to a couple local malls and these malls invariably had arcades and my ADD riddled brain was instantly and fatally in love.

I used to (and still do) take on all comers at street fighter 2. I get ken, you pick whoever, left or right side doesn't matter- YOU'RE DONE. I had a win steak when SF2 turbo came out of 28 wins which, if you consider each win represented a new opponent and even the worst players can be surprisingly good at times, was remarkable, even to this day. I will absolutely throw down however much cash I have on hand and play anyone at anytime if it's sf2.

The funny part is actually how I got my bankroll started- you ever see that kid who looks sad and pathetic cuz he hasn't got any money to play so he walks around hopelessly reaching into the quarter returns just praying to get lucky? That was me, except one day I hit a mini-jackpot of like $2.75 in one fell swoop and never looked back! I still remember sticking my finger past the little black metal flap not expecting much but felt my heart jump at familiar cold jagged edge of 'ol George Washington but WAIT- WHAT'S THIS??? IT'S SLIDING- THERE CAN'T BE TWO IN THERE, COULD THERE BE? Yes there was and strangely enough some quarters had become lodged up on the machine and dumped out a couple dollars into my shaking clammy palms. I felt the now of so familiar rush of endorphins and adrenalin and ran light speed to the bathroom to count my booty. I was sure to to go to juvenile hall if anyone found out and if you can believe it, at like 12 years old, I stuffed all those dirty coins into my underpants. Looking back what a filthy bastard I was.

From then on you literally could not get a minute on any machine I lay claim to without going through me (which was impossible) and despite being a little scrawny bag of bones I never got beat up. Actually, looking back, I am damn impressed with that little bit of history. Im telling you guys sf2 and MK were legit, but nothing NOTHING ever came close to Killer Instinct. For over a year I owned souls and eventually retired on top. No clue how good I am now as I haven't found one single KI arcade in over a decade (1997 actually, since my damn memory insists on getting stupid details annoyingly right all the time) but I bet with Sabrewolf I am still pretty fierce.

Interesting trip through the way back machine Barry. It was obviously only a matter of time before you sauntered on over and found a new home here. As one of DDs much better posters I hope you stay.

What do say Barry? Do you choochoochoose PFA? In the event of a stalemate I present to you the ultimate tiebreaker-

---

I've heard people argue this before and simply don't see it. Mortal Kombat owned everything.

---

UMK3 was the best MK out of them all but it isn't played at a high level anymore. SuperTurbo still is in Japan...thats one hell of a shelf life but. MK9 is going to be one of the games at the:http://shoryuken.com/2012/01/03/intr...nament-season/ but I am pretty sure the company who made is bailed on any future patches/balances so I am pretty sure it will be a one more year and one game once people break it. It sucks that Evo isn't having any of the older games anymore I used to love watching old SuperTurbo, TekkenTag and 3rd Strike footage but kids love the new(er) fighters so I guess thats what they are going to have. I'd consider playing SuperTurbo for some money as long as it isn't HD Remix since they removed E.Hondas Corner Ochio setup...there is some setups where you can get still get big damage off of the throw though: DeepCrossup RoundHouse, 2x crouching Light, Fierce Hundred Hands, Fierce Ochio Throw but I can't piano hundred hands too well to execute.

Speaking of video games, the original Quake 1 might have been the best multiplayer game I ever played. I played that a tonnnn as a freshman in college vs. everyone else in our local network (maybe 12 dorm buildings or something). Was really great, certain levels were good headsup levels, etc. The quakes after that, halo, etc. never really seemed to be as good a pure strategy/action game as the original quake. Anyone get in on it?

yeah what's up Barry... my 1st gambling experience was betting a football ticket off a friend in high school...i picked 5 teams and won 4 of them.... lost the Pittsburg Steelers--KC chiefs game when the Steelers were crushing teams.... also had Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs they covered easily can't remember other 2 teams...1 pro, 1 college