I don't want to waste tons and tons of space on my backstory but I feel it is important to try and explain what led me to live this double life of poker player and pit gambler/airport hustler.
I started getting really heavy into gambling right after I graduated from Penn State in 1999. I took a job with Dupont as a chem eng in Clinton Iowa(the middle of nowhere) and I absolutely hated it. I was super depressed and realized right away that there were 3 riverboat casinos within a 10 minute drive from my apartment. Before long I was calling in sick to work, gambling at these boats almost every hour of the day. I soon lost all my money, maxed out my new credit card and had to take out a loan from the credit union to pay my rent. Within 2 months I was fired and given a $7500 severance check(I was shocked, $7500 for 2 months of not showing up for work??) I told my parents what happened and they didn't understand any of this. They are both hard working people, how could they understand gambling/instant gratification lifestyles ,etc... My parents actually hired some financial planner for me in Iowa to manage the $7500 and told me to go to Gamblers Anonymous immediately. I did and at the same time was looking on monster.com for a new job in a better city. I was telling myself that I only went off the deep end gambling because I was in a boring place with a boring job. I wish that was why.
Found a new job around March 2000 with an industrial gas company in Irvine California. It was a sales job and they gave you a car and base salary was $50,000 plus 20-25k in commission. I also was given a gas credit card, laptop, cellphone and $5000 relocation bonus check. I thought my troubles were over. Well before I left Iowa I was told by GA members that I had to go to meetings in California or I would relapse. I wish I would have listened. I didn't go to any meetings and within 1 month I spotted all the LA card clubs and visited them all. Of course it was only a matter of time before I lost all of my money again and started writing bad checks. I learned a game called paigow at these places and it became my game of choice. Soon I had no money at all and I called my father begging him for a loan. I told him California was an expensive place to live and that I didn't have enough money to cover my rent. My father trusted me, wanted to believe me and wired me $6000. That money was gone in 2 hours. Soon after I was fired once again, the car taken away and was left with no job, no money and I didn't know what to do.
After I was fired, I was basically living in these casinos. Hollywood Park had at the time an upstairs "sleeping room" and if you played enough they would let you sleep upstairs. That place became my 2nd home and it was awful. I was desperate for money and after getting fired from my 2nd job, my parents and any other family members cut me off. I started calling a few of my good college friends, giving them any story I could think of and begging them for some money. They western unioned me a few thousand and all I did was gamble it away. My apartment complex in Irvine then told me they were starting eviction proceedings so I was so stressed I couldn't even think straight.
Around the end of September I was just walking around Hawaiian Gardens Casino when I was approached by these 2 black guys(not being racist, just mentioning they were black). They told me that they have seen me around a lot and asked me if I needed money. Needed money??? I heard that and I perked up real fast. Of course I needed money I told them. The 1 guy told me that he knew a guy who worked for a company and that he could get his hands on a few "big" checks made out to the company from certain vendors or something. He told me that his buddy could change the paid out name on the check to my name and that we could deposit the checks and split the money 3 ways. He asked me if I had a checking account and I told him yes. Basically he wanted me to deposit "altered" checks made payable to me in my bank account and withdraw money every day. Me being in total despair, desperate and not thinking clearly told him okay. He said even if they eventually catch on it would be years and that nothing would really happen to me. I don't know if I even thought of the consequences of all of this - all I thought of was how I could get my hands on thousands of dollars to play paigow with. So, within a few days I deposited $24,000 approximately of 4 altered checks into my bank account and started withdrawing the money. The 1st time I withdrew $6000 I believe and the next day I withdrew $4400. The 3rd day however, the bank got suspicious and stalled me while they called the police. When the police showed up those 2 guys who were always waiting in their car outside the bank were gone and I was arrested for 1 count(initially) of defrauding a financial institution. Welcome to my introduction to the criminal justice system.
I was taken into custody and booked into the Anaheim Police/Booking area and my bail was $10,000. I called another really close college friend/roommate and asked him if he could bail me out. After some coercing he called a bondsman in Anaheim and got me released. I was told that some detectives were going to follow up and speak with me but my 1st act was to try and hire a lawyer. Amazingly I hadn't gambled all of the money that was split with me on the 1st 2 withdrawals so I had about $2700 hidden in my soon to be evicted apartment. I looked up lawyers in the phone book(seriously) and eventually found a guy who was willing to take my case for $2500. Looking back no "good" lawyer would only take $2500 for this but he was fairly new and I had no other option imo. Believe it or not I was still hanging out in casinos, begging for money from anyone I could, even dealers I had previously tipped when I had won on occasion. I mean, these dealers work their butt off and I am begging them for a $25 dollar chip so I can "run it up" hopefully. It was pathetic. Eventually, my attorney called me and said that he was able to negotiate a deal for me. He told me that I was charged with 7 felonies and that he was able to get them to drop 3 of them and that I would plead guilty to 4 felonies and get 90 days in jail and 3 years felony probation. Again, looking back I would have never taken that deal(especially since I had no criminal record) but since my parents weren't speaking to me and I had no one advising me about anything, I listened to him and accepted that crappy offer. I ended up pleading guilty to 1)felony altered document 2)felony defrauding a financial institution 3)felony 2nd degree burglary and 4)felony forgery. I was scared about this 90 day Orange County Jail part and I found this inpatient Jewish rehab in LA that dealt with all types of addictions. I told my attorney about it and he successfully got the DA to allow me to go to this rehab for 6 months mandatory instead of the 90 days of jail time. The sad part is I ultimately ended up going to the jail in Orange County for 90 days anyways months later.