My friend got into big trouble

[DespotInExile]

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Sorry for your friend, but if it wasn't poker he probably would have found some other way to [censored] his life up.

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The thing is, I dont think you're right. He had few of the other symptoms of a self-destructive life--no drugs or drinking to excess. He did have a fondness for strip clubs, and in the midst of his poker degeneracy, he ended up dating a series of strippers/hookers. I know the OOT crowd here will disagree, but nothing good can come from dating strippers; I'm a criminal defense lawyer, and I'd say that strippers or hookers feature prominently in about 20% of my clients (and we only deal with rich, white collar clients)...

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When he's sniffing solvents under a bridge after selling one of his kidneys to cover golf bets, then you'll have a story. This guy is minor league, another gambling junkie living in his parent's garrage .... This guy just needs a kick in the nuts.

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Absolutely right. There is no ethical issue with privileged, advantaged, educated, and relatively affluent people taking their money and flushing it down the toilet. Despite being the guy's friend, I have remarkably little sympathy for him.

On the other hand, I suspect that the 2+2 crowd is probably a little smarter than average, and more educated than average, and more self-confident than average, and so the purpose of my post was just to express surprise that it had happened to "one of us."

As I was telling a different 2+2er over IM the other night, I knew I was taking poker a little too seriously when I was 4-tabling Full Tilt, had monster hands on two tables, my extremely pregnant wife came up to me and complained of painful contractions, and I told her: "Hang on a sec honey, Im in a hand."

I took some time off the game after that one.