by Garrett Anderson

Created on: February 12, 2009

If you are going to write something that you want somebody to read you should feel obligated to produce something that is interesting and useful. In order to be useful you must be honest and know the subject well. I've got those bases covered. I've got the eyes for this. Because if you are contemplating a gambling lifestyle, guys like me need to to talk to folks like you.

I started gambling before I was a teenager mostly on golf courses. I gambled on card games like Pitch and Poker in the clubhouse at that golf course. By the time I arrived in college, I was gambling during the week in school, weekends were spent gambling in bars in Montana. By the time I was 21, I was playing poker and betting various sporting events at least three days a week until I was 30. Somewhere around age 30, I began betting horses in addition to playing poker and betting sports. I have played cards for a living in Vegas. About the time internet gaming got popular I was ready. I didn't even have to leave the house. Everything was at my fingertips. For me gambling was an obsession, a labor of love. I was obsessed with being a winning gambler. Winning gamblers play longer. That's how it is for guys like me. I gambled consistently, almost daily, for 35 years. Then poker got a big boost courtesy of the Travel Channel and later ESPN. It brought a whole new crew, a generation of young guys in. It brought poker out of the back rooms and made it legitimate. Poker became very lucrative for awhile. I gambled for 35 years. Guys like you trying to beat guys like me.

What was it like and what does it take? It takes more than you can give. I spent 50,000 hours gambling. That does not count the hours of reading, research, and watching film and ESPN. Trying to climb a mountain where the odds are always against you. I gambled with the great ones like Titanic Thompson, Johny Moss, Phil Hellmuth. I banged heads with the casino, counting cards and getting thrown out of a couple of places. I've won tournaments, made big scores, and even managed to "slick" a casino out of a couple grand when they left a proposition bet up too long. I've hit every bet except horseracing's pick 6 and the lottery. Those were the high points, they were few and far between. The valley is much wider. I've spent countless hours losing and losing some more. I've gone broke so many times that I've lost count. Getting up in the morning and realizing you can't pay your bills. To lead a self centered lifestyle like this means you can't

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