Yes I do have a poker “problem”. I find myself spending too many hours playing it. I multi-task when playing like I’d watch a full round of golf while I played poker, watch every football match going, but it’s time-consuming and restrictive. There are a bunch of times people will call at my house and I can’t entertain them because I’m playing 8 tables at once with a 30 second shot-clock.
Most of my friends and family do not like me playing poker. I’m a well-educated guy and I go for job interviews. They ask what I was doing over a particular period, you know the usual BS. I would say I was a “professional” poker player and made more than the starting salary of this job, tax free, every year. I would whip out my audits from pokerstars and they would look at me like I’m the Loch Ness Monster, “what the actual fuck?”
So yea on a personal level poker has been a negative influence. I’ve had girlfriends who felt jilted because I would be in the house with my laptop playing, they would be talking to me, and I’m like, “huh, what?”, constantly. It’s like they’re not even there. People, in general, don’t understand gambling and definitely not poker, which gave me a lot of heart-ache.