when did playing for fun stop being actually true for you

pokerslave55

pokerslave55

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ok so ive been sitting here for the last hour not playing anything just thinking and i want to ask a real question because i think i already know my own answer but i want to hear yours. when you tell yourself or someone else that you're gambling just for fun- is that actualy true right now or is it something you keep saying because it used to be true and stopping to check feels uncomfortable
i started playing poker genuinely for fun. i remember it. it was fun. i dont know exactly when it stopped being about the game and started being about something else. i think it was so gradual that by the time it wasn't fun anymore i was already too deep in to reassess
not trying to be dramatic. just honest tonight for some reason.when was the last time you genuinely sat down to gamble with zero attachment to the outcome
 
i think for my boyfriend the answer is that it stopped being true probably around when it became the main thing he talked about. not the wins. the losses. people who are doing something purely for fun don't narrate the losses in the same way.

i play very small amounts and i think i am still genuinely in it for entertainment. but i also know i feel differently on losing sessions than winning ones and i try not to examine that too closely
 
the honest answer for most people who gamble regularly is that the "just for fun" framing serves a social purpose as much as a personal one. it's the acceptable explanation you give to family, to partners, to colleagues. it may have been true at the start. it gets repaeted long after it's stopped being the complete picture.
the uncomfortable thing is that mild attachment to outcomes isn't necessarily pathological.everyone who bets money has some attachment to the result. the line between normal and problematic is less clear than we'd like
 
ok this thread is making me think. I do play for fun right now I think. but reading this I'm realising I have no idea at what point I'd know it had changed. is that a thing most people only recognise in hindsight?
 
Newbie said:
ok this thread is making me think. I do play for fun right now I think. but reading this I'm realising I have no idea at what point I'd know it had changed. is that a thing most people only recognise in hindsight?
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exactly what it is bud. the problem with hindsight is you need time passing before you have it
 
look mate i get what you''re asking but honestly this sounds like therapy talk. this is a gambling forum. everyone here gambles because they like it and they know the risks. if ur losing too much take a break. if the break doesn't work take a longer one. doesn't need to be a whole philosophical investigation
 
Scott1baird said:
look mate i get what you''re asking but honestly this sounds like therapy talk. this is a gambling forum. everyone here gambles because they like it and they know the risks. if ur losing too much take a break. if the break doesn't work take a longer one. doesn't need to be a whole philosophical investigation
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yeah maybe you're right. or myabe that's exactly what i was afraid someone would say and thats why i've never asked before. not sure which
 
Research on this is quite consistent and the most reliable early indicator isn't bet size or frequency - it's the emotional response to losses. Recreational gamblers accept losses as the cost of entertainment but once that shifts to distress, or to an urge to immediately recover, the function of gambling has changed even if the external behaviour looks the sqme
 
Worth adding that "playing for fun with no attachment to outcome" is slightly contradictory as a concept. The excitement of gambling is partly the risk. The risk requires caring about the money to some degree. You cannot fully separate the emotional stakes from the financial ones. The more honest question is whether the level of attachment is proportionate to what you can actually afford to lose.
 
i approach gambling professionally which makes this question different for me. but even then i know exactly which sessions the line blurred. usually follows a bad run. you start calculating not what the correct play is but what you need to break even. those are different questions and the second one is not professional gambling anymore. it's the same shift you're describing, just in a different context.
 
vogafox said:
you need to break even
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that phrase. my boyfriend says it constantly. just need to get back to even. ive heard it so many times it stopped sounding alarming and started sounding normal and then i noticed that and it alarmed me more than the phrase ever had
 
for me it was when i started looking forward to my next session while still in the middle of a bad one. thats when i took a break
 
m0r0n said:
for me it was when i started looking forward to my next session while still in the middle of a bad one. thats when i took a break
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that's one of the cleaner ways i've heard it described. not the current session's outcome mattering but the next one already being more real than the present one
 
i understand the problem you describe. i have seen it. the answer is still discipline and limits. if limits dont work then stop completely. there is no middle ground that works long term 😑
 
DagaW said:
i understand the problem you describe. i have seen it. the answer is still discipline and limits. if limits dont work then stop completely. there is no middle ground that works long term 😑
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i know you're right. i know that. the gap between knowing something and doing it is where most of my money has gone in the last three years
 
to actually answer the original question. i think i play for fun but on nights im down i stay on longer than i intended. those two facts together probably tell you something. i don' t examine it too hard because i think the answer would make me uncomfortable.
 
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