You know, I was thinking about this the other day.
I get an itch to play when I watch it on TV. Also, talking about it a lot on here or with other people, and I like to open up a table and screw around for a little bit.
I found that after work or doing HW or studying a long time for a test, that spending a few hours thinking about poker relaxes me. Can't explain it, but it takes my mind off of all the serious and sometimes bad things in my life and I can just think about how to play the next hand. It's very soothing to me...except when I get KK on the button and run in to dreaded J9 soooooted
Then, I realized that I sounded like an alcoholic that gets drunk after a hard day (or everyday) to take his mind off of life.
"I'm not addicted, I just like to use it to relax and get my mind off of things. I don't have a problem. Shutup"
But, after looking at it for a little bit to see if there really is a problem...I see that it doesn't affect my life. I mean, just looking at the last month, there have been two/three times that I've gone several days or even an entire week (not gonna be inside during Spring Break in Florida) without poker.
I'm not throwing away all my money. I'm not losing and losing and losing and then burning money away trying to win it all back. Losing money one night (although frustrating) doesn't affect my social life or the next day at school.
And, most importantly, I haven't started putting poker before other things in my life. I'm not staying home from school to play poker all day. I haven't skipped work to play a tournament because I JUST HAD TO! I have not just completely ignored my HW to play that one more SNG.
I have a hobby that exercises my mind and I enjoy playing.
hmm...I guess I rambled a little bit.
In conclusion, class, I understand bdawg from the perspective of getting that itch to play if I watch or talk about it. But, I'm pretty confident that I don't have a poker/gambling addiction.