The 7 Steps to Take When you Are Addicted to Online Poker

The game becomes frustrating, and you start smashing your keyboard and throwing your mouse. You start to get nagging headaches when you play, and it seems as though your head is in a vice. You keep reading, playing and depositing, and nothing seems to be working.
Your health is deteriorating. You are getting behind at work and at home. People are starting to notice. Your deposits are getting larger and larger, and you are playing at stakes that are above your head, just hoping for one big score.
Sound familiar? The reality of the situation is that while there are some very successful players online, most players will end up as losing players. Should you start feeling yourself being addicted to poker, there are several steps that you should take, immediately.
1. Email the poker sites that you play at, and have them ban you. Include your name and alias at the poker site, and tell them that you want a permanent ban on your account.
2. Shut down your methods of depositing. Do you have a Neteller account that you use to fund your online poker account? An Epassporte account? Send them an email, telling them that you want your accounts to be permanently closed.
3. Give away your poker books. If you can't give them away, then recycle them. You don't want any thing around that will give you the temptation to start playing poker again.
4. Uninstall your poker software from your computer. It might be tempting to watch some of the high stakes poker action on Pokerstars or Full Tilt Poker. Don't do it. It will just make you want to play.
5. Exercise. If you exercise daily, you will probably not want to be sitting in your chair, playing poker for hours at a time. You will want to be outside or at the gym, working out your body.
6. Ignore sites like Pocketfives.com, etc., especially when a big poker event is going on. The World Series of Poker final table is taking place, and you want to know who is doing well? Don't do it. It will just make you want to play again.
7. Remember your family. When all else fails, remember your family. Do you really want to put them through the wringer? Remember, most big-name professional poker players, no matter how successful they may try to seem, are actually quite penniless most of the time. You have your house, your kids, and your happy life; do you really want to give that up for a card game?