Know when to fold. Pay attention to the signs. They're there.
High stakes, low stakes, poor or rich - people will find a way to gamble.
I'm definitely a gambler, as exemplified by the massive risks I've taken.
I felt invisible in my family, and I wanted to be significant like my brothers were significant. I wanted my parents to pay attention, so I went out into the world with that driving me, that grasping, that seeking validation.
It took me three and a half years to go from being sentenced in federal court to going to the Oscars.
When I'm in a hectic crowd of people, I don't feel great. I'm looking over my shoulder. I feel exposed.
I had a full-time driver, or I would take my Bentley. I'd have big houses in the Hamptons for the summer, taking seaplanes or helicopters out. I did a lot of flying privately to Miami. A lot of shopping.
This was 2008, you know. The economy was falling apart, spiraling. And I was hosting a game in New York, and there was $5 to $7 million on the table.
I have been hugely successful at times in my life, and I have also been in ruins. But the lessons I learned on the way up were just as valuable on the way down.
Ideally, I would like to not be in the public eye.
You're as sick as your secrets, and my whole life was a secret, so it's just... it's been really healing, and I've found a lot of inner peace by just owning everything and moving forward from there.
My regular game in New York City was a $250,000 buy-in, no limit. So people were burning through that, a lot of times in the first 30 minutes.
I moved to Los Angeles. My parents were not on board with that, and so I had to get a lot of different jobs. One of them was working for a man in Hollywood who had a weekly poker game.
I made the choice to go into the world of underground poker.
When you're willing to play poker for two days and lose millions of dollars, it's no longer recreation. It's taking over.
My father is a psychologist who wouldn't let fear stop us. Particularly with me, he was hell bent on requiring us and teaching us to walk through fear. I don't know if I would've become someone who taps into their ability to push through those tough situations without him.
I think my dad really wanted me to survive the world. He knew as a psychologist how difficult the world is, and I think he wanted me to be tough.
I don't think anyone's private life stands up to public scrutiny.
I'm all about second chances.
I logged into my bank accounts, and they were all seized, all frozen. So that was a pretty clear indication that I was in big trouble.
