When, how, and why you started playing poker

Hi there! In this thread i want to see when you first started to play poker; for how long you have been playing, and why did you started. I personally started to play when i was 17. I used my father credit card (the first 10$ lose), i play for 2 years from now on pokerstars and i do it to gain experience and to relax. First time when I heard about poker i was like 12 years old in some news about Daniel Negreanu, his mother is from my country and he is kind of big deal here,and around 14 i started to be more intrigued about poker. First time i played poker in Governor of Poker 2 ( the hat game in texas) i kind of like it.

I really would like to hear your poker stories and the beginning of it

Playing for more then 10 years. Went for a freeroll once and understood I was good at it.
It's better to play poker than gamble but it's better not to play at all!