So, I finally caved. I decided to try the crypto route.

Honestly, I was terrified I was going to send my money into the digital void. I read somewhere that Litecoin (LTC) is cheaper for fees than Bitcoin, so I figured I’d start there. I didn’t want to pay $20 just to move $150. I downloaded a basic wallet app on my phone (won't name it, but it's one of the popular ones), bought about $160 worth of LTC just to cover any weird fees, and stared at the screen for like 20 minutes just sweating.

The anxiety of hitting "send" is real, btw. I must have checked the destination address ten times. I was reading the characters out loud to my dog. "L... M... 3... 4..." checking the first four and the last four characters like a maniac.

I decided to try a new room that’s crypto-focused since my old one was giving me grief with the cards. I set up an account at https://coinpoker-australia.com/ because I saw it mentioned in another thread about fast cashouts and wanted to test the waters. Here is the thing that actually blew my mind: I didn't have to give them my credit card number.

You don't realize how stressful typing those 16 digits is until you don't have to do it. No expiration date, no CVV, no billing address, no fear of identity theft. I just copied the wallet address from the cashier page, went back to my phone, pasted it, and hit send.

I sat there refreshing the page, convinced I’d messed it up. I thought, "Well, there goes $160. Lesson learned." But literally 6 or 7 minutes later—boom. Funds available.

It was suspiciously easy.

I sat down at a couple of NL25 tables to test the software. I played super tight for the first hour because I was still jittery from the tech stuff, but eventually, I loosened up. The tables were actually pretty soft. I ended up flopping a set of 8s against a guy who simply refused to fold top pair, which helped boost the stack. I’m currently up about $85, which isn’t life-changing money or anything, but it covers the buy-in and the beers I drank while playing.

The best part? No "Foreign Transaction Fee" or angry emails from my bank this morning. Just the initial purchase of the crypto from the exchange.

I know I’m late to the party and you guys have been doing this since 2015 or whatever, but for anyone else who is technically challenged like me—it’s not that bad. Seriously. If I can manage to send LTC without deleting my money, you can too. Next step is figuring out how to withdraw back to my bank without messing it up, but I’ll cross that bridge when I actually win enough to justify a cashout.

Just wanted to vent/share for the other newbies out there who are sick of declined cards. Peace.