When I started playing all the players were trying to sell the game of snooker. Nowadays the prize money is so great, competing in tournaments is no laughing matter.
In 1983, I played in a new tournament called the Professional Snooker League. I won eight of my 11 matches, beating Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Dennis Taylor, among others.
I was doing commentary for the BBC and had exhibition work but if you're not winning you are not earning as much. And when you're seen as a successful sportsman, people assume you're earning a good living. There was pressure on me to have the newest car, a more expensive holiday. It was all about keeping up appearances.
The worst time was in 1985 when house prices crashed and interest rates went up to 14 percent. I was not winning on the snooker table and I had this big image to keep up - and a lifestyle where I lived beyond my means.
When the results weren't coming on the snooker table, I tried to supplement things by gambling on horses even more.
People often talk about George Best and Alex Higgins as two similar personalities... but the truth is that Best did not like Alex.
It took my parents years to save up for 'luxuries' like a fridge or a television, and we were always among the last in the street to get them.
The better players need to be out there in front of a big crowd, the TV cameras, with the adrenaline going. That is a test for any player to be able to do it on the big stage.
I don't mind cheese with a nice glass of port, but I prefer chocolate.
I have never invested directly in stocks and shares. That's never been my type of speculation.
I never sat any exams at school. Our family situation meant that as soon as I was able to go out and get a job, I got one.
I went through a period when I was addicted to gambling. It was a compulsion that I struggled to get to grips with. By 1990, it was in danger of ruining my life.
When my father retired, all he did was twiddle his thumbs. I don't want to go down that road. As long as I'm still in demand, I'll work.
It's a different world now and as we see with footballers and everybody else, and the fall from grace of any sportsman, it's a difficult balancing act now of going out and being nice to the general public and being very wary.
Cricket had John Arlott, Wimbledon had Dan Maskell, we had Ted Lowe. He was great.
Particularly now with social media, you only need to turn round and someone will have a camera in your face and occasionally someone will be talking to you at the bar, asking you to pose for a picture, and someone will say, 'They're videoing this.' They're videoing you at the bar!
I get the 'Daily Mirror,' purely and simply because they put the Racing Post prices in.
I remember that if you went down to the Crucible or other snooker tournaments it was all the snooker writers, and then all of a sudden when the game became popular on television it wasn't only snooker writers: it was what we called special correspondents.
I was born in March 1946, almost exactly 10 months after V-E Day, so I imagine my parents got carried away when peace was declared.
At the end of the day, life is a gamble, isn't it? A lot of it is sheer luck.
