I feel a bit bad about this. I recently got a lot better at cashgames in the sense of tiltcontrol. Cause i used to tilt so hard whenever that 2 outer hit. But moreso avoiding better players. My ego could not take it when someone was better then me at a table. I would try to get back at them losing my whole stack allways and yelling to them trough my screen... or throwing some stuff over. In my mind i wanted to strangle them so hard.

So what i now do i simply avoid better players and just milk fish and donks and ocossionally stab at the better players. However this feels like playing chess or marbles with someone far below my skill level. I feel like they are simply giving their money to me while i hold a gun to their head (putting pressure on them). In tournaments you are forced to play the better players at later stages. And thats what i allways played. But since ive been able to tame my ego more i got more succes in cash as well.

fish are dumb, they deserve it, dont ever hesitate, just because they play bad and lose money doesnt mean they are a good person. Take money for them and use those money to do good for the world, thats how it works. Either you milk fish or go work full time job, what do you prefer?

It's the classic poker player's "moral dilemma".

(Not really but that sounds simpatico.)

The unvarnished truth is, losing players are going to lose whether we are in their game or not.

Stated another way, if we don't give them action, someone else will.

If we play to win, we play to win. They are.

Someone else will, sure. But thats the same for drugdealers. If i dont do it someone else will... But the fact is he is that guy. And he is worse then the junk, because he is the one receiving all that stolen money.

What skill is there in calling an allin donk? Or valuebetting the **** out of a fish? Its no skill. The skill is tiltcontrol when that fish or donk sucks out. Iow losing control and start donking of money yourself. But once you mastered that its not skill is it. You simply created a solid base to abuse and rape weaker players. Im not complaining though. Im just puttin some question marks out.

Fish have free will too.

Also:

anybody can beat a fish on a given night. to be a winning player over the long term takes character, which is noble.

*** fish i want all their money lol. I guess i felt like this cause some donks went all in with huge stacks and i got all their money. Then i was like... hmmm that was easy. Its like your skill level drops cause of it or somethin. Like its nice but it doesnt really feels that good cause you havent fought for it whatsoever.

Great topic to bring up. I was thinking about this myself earlier today as sometimes poker feels somewhat predatory when you are purposely targeting weaker players who are not nearly as skilled at the game.

Isn't the point that we're all fish - except some of us are sensible enough to feed in safer waters.

Good point. It does make sense that some of us are able to assess who we can and can't profit from in the long run, where as the real fish aren't able to make that distinction.

First of all, good job checking your ego at the door.

However, making money at poker is all about exploiting weaknesses, not battling strength vs strength. Poker is a predatory game, and predators always avoid the strongest in the herd.

Embrace the predator life. Be the lion and seek out the weak.

I think about this a lot... I'm a live pro in Vegas, I play cash and tournaments.

Cash especially makes me feel like a shark like you said. I mean, I go to the Bellagio every day and seek out weak players to prey on. I table select vigorously and can smell blood from across the room.

Often I find myself feeling weird about the whole experience, however after much soul searching I have the following that keeps my sane:

1) The fish are degen gamblers mostly. If its not me who's getting the money, its another player, or the casino, bookie, etc. So, why not me?
2) I am nice and courteous at the casino and never berate the fish - they have a good experience when they play with me, and they get to take their shot at a Las Vegas pro.
3) I use the money to take care of my family and tip well in life, spread the money around, and give to charity frequently...

Anyways, sure its a bit of an ethical dilemma sometimes, but in the end I am comfortable with what I am doing and try to give back in other ways in society to balance the fact that really my job is just mostly selfish ...

my 2 cents

“If a man is dumb, someone is going to get the best of him, so why not you? If you don't, you're as dumb as he is.” ― Arnold Rothstein

Keep crushing the cash games and fish are called "fun players" to avoid stigma.

I've seen today at one table 2 fish who kept giving themselfs the fish icon in the chat box. So no problem with stigma.
Gave them a buyin so we don't always feel predators.

More so for live fish. lol

congratulations, you have graduated from poker childhood. you are now a poker man. taking money from morons is what this game is all about. that's the great thing about poker, everything that would make a person intolerable in real life makes them the awesome to be at your poker table. give me the arrogant morons, the 'im rich and flashing cash' yahoos, the macho, the ******ed. and give me your money.

I've never understood this dilemma. Those fish will take every single dime you have if they get the chance. They would not hesitate to stack you over and over and that is in fact exactly what they are trying to do!! Why would you feel pity for someone who would not show you the same benevolence if you're the one about to get owned? The skill level of you and the others at the table doesn't matter. Everyone who buys in knows the risk and is trying to win all the same. That means someone has to lose. Do you want it to be you?? If so, then it's you who will become the fish, and the ones you call fish today won't be showing you the same mercy.

I think, that it is perfectly OK to take money from someone, who is just worse than you. But it has to be somewhere a line. You should stay nice and respectful, even it is only to keep the fish there. And this other thread "How do you manipulate a GA" is just disgusting. I mean there is a line somewhere and it should not be so that you go over corpses for money. I would say it is also a difference between a GA and a fish. And I mean what is fish..... It is a relative label

What is a GA? Is this a standard poker term??

Gambling Addict. As in manipulating/preying on someone who is not mentally well is disgusting.

And when we sit at a poker, how are we supposed to know that an opponent is clinically a gambling addict?

They sit at the table of their own accord, and regardless of the psychological reasons for sitting there, they are prey.

You might make the case that somebody who thinks that carrying a lucky charm will help him/her catch cards is "not mentally well".

Who cares what brought the weak player to the table? He/she is there and their money is in play.

^ I would agree with the above post.

Also, as "pros", "sharks" or whatever you want to call winning players in the game, it's important to be morally ok with what you're doing so you can focus on the actual game. If you're wasting mental capacity on feeling sorry for the whale of your game, you may turn into a losing player yourself.

Try being profitable long-term at another zero-sum game that can be done professionally like stock trading, digital media trading, etc. and then recognize that institutions worth hundreds of billions of dollars gamble against each other every day and prey off the weakest and that that is the reality of those types of games and a basically infinite amount of money will just continually roll through them whether or not you play.

If you bust 8 players who had no chance of winning while they were at the same table of you, ultimately your actions that day had essentially zero impact on the overall results of similar kinds of activity throughout the world.

Your post overall feels like what you are conflicted about isn't really the nature of poker itself because obviously there has to be winners and losers, but that dedicated so much of your time to poker doesn't contribute anything to society in the long-run, and you're right.

There's nothing wrong with finding something else to work on to have a positive impact on the world along with poker, or to develop your own personal skills and talents outside of the game. If you're truly really good at poker, some things you might excel at include: computer science, risk analysis, financial systems arbitrage, yield management and optimization, accounting, direct sales, hostage negotiation.

Life is a zero sum game, what happens in the middle is what you make of life. I have zero guilt.