All of my non-poker playing friends think I have a gambling problem, even when I pay for the pizza for 15 people with poker winnings ;(

PS. I think I have a gambling problem

2nd

Yeah, why does everyone think that he is the most interesting person in the world and someone who has no clue how to play would be asking so much questions about his "carier"?
Get a clue, most of the askers are just being polite.
I don't care if some guy is a programmer, engineer or a doctor, why would they?
A few that are actually interested don't know anything about poker and all they heard about is some degenerate who lost all his money on slot machines.

And yeah, most of them saw those movies where it went like " omg, i changed 3 cards and i have a full house, i bet 100000$" and his opponent has straight flush and raises him his company and his wife and if he doesn't call, he looses.

I actually enjoy talking to my friends about poker, cause i taught them all to play.
I talk about it to my family, cause i taught my dad to play and he is a very successful play money high stakes player for a year now
Even my grandmothers learned that i make money so they only encourage me to play.

At first my family was worried, that i can lose it all in one hand, like "what if you have a great hand and your opponent has the unbeatable hand and you bet all your money and lose?Or what if your opponent bets a lot of money, that you don't have, can you loan the money to call?You can lose everything.".

I explained them about all-in rules, capped buy-ins and bankroll management, so they are very supportive now after seeing that i make money.

And i played HU with my friends after teaching them, so they are interested too, asking me from time to time how it goes.
Few asked if i can teach them further sometimes.
I got bored at beating them, so i suggested that we would play for money, but only from my side, so if i lose, i pay them their 5-10$, to make it interesting.
So far i didn't lose

I made more than 5k last month, in Israel that means much more than in USA, so when people ask me how much i am making and i tell them "well, last month i earned 5k from poker" (and i have a job besides poker too), they are very impressed.

Also, a lot of tournament poker is shown on TV, i played in Israeli league which was televised on national sports channel, so poker has a more appealing look now and people realise that it's not just gambling.

So, my experiences in this field are actually positive.

Lol. This is a classic! I can't believe how many people think in terms like this. This also helped me realize why so many people say that they always win at slots. They are not thinking in terms of overall winnings, but just whether they hit even a small payout during the whole time they shoved ALL their money into the slot! In their mind, they are a winner, even though they are $300 down.

I just get so tired of the ignorance that I avoid talking to almost anyone about it.

Although, my father-in-law watched me play poker for a while. I talked about all my plays while I made them. Afterwards, he said that I was not a gambler, but a technician--I like that. I think intelligent people at least have the ability to understand if you're willing to spend the time.

That's the best rationale for a flawed strategy I've heard, yet!

Replace "always" with "sometimes" and that guy might become a player.

Its like the exact reverse of poker, and just as inappropriate, ridiculous and embarassing. You tell someone you are in med school, they are like, "ZOMG why does my chest hurt/what does this look like to you/you make the big bucks, huh/guess yer a supergenius!" You get all sorts of (fake) undeserved respect, just like telling people you play poker for a living gets you undeserved scorn and condescension. It seems like it would be nice to get all this undeserved respect. It isnt. It makes you lose respect for the person who says it to you, and for me at least it makes me want to punch babies.

lmao! Very nice.

Í've never had this. Is this an American thing? Can any European players say if someone asked them this?

"How can you read people when you play online? You can't see their faces."

"How much have you made?"
-well about 70K in the last year
"HOLY [censored]!! But how much have you lost?"
-Huh? What do you mean? I just told you I won 70K. That means net profit
"Oh, but you don't win like every time, do you?"
-

Delightfully hilarious.

the first thing my current girlfriend's dad ever said to me was "so i hear you're a professional gambler". terrifying.

I told people at my office that I play poker. Three of them started to pay me off strange looks in the morning, whether I appeared tired or not, asking me if I "gambled" the night before, constantly inquiring as to whether or not I went bust. Most of the time I was tired because I was watching espn or masturbating, but to them, it was the "gambling" that was ruining my morning social appetite. Of these three people, two of them are funded in large part by wealthy parents. After winning nights, I have a quiet satisfaction that I'm busting my ass as an individual to make money in a "pure" form of competition while they go home, eat dinner, have bad sex, watch Tv, and sleep.

When I told them, I started to notice that they all took less interest in my opinions on things too. Seriously.

I got to hear fascinating stories about four handed home games from an office mate who repeatedly forgot to indicate blinds, position, suits, basically everything except for what he [censored] "had" and what his opponent "had." after he left work, he [censored] emailed me telling me how his buddy pushed with 76s, he knew it, he called with AK, he took this monster beat when a 7 came out. I told him that I ran up $400 in an hour playing 1/2 NL live. He never emailed me again.

My boss expressed at a luncheon that he guesses "that what I do deals with skill because I constantly have to lay down all but the best hands." This is after I told him the game is about position, opponent tendencies, and pot size for the 45th time, answering his 45th question. I was furious.

One girl asked me what I would do with her if I were playing. She was hot and flirty. I told her that I would figure out her tendencies and start manipulating bet sizes to get all her money. I still don't completely regret my answer.

When I told my friends that I play, they put on these grave faces, because what I'm doing is nowhere near as worthy as raising a family, writing, or practicing the law. Except for one friend, who plays video games obsessively. Well, he has a girlfriend too, so not so obsessively anymore.

So, in general, I basically reversed and now I don't tell a single person that I play.

A'

Yeah. I spent the last three years working at Microsoft. Strangers who want you to troubleshoot Excel for them are at least as annoying as the poker things mentioned in this thread.

In honor of all the "How much have you won...ok, but how much have you lost" questions, I say we all start spreading our gross winnings, sans losses.
ala...
"How much did you win last month?"
"I dunno, probably about $200k"
"How much did you lose?"
"roughly 170k"



And I agree, this is a great thread.

Even the nerdiest of nerds would make a strip poker reference here. Way to blow it.