Some version of this repeats itself on every page. From the questioner's perspective the assumption that someone who says he plays poker professionally is a degenerate money loser is the sound assumption, absent other evidence. Out there in life, most of those who say they are serious poker players are in fact money losing bums (or else there wouldn't be any pros to post in this thread). Just like most of those who say they can drive with a few in them are in fact alcoholics. Doesn't mean there aren't one or two who can, but that's not the smart bet.

^^^ This is a prime example when ead should be used.

Agree with Bobito. I have met only a few players who haven't thought they were "good" poker players. At my hometown casino pretty much all of the regs are terrible and i'm sure they claim to be winning players to their friends and family.

Explaining variance and the idea that you can't just go in for 1 session and make x amount of $ is something i'm often faced with.

You should have listened to your mom

It took a long time to get over the fear that I was one of these people who just happened to be on a heater and deluding himself about his skill.

if people are dicks when you tell'em about your poker $$$ or whatever just throw them a banknote in their hands and tell them to take their girls out for a nice dinner and to shut the **** up...and then walk away like a boss

why would you talk about your poker $$$ to random ppl except for some good friends etc? seems no real advantage to it except for straight up bragging which you shouldn't do at all imo

and if they are such dicks about it why the f would you give them a big banknote to take their girls out for a **** dinner, you might seem like a boss (and a dick) to them but why would you even care wtf they think about you, totally -EV in all aspects

I assume the banknote idea is a level as you'd obv come off as a massive douche. Regarding random ppl, while I'd never go out of my way to talk about it/bring it up, it's very easy for someone else to mention it to/around someone else and I've found that most people won't see it as a big deal or see any reason why you'd want to keep it quiet to randoms/people you don't know that well.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using 2+2 Forums

if you're a good person and are modest about the $$, then you improve the chances of a random person with $$ being initially viewed as a good person.

Conversation with my friend:
She: How many pokers have you won?
Me: Emm... I don't play tournaments I play cash ga...
She: YEAH, YEAH, but how many have you lost?!


Story with my GF... We are together for 7 yrs or so, but we rarely talk about poker. We just say that I'm "working" when I play and thats it. She also have no idea how much I make. She just know I have enough money to support myself.
Few months ago I hit a milestone hand. It was about 230$ or something like that. I obviously had no intention to tell her, because 230$ is really nothing in comparison what I win or (mostly) lose in a day. But my friend posted it on FB.

When she saw that, she starts hitting me, why I didn't tell her I won money. I have to tell her everytime, if I win that much, she said. Then we had sex.

And that's why CoreySteel posts every pot > $230 on FB.

lol^
biggest problem is that 80-90% of people in the world are stupid (my "shocking" discovery)so it is of little use explaining anything to them. lying/short funny answers are the way to go.

i was talking with the new girl at my curent job the other day, and i told her that i played poker while in college instead of working, and that I used my profits to pay my tuition and living expenses.

Her response "But how much did you lose?"

I told the guy that hired her that she is a dumbass and was a bad hire.

My two favorite questions ever....
'How much did you spend?' and
'Why didn't you stop whilst you were ahead?'

Presuming it was a live cash game...

This thread is pretty great. I wish I had the time to dig through and read the whole thing right now. I don't play poker for a living, but I do take my play seriously and keep detailed records and all that. Overall, I've been a consistently big winner in some types of games and a loser in others, for a variety of reasons that are beyond the scope of this post. I do consider poker my primary hobby, anyway, and consider myself a perpetual student of the game.

+1 to everyone who has said to just not talk about it. I'll float a casual mention of poker if I think I might have a potential player in line for my home games, but other than that, no thanks.

The bad-beat stories, the pseudo-logical approaches, and the idiocy having to do with "gambling = losing" are bad enough on their own. More than that, I especially don't need anyone knowing that I keep a bankroll solely for poker. I don't have a big bankroll, but many people might consider it a lot of money to keep aside for a game, especially if they're of the paycheck-to-paycheck type. Then I'm that weirdo who "gambles a ****load of money at poker."

Never mind if I let slip that I won a tournament or had a very good session recently. Cue the remarks about how I'm paying for beers or pizza.

+1 I don't even like discussing it with just casual poker players because they are frequently just as clueless as your standard degen.

Casual players get a pass from me because I might be able to recruit them to my game, and I wholeheartedly welcome casual players to my game.

On the other hand, the more visits I make to this corner of 2+2, the more I realize that I don't like to talk to degenerates about anything.

Maybe you should plan in advance when you will be going out and DON'T play mtt's beforehand. Sound like a bit of a degen tbh.

(Although once I stayed in on New Years eve because I had done 10 hour shift, ended up playing $55 buyin mtt and winning for like $2300 lol)

What kind of crazy people do you associate yourselves with?

I've found most people quite cool when we talk about it. It's not so much the money that interest them, it's much more the freedom to do whatever I want.

In fact, they completely forget all the hundreds of hours of studying and thinking over the subject. The image they get is that I'm on a beach somewhere playing on my laptop while drinking a cocktail through a straw in a pineapple glass.

The question which does piss me off though (and everyone asks it) is "What was your biggest win." I don't really like this question because as a cash game player, my biggest win isn't that big compared to tournament players. However, I don't like it mostly because they are trying to gauge my value. It's akin to me just meeting someone and after they ask what I do, I ask them what their hourly wage is.

I know they aren't doing that on purpose but it's somewhat frustrating. How do you answer this type of question without coming across defensive or secretive?

Have always received mixed reactions to the fact I played poker for a living. Ranging from complete awe to utter contempt.

I did a stint in rehab and during an early group session I said that I played poker for a living. These are probably not quite typical reactions but stem from the same emotion or preconceptions that most reactions to this news get. The fact I wasn't exactly sitting around with the absolute creme dela creme of society this response puzzled me.

A woman by the name of Vicki told me I was a degenerate. She seemed to think the fact I was a 'gambler' put me lower on society's pecking order than she was. Vicki was a longterm smackhead and had been sucking dick for drugs or cash for a long time. She had a crooked nose that had very obviously been broken at least once by either a punter or her pimp. According to her I was slime and not to be trusted. She warned others there to be careful around me and never to lend me anything. Once while we were on smoko she called me a feral ****, and then tried to knee me in the balls.

From the same group, I was hit up by a guy named 'Fish' after that meeting. He assumed I was super rich and wanted me to fund a project with him that involved renting out a house and producing a large amount of hydroponic cannabis. I declined.

Another guy called Dominic wanted to talk to me about poker all the time after that. He also assumed I was rich and apparantly I was going to coach him and stake him after this was done. He would tell me this often in an intentionally threatening manner. Dom was ****ing terrifying. He was semi-connected, had a temper and a history of violence. Luckily for me he got removed a short while later for beating the **** out of someone else.

-------------------------------------------------

Outside of that experience, I once thought I was getting laid while chatting to a girl in a pub. Seemed like a sure thing and I'd been avoiding telling her what I did due to weird reactions in the past and had only half-truthed to her that I was student. Eventually I blurted out that I was a poker player.

The look on her face was like I'd just casually tossed a nugget of turd on to the table and asked her what she thought of it's fragrance. She pretty much just lost it on me and started lecturing me and getting insanely sarcastic with me. Eventually it came out her mum had blown most of her families life savings on pokies (slots) which had caused her parents marriage to breakdown.

People are blinded by their own ignorance and misconceptions. I've pretty much given up on trying to change anyone's mind about it.

I was worried that your post was going to be another "haha, look at those idiots" essay. Instead it was awesome.

random guy: oh so u play poker? how much have u won??
me:tree-fiddy
random guy: yes, but HOW MUCH HAVE U LOST???
me: OMFGGGKLSJDGKJFJGFYGIUEKSFFGJEWLGDFHGIDFUSJDFVKJAD FKVJBDAKVJSJFFHDJFHJABGLKBAKLVBADFKLBVKJLADFBVKJAD BVKJLBAKJVBDKJBGKASDFKBDGFEFFGHIAFJOAEIGFBV!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SDKHGBKLDFJSVGKWAPOKI RY79RY2894T8

"well isn't that just cheating" -my girlfriend recently when I told her I purchased a HUD to keep track of stats on players