Random girl- What do you do?
Me- I play poker
Random Girl- Really? I'm going to the casino tomorrow can you teach me how to beat the blackjack game?
Me- hahaha what?

Other random girl- What do you do?
Me- I play poker
Other random girl- Wow so are you like a millionaire?
Me- Well that is my Hyundai out front

Isn't that cheating?

It CAN be depending on the site or hud

^stealing this

I never consider it cheating since it only provides you with statistics and doesn't really do much else. I wish I had something that could tell me what to do to print cheeseburgers.

I was with my mother-in-law. She is 91 and knows nothing about computers. She does know that playing poker tournaments is my profession. She knows that I study and take it very seriously, and that I play both live and online.

She couldn't quite grasp the concept of online poker so I played an STT. She watched me play about 20 hands, and I told her the basics of what was going on, for example, that the numbers were how many chips someone had bet.

I cashed in third place. I showed her my account balance both before and after the tournament. I showed her an E-mail from the site, detailing how much I won and my finishing place.

Than I told her that there are people who play 24 tables or more at a time, and that some win a million dollars in a year.

Her response: "They get all that money for doing nothing?"

Doh!

Lol, this is why I love this thread.

FACEPALM!!! some people just do not want to understand

I guess a lot of the confusion comes down to "why wouldn't?".

You guys tell them you win money because you make the correct plays.

They wonder why everyone just doesn't do this then.

Well its not like he is contributing to society or anything like that...

I've had numerous people loose contact with me, I assume on purpose, after I tell them I dabble at some poker.

I have since learned to only tell people I never want to talk to again. It is a great way to lose a chick who is stuck in orbit.

Maybe they mean "do you count cards" like do you know how many outs you have to a flush or straight.

Folks get mad jealous. They be like u win all the time. I say yeap. Don't hate. I been doing this for years.

I'm my own boss, partner. Actually my mom's da boss. I'm second boss

"I don't want my kids to be poker players or even to have a poker playing father"

^ That was my ex after one month of dating.

Conversation with my current gf of 4 months
Me - " hi, how are you n what you up to?"
Her - "hey, I'm good, working you?"
Me - I'm at work too, going good
Her - but you don't ****ing do anything!!!! That's not work

"Then how come i am makin more money than you?"

is a good way to lose your gf in 1 response


srs though if i was actually to the point where i was making a living off of poker i would only tell my closest friends

It occurred to me that poker players in fact do do something...

We provide a service, we serve as an opponent for someone who wants to play poker.

We are in effect, entertainers. When you go to a comedy club, the comedians make you laugh. When you go to a concert, the singers sing for you. When you go to a poker table, the poker players play with you.

Our customers are no different. They pay to be entertained, its just that in this case, their entertainment is the -EV expectation that they can possibly win some money from us. From the recreational players point of view, playing poker against us +EV players is the same as playing roulette or craps or any pit game. They unknowingly put themselves into a -EV situation (ie playing players better than them) for the chance, thrill, and opportunity to win money. They also get to fantasize, kinda like buying a lottery ticket and fantasizing what you would do with the money if you win. But in poker, they get to "pretend" they are just like their poker heroes they see on TV and for a few hours they can talk the talk and walk the walk and pretend that they are on a scaled down version of Poker After Dark...

In 2012, the Department of Labor added a new job title: Professional Poker Player. We are in in fact in the same group as athletes and entertainers.

But I don't think that we are really there because the government thinks we are entertertainers. In general, any kind of mental competition for money is grouped with sports or athletes. When U.S. player Bobby Fischer was the world chess champion, some newspapers had chess puzzles on their sports pages. ESPN covers the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee as well as the World Series of Poker.

my friend knows Ive been playing poker for years, I told him I win over a large sample but apparently he never believed me. recently he asked me again "so are you still playing poker?" I told him yes. then he asked "how do you keep having the money to play all the time?" I just sighed. just.. lol

then theres the ignorant relatives.

me: a good player can play the game for a living, some even make millions doing it

they let out a big "I am older than you so I know everything" sigh and go "if poker can be won in the long run then everyone else would be doing it."

me: then how do you explain those who won millions like phil ivey?

them: cause they get lucky and dont play much

me: they played all day everyday for years!

them: but how much have they lost to win those millions?

me: they are not losing, they are winning over millions of hands

them: well if they're playing so often where do they keep getting the money to play? dont they have a job?

this thread tilts me.

Mb shes operating on a deeper social level. You got leveled

My parents think I can lose my roll from day to night. Father thinks I play to aggressive and wants me to just flat 3bets with AK and play passive overall.

Family think it's playmoney

Fish friends keep telling how they prefer live to online cause they can hand read better and get tells. Also tell stories of how they won the $10 pot with their favorite JTs hand v the guy that was bluffing a lot.

They also keep telling me to limp 79s type hands UTG and when I hit top pair +.

the worst for me is the friends that got me into poker. just live degen gamblers. my one friend went on an upswing for 800$ lol , then proceeded to drive from daytona to bilouxe saying he was going to play live tourneys for a living. busted obv. that weekend had to borrow money to get back.

It's not about that, at least for me.

I worked for 12 years as a men's shelter supervisor at a rescue mission. I was on a commission that wrote a new city charter. I was in the army for 23 years. I did my service to my community and my country.

Now, I'm playing poker full-time and in a year I start collecting my army retirement pay. I don't care whether my relatives understand, or whether what I do is useful or important. It's all about the benjamins!