I like bragging about big losses to my friends who know I make more then them. My hopes is that it would alleviate any jealousy (although there typically isn't any, at least they can think, 'wow, I could never lose $3k in a day and be fine with it, no way I could play poker for a living, to each his own'). And for those that are jealous... it's not like the world of poker isn't available to them. It's the one 'job' that they can try to get into without any qualifications.

One of the tougher questions must be when a poker noobie asks a limit player how much he plays for. If they know nothing, they assume that there's no poker outside of NL tournies.

You know, you're right, it doesnt make them seem that bad. I think I was subconciously referencing another post you made where you talked of the same thing. That your friends aren't very understanding or supportive. It could be all mixed up in my head though.

Eh, they cant offer meaningful support without understanding the game, which they dont, so that's to be expected. I do think they're [censored] ******ed for blowing all their money in the bars, but to each his own; I rant about that a lot, but I dont know if I have on here. I'd rather go out once a month and have a great time than twice every weekend to a [censored] bar, but that's getting off topic.

Preaching to the choir, man.

I tell the assistant pro at the golf course I work at summers that I play poker. For the rest of the summer I have to hear how his pocket aces lost last night. Or how he flopped a full house and lost to flopped quads....in like $3+.30 dinkaments.

1. "So you've played in the World Championship?"

2. "How do you know you're not addicted?"

3. "Oh, so how does that work?"

4. "Is that even legal?"


These have been the top 4 so far.

Lately I've resorted to "Well, I really don't need to work right now; just been moving money around for a few years and have ended up in a fortunate situation."

jrbick

wait, what? what does this mean?

my immigration case has been ongoing since 1992. it was first closed and i faced deportation and then re-opened and a new one started. im currently on my third case after INS became a part of Homeland Security. my lawyer said that if i went to therapy it would somehow help my immigration case and possibly speed it up. i dont know how but i just go and talk about dumb [censored] with her. shes pretty cool and i just normally talk to her about what i did the week leading up to the visit for the entire hour.

its kinda complicated and i really dont want to discuss it in great detail out in the open. if youre really interested you can ask me through PM.

word. i was just really curious, totally interesting / random detail i didn't know and wanted to hear more about

i might pm you later but i'm too messed up right now

meth or coke?

I've had this too. Except the girl said she was going to give me $20 and expected me to run it up to a few thousand. We'd split the winnings.

"Sure, Sarah, I can up that $20 a hundred fold in a about a week. Poker's that easy."

sure, I dont have a problem discussing it as long as it stays private I guess

Pepsi?

This thread rules. It's awesome to hear all the lines that have been fed to me are Standard for everybody.

Yes, I get the "if I give you $xx can you double it?"
Yes, I get the "you made $2,000? But how much did you lose?"

Sometimes I get this:

"You play poker? Are you good? I play roulette sometimes. I'm pretty good, I think. I have a system. How much did you win the last time you played poker? Oh yeah? The last time I played roulette I won $200!"

Until poker is separated from "gambling," you'll never be able to avoid these questions. I used to try saying to people:

"With gambling, you have to get lucky to win. With poker (if you're good), you have to get unlucky to lose."

This just confuses them even more.

But even the people who understand baffle me. There are two guys at work who play. One of them goes down to the Bike to play a lot of tourneys, and doesn't do well. He won one, like a year and a half ago, and has used it to roll all the buyins he's busted since. He won't play online because "you can't read people; they can have anything." We were in Vegas the same time and I sweated him in a WSOP satellite. he donked off all his chips with 88 on a board with two Broadway cards against a tight player. It was ugly.

The other guy won't play online because "the software is fixed. They reward good laydowns by letting you suckout on the river the next big pot. And you can't play in those loose games because people always chase and get there on the river."

These are two guys who think they understand the game. So forget talking to people who don't...

Then you get the "Oh! I want to learn, it looks fun! Can you teach me?"

"Oh really you play online, how do you cash out? How does it work?"

"Do you just bluff people all the time?"

The "Ya I play too" guys are the worst. Period.

do any of you guys ever get fans? like ppl who know you from whatever and are like "OMG you're baronzeus?!!?!?"

I was playing 15/30 at the Wynn and some kid asked if I was 2+2. I said "yeah, I'm Private Joker." And he goes, "you're Private Joker? Wow, I thought you'd be a big black guy."

Actually, 6 people have said that to me when they met me.

WAIT A MINUTE YOU ARENT MOS DEF???????? NO WAY! MIND BLOWN!

no i would be typing nonstop if it was one of those

yeah...
it's weird

ive had a few cases of this... its weird

this thread is gold

Oh yeah, one I get all the time is, "so how do you get your money?"... I use a bank account analogy, but I need to find a better response, preferably one involving a blunt object.

And so often, the same person who has asked me like every week asks, "how much did you make?"

and i'm like... "today? this week? last month? life time?"... seriously, such arbitrary random questions.

I think I take back my "don't be jealous because anyone can do it" line... because based on these responses, it's obvious that a lot of people couldn't do it.

Uhm, not saying you haven't.