Just something to think about: if op’s gf cared about op (read: she doesn’t), would she be asking him to give her money, dinners, and a new phone? Would she be asking him to sacrifice his goals of being financially independent to satisfy her desire to be seen with the newest gadget and eat fat steaks and sushi?

But it’s not all on her. OP wants to be used. He wants love from a woman. There’s nothing wrong with that. But he’s trying to buy love. He’s trying to be a sugar daddy to the best of his ability. But he’s a kid. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.

I know I didn’t listen to my parents when they vehemently protested against my spending money on the gf. I was having sex, and lots of it, so screw what other people think, right? Well, looking back, of course my parents were right and I was blind.

Trying to impress women with money works to a certain extent if that’s the game you want to play. But just know if you flaunt money, that’s what the chicks will be after. Gold digging is more real than most men would like to admit.

A strong man is the prize. He who has gone to battle several times and survived (and better yet, won) is a rare commodity. Women are born, men are made. Look around in the world today. So many fat, low testerone men who don’t know how to approach or talk with women. So many men begging for female attention. So many men putting women on pedestals. Of course, this is a great boon for men who actually work on their physique and psychological frame. Women are dying for unashamed masculinity.

JFC all these words and none of you fools even asked for pics.

Also no one has posted anything remotely close to sanity regarding women...the sexism is making me cringe and that is saying a lot

Yeah, all these pimply barely out of their teens guys suddenly experts on women.

Give me a break.

Alright big boy, let's hear your expert advice on women (not sure why I called you big boy, just felt like it! :P).

Its not about me being an expert it's just that no one is an expert and people that act like they've solved women tilt me more than people that act like they've solved poker.

Like poker, very trivial to become a winning player.

But the women game tree is way more complex than the poker game tree. And no one is pio.

But ignoring all of that sexism, women are just people. Not objects. This is the biggest leak that men have. They think there is some trick or gimmick or confidence or money or fitness. Dude, the variants of women are endless. Just be yourself and put yourself out there.

This is very much correct. However, that doesent mean that a huge percentage of guys simply doesent get it, and it have been like this for a long time for anyone who have been doing some studying or worked on themself in terms of getting better with women. Every serious study on this subject shows for example that its a very small percentage of guys like 10 percent that are extremely good with women, and they consum like 80-90 percent of the casual sex market on clubs, dating apps or whatever. Dating coaches these days are big big business, because of countless uppon countless of guys need help due to being lost in the world of women. Basically they are brainwashed from the society and their parents about the "just be yourself" BS. That is simply not enough, because alot of the things you are told to do like being too much of nice guy turns women off. You surely have to be yourself, but many guys need to tune their range to have any chance at all on quality women.

So the thing you said about nobody being an expert is too much of a relativism exercise for me. I am not saying that anyboddy ITT is an expert by no means, but the just being yourself it pretty much total BS and is one of the reasons why 80 percent of guys acts like needy, insecure non alpha males that have no chance of attracting quality women that really turn them on. "Being yourself" is the recipe that makes 80 percent or maybe even more have zero chance of attracting a real quality high achieving women.Spirit is correct that women craves more masculine alpha men these days, that goes for what they want in life, take risks, make decisions, doesent need approval all the freaking time,doesent blow up their phone,doesent lose their **** if they get rejected and so on. The vast majority of guys these days are too much of a nice guy/executes beta alpha behaviour, and get instantly friend zoned. That is why the masses often instead settles with a very average women ( that they really arent that attracted to on a deep level, it just convinient and gives them a feeling of security and to start a family), and gets the safety they need in kids, house,dog and that kind of standard package.

This is already a derail, but since the topic of women was brought up i wanted to chime in on this. And no: i dont claim to be an expert that dates countless of 10/10 girls. I am just a guy that have worked with myself on this area alot through the years, and have gotten alot better+ learned a thing or two along the way.

You are misunderstanding what "being yourself" means. People are insecure because they are not themselves. They are afraid of what society would think of them. That is the opposite of being yourself.

Being yourself means putting ranch on your spaghetti if you want it. It means wearing your cowboy hat at an avicii concert. It means buying a prius because fuel efficiency is your #1 priority. It means asking for chicken tenders at a fancy restuarant when you want ****ing chicken tenders. It means playing freeze tag with your younger cousins at your grandpa's funeral. It means telling a women straight up that you'd be interested in taking her out.

When you are yourself, and you totally own it, you are sexy.

Do you cry everytime mufasa dies? Do you have homosexual fantasies about Leonardo Dicaprio? Do you still collect pokemon cards? Do you enjoy writing harry potter erotica? Guess what, there's a chick that's into all of that. Her name is Samantha and she lives in Orlando Fl.

There being paid "experts" out there means nothing. There are tons of paid poker experts out there also. Unless their screenname was brokenstars666, I wouldnt take their coaching for free.

Lol at men who feel the need to defend women at every turn and label more-or-less objective discussion re: the reality of the sexual game and women “sexism.” This is a serious disease of western masculinity and what has created the most narcissistic generation of women in history (eg OP’s gf).

Lol at the “be yourself and put yourself out there” suggestion like it will help men who have no idea what they are doing when it comes to protecting themselves, their emotions, and their resources in relationships with women. If this is your advice for men to improve their chances at getting regular sex, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Only men who have had success with women can “be himself and put himself out there” because he more or less knows what he’s doing. And even the most successful guys will fail plenty. It’s just the nature of the beast.

Women are honed to seek survivor/winner genes. If you’re not a winner, they don’t want to have sex with you. They will have sex with you if you have other things to offer (mostly money/security) but it mostly won’t be the kinky stuff you’ve fantasized about. Think athletes and celebrities: why is it women throw themselves at these men?

Women can be sweet but they can also be nasty. Most men are shocked and completely crumble when women show their anger or irrationality or manipulativeness.

Talk to or read accounts of most divorced men, especially the ones who have most of their assets stripped from them in a legal battle. Look at all the marriages that end in divorces. Most of these start with “I want to be with you forever” and end with “I never want to talk with you again.”

I’m all for having sex with beautiful women. I love their skin and smell and hair (for the most part). I like spending some time in the presence of non-linear, flowery femininity. But I also don’t give myself away and “just be myself” all the time with them. See what happens when you reveal your emotions to a woman. Do they get more attracted to you?

But above all, if you don’t care what anybody thinks, it doesn’t matter. To be outcome independent is the most attractive thing about a man. DGAF attitude gets you laid like there’s no tomorrow.

If you show a woman you need her, you’ve already lost the game. If you’re buying her affections you’re already less of a man in her eyes.

I've never chimed in on a non-poker related post on 2+2 ever but the general theme that spirit is getting at is right: The second a woman senses that you absolutely need her it's over. And it may not be evident right away but it's the truth. You definitely can show a woman that you want to be with her but the fine line of want vs. need gets crossed far too often by men.

OP your a pizza delivery driver, stop trying to be a try hard baller. Give her a budget phone.

For ****'s sake, you idiots with your generalities about women are the only thing ITT worse than OP's BRM.

Forget the pseudo-scientific nonsense. It has nothing to do with "genetic coding." It has everything to do with clingy people being annoying and big spending being a kind of pathetic shallow version of showing that you care.

OP, ignore everything ITT about your GF except the advice that you are spending too much. Your relationship is whatever it is, but so is your BR. There are perfectly good new smart phones out there for like a tenth the price.

For the record, my girlfriend never asked me to buy her a new $1000+ phone. In fact, she said to me that I can either:
1) Buy myself a new phone and give her my old one, or
2) Buy a new phone for her (any cheap one will do) and she will pay me back in instalments.

I haven't promised her any specific phone yet, but I just thought it would be a good idea to surprise her with something nice. I'm not obligated to give her anything to gain her love: we were both broke and eating 2 minute noodles for a few months and we still did fine. That was fairly early on in our relationship too. So I don't believe that she's only after my money.

I ended up buying my mum a bunch of flowers instead which cost $78, so saved a bit of money there. Perhaps I will just buy my girlfriend a cheaper smartphone instead. Maybe an older model Samsung phone like an S7 or S8, as opposed to the new S9. I'm not sure yet. We'll check out the prices tomorrow and make a decision then.

Today was literally the first day in 2 months when I woke up before 2pm. I woke up at 11:30am to see my mum and siblings for Mother's Day. Even though I'm tired af because I only had 3hrs sleep, it was refreshing to feel a few rays of sunlight between the thick clouds of late Autumn. Not something I normally see during my nocturnal lifestyle.

Contemplating permanently changing my sleeping pattern tbh. Maybe I can go to bed at 11pm tonight, wake up at 11am tomorrow then get into the habit of sleeping from 3am till 11am every night. This would involve me going to the casino before work for the daytime grind, rather than after work for the graveyard shift. Perhaps the games are a bit nittier during the daytime when there are less degenerate whales around, but if it improves my mental health and gives me more vitamin D, then it's probably beneficial overall.

Dealing with an angry old woman at 1/3

So I played an early evening session today from 6pm until 8pm. The game was very loose-passive and it seemed like easy money. It was easy money: $273 profit in 2hrs and never facing any aggression from my opponents the whole night except when they had the nuts.

There was this one woman to my direct left though, about 60 years old, with wrinkly white skin. She was the biggest sh*t reg I've ever seen. She talked so much trash about how she's from Sydney and how this is only 1/3 and you see all sorts of horrible plays at 1/3, etc. She was very strict with enforcing the rules, telling people off for talking during the hand, telling me off for keeping my hands in front of my chip stack after I'd already folded my cards and she didn't realise it was her turn, etc.

She was also a massive hypocrite because every criticism she made about others described her perfectly: she would talk during pots she wasn't involved in and call out "bullsh*t" when someone made a bet, which influenced the actions of the other players. She would cover her cards. She was a horrible loose-passive fish that acted like a know-it-all and berated other players.

So here's one hand I played against her:

2 limpers
Hero raises $21 HJ with ATo (no heart)
Woman calls $21 CO
Both limpers call $21

Flop ($80, 4ways) is 665 with hearts

Checks around

Turn ($80) is 655A still with heart draw

2 checks
Hero bets $25
Woman calls $25
2 folds

River ($125) is 655AK and flush missed

Hero jams $220 effective
Woman tanks then calls $220
Hero shows ATo
Woman flips over A4o and we chop

Immediately after we show cards, the woman starts to berate my play, saying how it was a horrible jam because "what if I had Ace Six?!" She kept going on about how I keep making stupid bluffs that never fold out better and never get called by worse.

I didn't bother explaining to her about how cold-calling a 7x raise in the CO with A4o is a very losing play. I also didn't explain how I know that her range is very Ax heavy and doesn't contain many trips or boats. I know that she'll fold Ax at least some percentage of the time. But what's the point of explaining this to her. I didn't want to reduce myself to her level, so I just said "I thought I could get you off a chop" and then ignored the rest of her uneducated, tilt-inducing comments.

Finally, someone who actually makes sense. The blatant misogyny was getting increasingly frightening.

Sorry just to confirm: the board was 665AK, not 655AK.

Think I'm siding with angry old lady here.

Yeah she's spot on actually.

OP being schooled by random angry old women. Time to move down.

It's not really misogyny or sexism, it's just the truth. Most people don't like hearing the truth when it conflicts with and challenges their own ideas.

Reality is 20% of guys are desired by 80% of women (those percentages aren't precisely accurate, but they're close enough - it might be closer to 70/30 or as high as 90/10, but you get the point). There's been loose studies to confirm this - for example in an American high school they did a study finding that about 20% of males were having sex with 80% of the females.

Just from anecdotal evidence alone, surely you've observed this phenomenon? In social circles, I have always noticed that 1 or 2 males are desired by most of the females. It leaves a majority of males fighting for a minority of females. Many of the females eventually "settle" with one of these undesirable males (part of the 80%). This explains why divorce rates are so high.

Money is the main thing that these 80% of males use to attract women. Simply because they feel like they have to, otherwise no woman gives them the time of day. OP is doing just that with his gf. He is using his money to compensate for his lack of desirability to women. My advice to him would be to immediately stop spending money on her. He is creating a false sense of attraction with women - he thinks she likes him because of his looks/charm/personality, when really she is only after his financial resources. He will quickly find out where he stands with women once he stops spending money on them.

That 25/80 bet size ATo is horrendous. 4 way pot flush draws and straight draws out there and you bet 1/3 pot...

I was gonna say that earlier but I threw in the towel on this guy. He doesnt listen.

I'm just in for the popcorn at this point. If OP wants to pm me I may have more relevant experience to his situation than anyone else. Otherwise I'll just use this thread as an ego boost to dodging bad situations like I'm Neo in the Matrix.

Sent from my LGMS631 using Tapatalk

Yeah, a lot of these threads are fascinating for the wrong reasons. They are almost like a salutary lesson in what not to do.

It's certainly not a standard play, I'll give you that. But here's the thing: the only straight draws people can really have on an A665 board is exactly 87 or else gutshots. Do they really call $21 preflop with 43 or 74?

I'm actually not giving gutshots the correct implied odds to draw out on me, even when I bet as tiny as $25 into an $80 pot with a $245 stack behind, since I'm leaving myself room to bet/fold literally any river card except an Ace or a Six.

But what I am doing is giving gutshots the illusion that it's a bet worth calling, when they would otherwise fold to a more standard turn bet. I'm also allowing sticky pocket pairs and sticky 5x hands the chance to call a bet when they would otherwise fold.

Now imagine I make a "standard" bet of $65 here and get 1 caller. On the river, there'll be $210 in the pot with $180 behind, so I'm basically forced to jam $180 with AT, which is super thin.

If I had AJ/AQ/AK then I'd happily size up on the turn, but hands like A8/A9/AT are going for very thin value and mainly looking to get called by weaker pairs like 5x and pockets, as opposed to getting stacks in against a weaker Ax hand, which is overly optimistic.

At the bare minimum, even if my play wasn't optimal, it's certainly not as bad as you guys seem to think it is. You're just not used to seeing creative bet sizes like this because you've been taught that every bet needs to be between 50% and 90% pot and that any bet outside that range must be fishy and stupid.

yep, you're just levels above everyone else