When thinking about the poker playing community, I have a question for all us deg ens out there who enjoy this great game.

Do you feel camaraderie with the poker playing community? Do you feel that other skilled players are friendly rivals, fellow pirates in a sea of fish, with whom you share a secret knowledge and a sense of adventure? (I'm exaggerating a little of course)

Or do you feel very isolated from you fellow poker player? Do you see them as enemies, victims that will fall before your superior card sense and ability? Does this cause feelings of rugged individualism or perhaps a depressing loneliness? (Again, i exaggerate a little here).

As this is an Online poker community, i suspect most here feel more of the former and less of the latter, so i guess my real question is: Is a feeliming of camaraderie with your fellow players and this subculture we have built -EV?

Any thoughts? I'll here any relevant responses to anything i've said, both about what you personally feel and about what is +/- EV.

-PSS out

when playing poker, no one is your friend on the table. But, when not playing, everyone is your friend,at least I am friendly with everyone when not playing poker. Most poker players are very competitive both on and off the table, and it is hard for them to maintain good relationship with other poker players.

i'm an advocate of mutual respect without necessarily interpersonal communication

Adding ther term "EV" to the end of your OP doesn't qualify this as a PT topic, please keep this kind of thing in Psych or maybe one of the low-content forums.

At the table I am "friendly" with most everyone, yet I consider none of them my friends. My friendliness is a guise to get the money and create an atmosphere of giving. But I never berate or are mean to players.

I do have respect for players I view as good/solid/experienced players, and may feel a sense of comraderie with them, as they are not necessarily the ones I'm targeting. Players I view as fish I feel no comraderie with. They are the suckers that make the game go.

Having respect for them as people is entirely independent of them as poker players tho.

Thank you to Gonso, the mod. I don't always know where these thoughts belong, thanks for helping me find a place for it.

I'm also interested in what you think about "talking shop" as it were. I know this whole forum is partially about "talking shop," but this forum is largely anonymous, and if any of us sat down at the poker table together we would not know each other. It seems as if poker is one of those endeavors where it seems either your talking to non-players who don't "get it", or players who you don't really want to "get it."

It's a dilemma, but i guess I'm not the first poker player to feel his way.

mood dependent and situation dependent and individual depend imo

but mostly the ladder i would say imo, but im a pretty negative person at times

edit: some regs i truly enjoy chatting with at times

telling your friends who dont play (99.99%) is very very very frusterating

i hate everyone... competition, competition, competition.

(in fairness, i hate some people less than i hate others).

I am generally friendly, and I mean it, but I play with the understanding that everybody is playing to win, so there's no point in softplaying.

As the saying goes: "Nothing personal, it's just business..."