This happens all the time IME.

In SSLHE there's a group that met through poker and have gone to Vegas together every year for the past decade. They share houses and stake each other and when they play at the same table they pull no punches.

At my local room people play golf and settle up later at the table, and stake each other (not for the cash game, typically for WSOP events or major tournaments) on handshake deals.

Its definitely a large % as most rooms like mine have many regs. Also its the only room worth going to in my province, so yes i see many of the same faces and am forced to play them.

I don't hate anyone and truly enjoy confrontation so I actively pursue playing big pots with anyone at the table. I enjoy the drama if its in relatively good spirits, its one of the best parts of live poker, the people aspect.

But i do not think of them as my friends or have any interest in that. Yet im never dour at the table. Smiling and responding positively whilst playing 100% of the time wins people over, even complete strangers. its about balance. I never let negative emotions touch my poker game and I don't take anything personally.

I'm not a robot though, if im getting irritated or just feel like im off my A game or such, i quit for the day. thats my solution to bad spots, i just dip.

I guess it helps that im well bankrolled for the games i play so theres 0 pressure over a winning or losing day

I don't think I've made friends at a poker room. I have made poker playing friends outside the poker room, and gone to rooms to play. It's fun to play/chat and go over hands after the session. I think it's much better than reviewing when we aren't together at the table. A big plus IMHO.

I'm thinking that if you made friends going daily, that you'll make friends with the other weekend warriors that you see regularly. Most regs you see will be in the same boat.

As with anything .. the longer you are in a 'relationship' the less emotion and the more understanding you should have within it.

There is plenty of room sharing and tournament swaps within a core group of regs in my area. I hear the same things when 'tours' stop at my local casinos. But there is also stories of theft and unpaid bills as well.

What I've found is that there is typically only one strike in poker, even over something as little as an unpaid dinner 'split'. So what this means to me is that you need to make sure that you approach these relationships more slowly and with better communication than you have with your boss or wife! GL

Yea that big problem is a pretty huge one. I like i said, to find a solid player whos better/equal to me, who doesnt take anything emotional, who wont like to be softplayed AND who wont take advantage of your information you share and just be chill away from the table?

Ive never met one player like that in my life @ my local casino, which is the only one I can go to regularly.

Its hard for me to convince myself to trust poker players after reading the stories here on 2+2, its sad. All these thefts from "poker friends" they knew for years that they KNEW were "respectable". I wouldn't know what to do, especially in poker where there is no enforcer for debts. luckily since I do my method of avoidance its never happened to me.

When you take my approach you avoid ALL of the problems. Absolutely no risk, for maximum gains. I'm not saying you cant take risks and make friends at the table for hotel room sharing, % swap for tourneys, etc etc but to each his own. To me it seems not worth the risk in the slightest.

Most of the likable players at my local casino are 3/6 LHE players.

You may find more of what you're looking for through home games, bar leagues, meetup.com poker groups. I've made a number of friends through poker, but none came from the casino.

Interesting, because at my local casinos the low limit games are where fights often break out, players get booted for abusing the dealers, idiots get belligerent, and the most miserable degens play 72 hour sessions trying to grind bonuses. From my observation (and others have independently pointed this out), the low limit games tend to be filled with people of lower class. The lower the stakes, the worse the behavior because they're gambling away non-disposable income. The wealthier, educated individuals would just play higher to not put up with the shenanigans there and for more mental stimulation.

All true.

But the play is worse at the lower stakes.

Fishy though I am, to me my EV and win rate are higher at the lower stakes.

I have taken the opposite approach. I have work/life/neighborly friends who I let know that I play poker. Those that also play will respond and we get home games going or go to the casino or just meet up there during big promo events (it’s over an hour away). We can talk poker, but we also have more in common since we were already friends and know about families, jobs, hometowns etc. I can also lend/borrow a few bucks, buy a lunch, give a ride, and not have to worry about it.

This largely eliminates any questions about why they’re being friendly, like a rich man wondering why all of the pretty ladies keep talking to him.

I know this isn’t a great answer, but I largely look at the population at the casinos I go to (FW / MS) as an overlapping Venn diagram of the wort two populations in America, virulent Massh-les and loud-mouth New Yorkers with enough homegrown CT scumbags to keep things interesting. I keep things very friendly at the tables without ever trying to make new friends.

where do you live in south florida ? I'm looking for some poker friends right now too. I've been a one man army for a long time and its chill but I could use someone to talk hands with and **** as long as they don't suck hahah

Heaven forbid that poker players have enough money to be viewed as rich!

The point was more about being approached in a friendly way at the table, but never knowing if it’s because you’re being bum hunted or the person is just nice. I didn’t mean it literally.

And what I meant was that not being sure of whether people are genuinely friendly or have ulterior motives is pretty ubiquitous across all relationships everywhere.

Do your coworkers like you or are they sucking up to you knowing you're the boss's favorite? Is your date interested in you or is she just there to score a free dinner? Does your neighbor like you or does he just want to ride in your new Tesla?

People - apparently other than poker players - manage to successfully navigate this minefield on a daily basis.

The local small stakes degens move to min-buying at NL. The small limit games have working class guys and retirees who know they aren't going to make money and are there to have fun. The higher stakes have the ill-behaved rich guys who have a massive sense of entitlement and look down on people who play the smallest games.

I usually just point at them and say "hey, do you want to be friends?"

Be sure to point with an open palm or else it will be rude.

In the 15 years I've been playing I've made more friends and acquaintances than the 35 years prior of my life (hmm? does that say more about me?). Some of these are people I've got to know really well, been to their weddings, christenings, birthday parties, been on holidays etc. All through knowing them by playing poker together.

I can still be friends with someone and play poker against him on the table. Friend or not, I still want to beat you at the pot. In a tournament it's if I'm knocked out then I'm cheering for any of my friends. I would expect the same from them.

If you're socially awkward (and I know this is easy to say) just lighten up and relax more at the table. Don't be afraid to start a conversation with strangers. If you get little response, well that's their loss - move on. Use small talk to get an initial gauge on how responsive others will be and take it from there. If you're driving offer someone a lift home and just talk poker sh*t on the drive.

However, the moment they ask you to lend them some money, raise your hackles and the drawbridge and move on.

I know poker sometimes seems to be a sausage fest, but there are some women and some guys are gay. Has anyone ever dated someone they met playing live poker?

Thanks for that. So your suggestion was to relax and start making small talk. I’m not good at small talk but I will work on that. How did it go beyond the small talk for you? Did you eventually invite them to an event, swapped numbers/Facebook or something? Excuse the autism but I have been so out of touch with things like this ever since I turned 30 or so.

Yes, learning to relax and be confident in who you are is important to breaking those social barriers and getting to know people and letting people know you.
I just spoke to people in general and found some I really got on with. Mostly I find a shared sense of humour helps or some common ground. Go have some food together after a game or a few drinks if that's your thing.

Networking is highly underrated. I think making the right friends in poker is crucial to succeeding. Almost all pros talk about how a strong poker group has lead them to succeed, having people to bounce ideas off and share strategy can do wonders for your game. It also makes being in the casino a much more pleasant experience when you have a bunch of friends there.

Re the exploitation due to strat sharing, I think you just play against each other normally and agree not to get too OOL / into leveling wars when battling.

Personally I just try and chat to most of the solid regs, if I like their attitude I make more of an effort to get to know them. Eventually I add them on social media after a few encounters and things just grow organically from there.

"Playing normally" to non-colluders means going for the jugular at the table. The whole point is to be playing on a totally different level from the rest of the table, and basically massacre everyone else at the table in an effort to destroy your friend.

And of course the point of friendship is to dissect your victory/loss away from the table and set the stage for an epic rematch with fresh cannon fodder.

If you are doing that to your poker friends, it creates a disincentive to share information with each other. I think the value in having good poker friends to help each other get better > value of being able to outplay these friends.

And a poker room is chock full of these people.