and your poker playing abilites?

I wonderred if anyone else has the problem of people and friends becoming somewhat jealous of your ability to play online poker and make money!

I try to explain to people what I do in my spare time and I feel sometimes they might get a little jealous of the money I make.

Some seem to want to attack instantly with, "do you declare it on your taxes? What about taxes, what if the IRS finds out?" Trying to make me feel gulity or justifing their stance and downplaying my accomplishments.

Sometimes I just don't even like trying to explain what I do to make money because they either might not understand exactly what it is, don't believe me, or get jealous


I would rather be Clark Kent and stumble around like a goof and not let anyone know what I do in my secret online life

If I give you $50 can you turn it into $100 in a week?

Just don't tell anyone you play online.

Not only will it keep you from having to put up with abuse/torrents of questions, but it'll also make homegames easier.

Life is so much easier when you don't talk about it with people who haven't the faintest idea about it.

I remember the first time I had a $1k+ day, and I told my girlfriend about it whilst our housemate was in the room and I kid you not, every single day afterwards I heard about his bad beats (though they actually weren't) and some of the stuff that goes on in the .10c sngs he plays. He even started providing audio commentary while playing if I was in the room at the same time, it was ****ing brutal

Of course people get jealous, if you make $1k in a day and they hear about it they'll feel "small" or whatever because they can't do the same in their job and that's why they'll generally follow it up with "but how much did you lose" in an attempt to make themselves feel better. They've no idea of the swings involved, that some days you could lose a grand and some days you could make more than a grand, they just see the absolute dollar figures and they certainly don't like the idea of someone sitting in a comfy chair and raking in more cash by "clicking buttons" in a day than they will that week.

Therefore, best not discussing it with people

Wolitizer,

You make some good points

Thanks for your insight.

Then you have nothing to worry about.

The answer to this question is pretty obvious. It depends on how much you make. How much you makin?

Do you own a house(s) from poker? What kind of car are you driving from poker? It's all a matter of perspective relative to your situation compared to theirs.

"I try to explain to people what I do in my spare time"

"I would rather be Clark Kent and stumble around like a goof and not let anyone know what I do in my secret online life"

Then don't bring it up.

I get asked about taxes and the IRS all the time. It's not an attack, it's a question any logical person would ask who doesn't know much about poker or gambling in general.

How are they trying to make you feel guilty? What does downplaying your accomplishments mean? If you play poker, the only thing that matters is how much money you make...a Jerry Yang mil is the same number as a Negreanu mil, nobody gives a **** how u got it, a mil's a mil.

Who gives a **** about jealous people anyway? That's their problem, not ours.

insta tilt

but i have yet to get the "but how much did you lose?"

i dont even tell anyone i play poker unless they play, i get tired of hearing the same responce from every moron, oh really u play poker if i give u money will you play for me, i tell them sure if u wanna go to work and give me half your pay check ill spend time playin on your acct, so far no takers.

If you answer yes to the first question this goes away.

i wish i never told anyone. coz now prob everyone thinks im a douche

but otherwise, how could i explain my friends what i spend my time with?

I almost got in a fight over this **** all the time. Ill be over at a friends house with alot of strangers around , one of my friends always gets drunk and calls me "Pokerstar" just off random ****. Which leads to alot of people asking dumb questions . So now I just tell him to STFU !

You care too much about what other people think?

you clearly dont play for a living.

its not that we care...its just that its ****ing annoying.

what do you do with the majority of your time ?

i bet you volunteer to teach illiterates how to read and write, dont you?

bump

What if you don't have to pay taxes for poker winnings (like in Finland if you win from EU-area), I've spent numerous hours telling people that I'm not a criminal when I don't pay taxes that I don't need to pay and they still consider me a crook or something...

Not that I mind, don't really care what other people (besides my closest friends and such) think about anything :/.

This line combined with the "so how much have you lost" line is bloody annoying.

Amen to that.


OP, who cares man? Just live your life and let them live theirs...


If they are jealous, screw em. Find new ppl to hang out with

Yes.

They get jealous and then call me a multi-tabling low life.

The First Rule of Poker Club is you do not talk about Poker Club

Yes they, do.

People used to back when I first started playing, the ugly kind of jealousy. My GFs dad at the time hated me, and im 99% sure it was because I made more than he did working 4 hour days in my underwear, and he was working some **** job he hated for the last 20 years. I could just picture him sitting there in rush hour traffic picturing me pounding his teenage daughter and punding his fists on the steering wheel swearing

now since its more widespread, people just think its cool, and if there is jealously its in that admiring sort of way

Chicks dig it. That's all I really care about.

I play high stakes PLO on Full Tilt so my swingy days are nasty. I'll have a day +10-15k or vice versa. I get all of these questions from people who know what I do and it is annoying. I also always get the "Man I should start playing so I can do that....you should teach me how". Everyone wants to learn how to play but then when you tell them they should read some books and actually learn some basic strategy...they lose interest right away. This is probably the most annoying thing ever which then just turns into them asking me to play for them to which I politely respond "Sorry I'm no good with other people's money". Parents definitely hate hearing the stories IMO but it's always the douchebag parents who are only jealous. From some other parents I get smiles or laughs about it and can tell they love it. Just deal with it but don't get into the dollar figures of your days...just respond "Enough" if they ask how much you made or lost. If you get into the dollar figures of how much you're makin, all that will follow is friends hittin you up for drinks every night at the bar