Well, I've thought about it and I can't think of any felonies that I've committed. Perhaps you can give some suggestions, because I sure as **** can't think of any. Maybe you think rolling through a stop sign is a felony traffic violation, I don't know...



Yeah, I know and have known plenty that claim they play for a living. I don't know any 1/2 or 2/5 players at all. Maybe high-stakes players are smarter and don't admit to tax fraud because I haven't heard any that claim they cheat on their taxes. Maybe they don't tell other professional players because they think we'll drop the dime on them so they can get pumped in the ass while other pros take their action from them in the games?

Dunno, but I just think your "you cannot possibly believe that your average 22 year old..." should be taken as fact because you say it is. For one, your average 22 year old is in the red each year. Link me to these threads where these players in the black don't pay taxes and how and why you think they represent the majority?

I'm not deflecting anything. When I hear someone say what you say with such matter of fact conviction, I tend to think it's what they would do if in that situation (i.e., cash business). Why are you so holy (i.e., you pay taxes on your winnings) but damn near all professional poker players are not?

I'm starting to reach the point where I think you flat-out cannot read simple words in front of you. I'm not a professional player. I never was. I actually rarely play anymore, because the game stopped being fun and interesting nor is it worth the lengthy drive to a casino anymore, and when I do, it's generally in home games.

As far as the middle of that post, again, you're either incapable of reading or are flat out lying to yourself. There have been dozens of threads over the years about people turning pro, trying to turn pro, Black Friday related stuff, "what's a good 1/2 NL win rate if I do it for a living", etc. I don't think I've ever seen one person in these threads state that they're paying taxes. Nor did I ever meet anyone when I did play frequently who stated that poker was their sole source of income at that time who paid taxes on what they made.

Not that I care, but the "stop sign" comment is moronic and condescending, not to mention incorrect.

Again, when someone speaks the way you do, I think it is what they WOULD do if they were in that situation or they ARE in that situation and do that. I KNOW you don't play poker for a living; you are proud to say that every second you get a chance to with disdain for those that do, but presumably you still play poker RECREATIONALLY and have done so more in the past and since you say you DON'T cheat on your taxes you must pay taxes on your winnings as a RECREATIONAL player. Again, why are you so special?

Yes, there are those professional players who cheat on their taxes. You said "virtually none pay their taxes" and you are trying to use the minority to speak for the majority. Get a clue.

As for the stop sign analogy, I have never committed a felony. You seem to think it's odd that someone would never have and "if you think long enough you will realize that you have". I say, tell me about all the felonies you have committed that you think I must have overlooked doing myself. Either do that, or stfu.

Get a room you guys

You can whip out your wangs and slobber on each others behind closed doors

Not saying whether you are correct or not, as neither of us actually know, but drawing your conclusion from random threads where people don't mention one way or the other can't possibly be good enough evidence, it isn't evidence at all.

I have to agree about the felonies. I can't even imagine a scenario where I would be in a position to commit a felony. If you don't take drugs, carry illegal weapons, join a gang, get drunk*, or steal (or hang out with people who do) it's pretty hard to commit a felony. Sure, there is the occasional time that someone gets mad and murders someone with a baseball bat, but that's not exactly common.

*Being drunk isn't a crime in most situations, but it can be a factor in many crimes, including domestic violence and drunk driving.

Do you play online poker?

In some states it is a felony to play online poker.

It's only a felony in the state of Washington, so I guess if he traveled to WA and thought of playing...

Still wondering what this guy thinks that most people do that is a felony without realizing it. That said, I did see he posted in a cop thread in OOT and said he's been pulled over after drinking "several times but none led to a ticket or arrest" and said he might start a thread about it, so I guess drunk driving is one he thinks is common for people to do.

No, I don't, nor does anyone else. You could not find 5 people you've ever met in your poker life who do this. People who play 1/2 NL or 2/5 or casino SnG's or underground games etc once or twice a month aren't paying taxes on their winnings. This is utter nonsense. Doesn't surprise me, though, because it's as incompetent and moronic as everything else you've said.

Get a degree. And a real job. You keep trying, pathetically, to turn this around on me, because you're an imbecile who has said nothing right at any point in this discussion.

If you're as emotionally unstable and angry at the tables as you are on this forum, I doubt you're making much of a living. "Stfu" over an Internet debate you're getting destroyed in. Comical.

They're not random threads, they speak directly to the issue we're discussing. And if you makes you feel better, I've worked part-time in poker rooms before, both underground and in an actual casino, as well as played pretty heavily - albeit not for a living - back in the day. I've met hundreds of grinders or heavy-hours recreational players. I can't name one who ever paid taxes on what they made. That includes well known professional players you've seen post here, play in televised events, etc.

The old adage about a blind squirrel finding a nut occasionally applies here. You managed to say something intelligent. Kudos.

Yes, in many jurisdictions aggravated DWI/DUI is a felony, as might be reckless driving. It's even possible (you'd admittedly always plead it down) to be charged with one for driving double the speed limit in some states.

Can you think of any others? Try hard. You can do it, really.

forgive me but i didn't follow this from the beginning and i don't have time to read 60 pages of posts. i am curious though, did any actual poker pros that don't regret the decision to play professionally actually chime in on this thread and say so?

It may be utter nonsense, but it's the law. You are supposed to report and pay taxes on all income earned. You are cheating on your taxes, which is as I suspected (i.e., people that claim most all pros don't pay taxes likely don't pay taxes on cash earnings themselves and figure everyone else must be like them).



I have a degree (more conjecture on your part), and I had a real job. It was good, too.



You seem emotionally unstable and angry with all the petty insults you seem to not be able to control using. Anytime you want to wager money on my living, let me know.




Yes, all of it has been intelligent; you just don't understand all of it, and so you lash out at things you don't understand, apparently.


I can think of many felonies. I can't think of a single one I've committed. Why is that so hard to believe? I have never driven an automobile after drinking alcohol. Again, I'm still waiting for all these felonies I must have committed without realizing it. You drink and drive so everyone must do it? What other felonies have you committed? Go down the list of felonies you've committed, and I'll let you know if I've done any of those.

Yes, there have been, and there have been those that do.

You need to adjust your forum settings to show more posts per page, this is really only a 9 page thread from my perspective. Regardless, here is a page with some good material to read forward from:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...29/index6.html

Its funny how people just lump in "pros" as a whole. There is a huge difference in skill between "pros". Before Black Friday 80% ( maybe closer to 90%) of the "pros" in the casinos were terrible at poker, tilt machines and only got by because the games were so good, even in 100-200 LHE or 10/20 NL at Commerce.

4 years later you don't see hardly any of those faces at Commerce because the games got too tough and they all went broke because they sucked in the first place.

I live in Michigan where online poker is not a crime. Obviously if I lived in the state of Washington I would not play online.

I'm as emotionally stable and normal a human being as you'll ever meet in your life. Nothing on this site has ever gotten me even the least bit angry. It's a time killer for me. I insult you because you deserve it; your commenting in this thread has been inept.

None of it has. You are clearly wrong here. Your average poker player does not pay taxes on their winnings. Outside of the bizarro world that is 2p2, where reality apparently takes a break from showing up, everyone would agree with me. Perhaps some high stakes players doing it for a significant amount of time, such as yourself, pay taxes. But in an underground club where a bunch of 24 year olds are playing 1/2 NL, 2/5 NL, or some $60 SnG? No, they aren't.

Great. Should've kept it. You'd be better off than you will down the one, when the poker boom is completely over and you have no bad/recreational players to provide your income.

You call me inept because I'm supposed to take this as fact with no evidence. What is your basis, common knowledge? I think your average poker player is in the red each year and doesn't pay taxes.

While this isn't reporting correctly for IRS purposes, I'm fairly certain the IRS doesn't care that much about someone who won 20k over the course of a year and lost 27K the same year. Of all these 24-year-old winning players, (that of course you know are 100% winning players), you know that next to all of them don't pay taxes how exactly?


Again, you speak as if you know everyone's situation. Generalize much? As in most careers, if you expect to keep earning good money, you need to stay current and excel above the competition. This happens in nearly every field.

New grads, with all their current technology, are replacing olds that never stayed current in their respective fields. I changed with the times over the years. As the games gradually got tougher and tougher online so did I.

Anyone that just woke up and couldn't beat the games any longer did something wrong, and I was the recipient of such laziness as I put more time off the table inspecting every nuance of my toughest opponents' play than actually playing vs them.

Furthermore, the industry I was in was about to be having its ass handed to it by the internet, and I got out at the right time. I'll be quitting poker in 3-4 years and will only play 2 months out of the year thereafter.

That all said, would I recommend a noob get into poker now with the intentions of playing for a living?

Nope.

I was only briefly skimming over your posts. I don't understand why you didn't post your sound analyisis right off the bat, or just agree with what many itt have been saying instead of giving "it depends" responses for so long.

the "it depends" answer might only apply to an infinitely small % of winning poker players out there.

There's well know guys who have been at the perceived pinnacle of poker for a long time who are openly saying stuff like 'yes poker can be fun, interesting, and profitable. but don't play professionally. I don't recommend anyone to quit a stable job or drop out of college to play this game.'

And when asked if they would want their kids to be professional poker players / are they going to teach them to play they all pretty much say 'no ****ing way'

What else do people need in order to reconsider going pro?


--

I also nearly 100% agree that if someone has the brains/ discipline to beat the games for a good clip in this climate, then they definitely have enough creativity and brainpower to find employment outside of a cubicle.

the poker or cubicle comments itt are just lol.

Maybe don't skim? I've made my thoughts clear on this many times before. The title of the thread is "are there any live pros that don't regret their decision to play for a living" and not "are there any live pros that don't recommend noobs have their sights on playing for a living today."

Furthermore, not saying "I agree" when not asked does not mean I don't agree, but it seems a lot of you guys think that just stating facts based on my personal experiences means these personal experiences I consider to be universal for all.

In the other thread, once the OP found out that I've been playing for a living for almost 14 years successfully, he had no interest in hearing what I have to say because he assumes it will conflict with his thoughts/agenda, but anyone that starts out with "I've been doing it 5 years and I hate my life" and they are all ears.

Been grinding live 5+ years. I don't regret it now but have had plenty of "oh why oh why the **** did I quit my job for this ****" moments lasting several weeks at worst. I have no doubt there will be many more of them to come. I wouldn't recommend this job to anyone I can think of right now.
That said, I still love the game, I'm at the peak of my career in terms of skill level and find myself continuously improving, I value very highly the relationships I've cultivated with other regs (both winners and losers) whom I have come to respect as players and human beings, and I can't see myself in another occupation in the near future and am happy with current prospects and outlook. Poker is an incredibly complex and interesting problem-driven game and as long as intelligent, hardworking, ethical individuals stay on top, I think my passion for it will keep me going.

It's pretty simple. If you're miserable in your career (not just your current job) or if you've had difficulties in your life that have kept you from developing a real career but are smart enough, go for it. If not, you're better off in your career. Playing poker for a living is a ton of fun at first, but it wears on you after a while. Ultimately, you're exploiting degenerate gamblers and providing no real value to the world, and that's going to wear on most people, even if only subconsciously.

You have admitted to smoking weed. And from your avatar I am guessing that you might reside in Minnesota. In Minnesota, if you have ever had more than 1.5 oz in your possession, that would be a felony, depending on when it occurred. Just saying, sometimes a felony can be for something that many people would not consider a serious crime.

I said I'll never deny having smoked weed. I said I never will deny having had a beer while underage or speeding in a car. None were felonies when they occurred. I haven't smoked weed in a very long time. I'm not in Minnesota; this was a gimmick account that was created for the Crimson challenge back in 2005 when a dude ate a pound of butter.

When the 2+2 hack occurred in 2012 and us old timers lost our accounts due to not being able to remember the email address used 10 years prior, I was able to retrieve the email address associated with this account but not my 2002 account, so here we are.

At any rate, I don't think I've ever seen 1.5 ounces let alone possessed it, so your response is pretty lol. I'm open to you citing other felonies you think I may have committed without knowing they were felonies, though, but I think you'll keep coming up empty handed.