I've thought more about this and decided that your ethical standards need to be very low in order to profit at poker. The game of poker is built around lying and deception. These are terrible traits to be good at and people view you as being better at them than the standard person.

lol

Oh man... so not true.
You do not lie at poker more then you lie in business or any job. People will always try to have an edge over other people at work or in life in general and will attempt to manipulate others to get this edge. Everyone saying he does not do so is lying and manipulating in that way.

Poker is a quintessential game. If you suck at poker you will suck at other things too. Not greatly, but good poker players will always be better at socializing, at reading people and situations, at negotiating, at closing business deals, at managing finances and money, at making investment decisions etc.

.

space ghost coast to coast

I only got into poker a year ago and only recently discovered I'm amazingly good at it. As a single mother of two kids, and with number three on the way, I don't exactly fit the stereotype of a semi-serious internet poker player. However I have tons of spare time right now so I've been able to get some MTT volume in.
A friend of mine called round for coffee the other day, just as I was multi-tabling 5 MTTs on Stars. At first she was confused, then amused, then pretty horrified. I tried my best to just hold a normal conversation, but she just looked terrified at the thought of me having an obvious sick gambling problem.
Since then, two of my other close friends have approached me about my gambling. I'm perfectly happy to accept that I'm gambling, and tried explaining that gambling with an edge is a good thing rather than a bad thing, especially when combined with common sense and BRM. However the more detail I went into, the more depressed they looked. I'm a hopeless case, obviously...
So how do you guys deal with the negative reactions of concerned friends and family?

hahaha best avatar ever!

I try not to lie, even during poker. It's easy if you never show your cards.* I don't lie, but I don't give away information either.

*I might show it I think that it will tilt someone.

And why are you on a poker forum?

You might also want to give them this book which expands more on the same issues.

I think I should have a talk with my wife...

Robert12345 from Prima?

Ya, only played 1 month on prima this year. Been on ipoker all year, under a diff alias who is this?

No doubt they are thinking the same thing we think if someone starts saying "I have this system for beating roulette ...". Obviously it is impossible to be +EV in the long run if you "gamble" therefore any of these fancy "BRM systems" and "maths" are just you deluding yourself, LOL.

You should do something safe with your money like investing in AAA rated mortgage backed securities.

lol thanks, I'm actually going to use that line!

Did you tell him that you had a real hand, a wired pair of matching pocket nines in the hole, and that there was no way you could fold with both the star spangled banner AND show tunes going off in your head?

Morphy

Unless you have drastically changed your style over the past year, I highly doubt you are a winning player

one time dealer, one time would this happen to me

The worst is people who you kind of know. You tell them you just spent a long time playing poker and are kind of tired from it, but you made a lot of money doing it. I had been talking to this girl for a few days, she had seen that I lived in a nice place even with a seadoo and all, so I was obviously having no money problems. One day out of nowhere I mentioned poker, because I rarely talk about it with people because there isn't much to talk about unless you are educated.

She says to me in a condescending tone "Its cool that you make money, but I think you are addicting to this poker thing"

Its like wtf you can spend lots of hours and effort to be good at any other job to make a lot of money but if that one thing you work hard and dedicate yourself to is poker a lot of people outside the poker world see it as degeneracy and addiction. There is no way to win, if you try really hard and win money you have a gambling problem because you do it too much....?

Needless to say, I told this girl to gtfo and that I didn't want to talk to her anymore.... the poker thing is kind of a test of character to me, when people act all righteous and judgmental it really quickly exposes their character issues quicker than you could see otherwise. I am glad that this girl said this to me because it let me know quicker than usual how cool and better she thought she was than people. bitch.

Solid LOL.

You should fight your dad.

Because i have losed alot.

bumped for Argent Beef

[X] seadoos and all = proof that you have no money probs

[X] Solid