So gold.
I'll bet she watches jeopardy! daily.



I LOVE THIS THREAD

me: "it's not typical gambling - you play for other people's money, not the casino's money. there's potential for long term profit if you play well"
them: "yea, well, how does the casino make money?!"

[x] rake
[x] rake to the face of the person im talking to

Talking to my non poker playing buddy about my downswing.

Me- " I've been really unlucky the last month or so, but in the long run the luck evens out."

Him- "So, in the long run everyone breaks even? Cash out now while ahead."

This thread is pretty epic... keep the funny stories coming people!

I refuse to talk poker with "civilians" if you will. Just not worth trying to explain things...Thank god 50% of the population think poker is like blackjack or a lottery ticket.

what do you get when you mix part social outcast, part unusual money-making hobby, and part epic stories?

lmao mine did the samething

Exactly. I was watching Deal or No Deal earlier today...

(For those that don't know it's a show about people opening boxes to win money. Pure chance, totally random. And I'm LOLing at how people are trying to use a gameplan and the host suggesting that they're "playing well", etc...)

Anyway, I point out this funny observation to my family and my sister says, "but sure, poker is all luck too."

But I honestly don't mind that people don't understand it, unlike some of the other egocentrics' posts I've read in this thread. I think it's cool lots of people don't understand a game that I play well and make money at.

And long may it stay that way

Sir, your grandparents are amazing, they got the potential. Teach them Poker! NOW!

So my buddy starts talking poker with me. He said he plays on some site where it is $10/month and you get unlimited freerolls and you can win $10 in so said freerolls. He starts talking seriously saying, "you know the first hand like 4 or 5 guys are going to be all in on the first hand." Like all tournaments this happens in. (he seriously thinks that all tournaments this happens in, not just freerolls) Then proceeds to say how he kills these tournaments but when it comes to live games he doesn't do well.

I never seen him actually play but my other buddy said he came and played at a tournament we regular, he went out in 1 hand.

Actually, there was a thread on 2+2 somewhere that discussed how to win at Deal or No Deal. It had something to do with how you respond to offers from the banker.

I just glanced at it and don't remember much about it, but I imagine it was something like weighing the banker's offer against the EV of picking one of the remaining suitcases.

This was probably posted somewhere in this thread, but worth a bump anyway:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090225062747756

You have to sign up an account an enable 18+ material to view it, but it only takes like 2 sec and is definitely worth it!

coming back to this thread after a loooong time.

I REALLY wish i didn't tell ANY of my stupid colleagues that I played online to "supplement my income". Coz with the company in dire financial straits, everyone thinks I'm a total gambling degen whose pushing the limits and their "evil eye" has totally doomswitched me on FTP. sigghh....

btw, this is in Asia...but I'm still surprised that even Euro and US non-players still find it hard to accept as a skill game, despite the media coverage of cash and tourney games.

Sorry for offtopic, but iirc the correct choice EV wise was to never take the offered money (banker's offer was never +EV to take the money) and go all the way.

My Uncle is money mad, he's currently seeing a 21 year old Uni student (he's 45)

he transitioned from talking about grandad to talking about uncle without really making it stand out

he'd have to be like 5 years old for the grandad thing to make any sense.

this is true, but most people will sacrifice EV to reduce variance when the offer is high enough, and since you dont get to play deal or no deal over and over and over again to maximize EV in the long run, this makes sense.

IIRC this is called the Kelly Criterion.

Are you _THE_ cptZEEbo???

OMG OMG it's _the_ cptZEEbo, i saw the documentary!!!

1. If i give you $1000 can you make it $1000000 by next week? I'll let you keep half.

2. Can you teach me? Can you teach me?

3. I would quit now before you will loose it all.






[sorry couldn't resist, pulling out this meta-joke as my first post, hope i don't get banned, did see the doc and greatest respect!]

her: so how do you have all this money
me: um, i play cards
her: can u actually win money doing that
me: can you stop talking and keep stripping

(+ other similar comments)

While it's true that some people in this thread may be overly hostile towards people asking about their hobby/job, in many of the listed cases, I would say that it's not unwarranted. There's a world of difference between expressing interest and telling one how to indulge in his hobby or work his job. For whatever reason, almost everyone thinks they understand poker well, when in reality very few do. Listening to a cocky homegame hero, whose poker experience consists of only beating his friends in $5 SnGs, preach to you about the proper play for crappy broadway hands is just an aggravating experience. And even people who don't know jack about poker feel that they're qualified to lecture us on the inevitability of our bustoness: "You better stop before you lose it all." I don't go up to my friends and start lecturing them using my lack of knowledge on their field of specialty, nor do I make uneducated statements about the pitfalls of their career choice. Or what about the famous "How much did you lose?" I understand that it stems from people's experience with degenerates who can't grasp the idea of net amounts, but it doesn't change the fact that the question is rather stupid. I have no problem answering the questions of someone who has some sincere interest in the game or maybe just learning about why people enjoy it, but many of the situations people are talking about wouldn't fall under this category.

That being said, I don't think all of the negative comments towards this thread are unwarranted either. I have no idea why people are bragging about their 4-figure rolls, or how ballin' they are doing $50 flips. Many of these stories would be just fine without numbers, yet some people feel the need to insert an unnecessary snippet about their $5k roll. I'd say the worst is the people who post about the "****ty jobs" their friends work. WTF, seriously. A lot of this thread revolves around others looking down upon our hobby/job, and people in here decide that it's their place to look down upon the jobs of others? And specifically the jobs of their friends, no less. Excluding a select few people, most of us are not god's gift to poker (hell, most are not even winning players) and we should be thankful that we lucked into such a lucrative hobby.

Just my $0.02.

Paddy, I youtubed it. 18+ is a pain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9aU_xbppk

That video is pretty damn funny!

FWIW, I've concluded that's it's usually -EV for me to tell new people I meet about poker. The majority of the population don't understand it, and let's be honest, there's a negative stigma attached to poker and gambling in general. My close friends and family know about my poker playing, but I've stopped telling people unless they become close friends and I feel they won't judge me or think I'm a degenerate.

Come to think of it, I can't really think of anything positive that has come from me telling someone I play poker...

I laughed so hard I cried

Yes. Just Yes. Well put, +100000000

I'm having one of these conversations right now and it's sooooooo tilting....

I can't even describe what he's saying...

"Poker is not a sport, it's a hobby because it doesn't require any physical activity....other than counting."

"Poker requires no skill"

"All you do is read people. I can watch you when we play poker a couple times, then I know your tendencies and your behavioral patterns, so I know what you have."

"Besides, any one can play in the world series, all you have to do is win a qualifier, right?"