it's usually the following
- you play poker ?
- yea
- wow, youre a gambler..
- not really.. it's not a "who gets lucky" game as most people think..
- i thought it's all luck, aren't you afraid of losing your "random stuff/everything/whatever" one day?
- well.. AASDADASD (30 mins explaining bout variances, edges, percents, maths, psychology, being a good player, long period, ETC ETC ETC)..
-ah, i see - he/she says. - smokes a cigarette, looks into the emptiness of space and says - however, it's all coming down to your luck, right
- yes, of course. - FACETEHFIKNGPALM
/END

the last line i had read somewhere.. i cant remember where, but it's so **** totally true i can't believe that

HAHA. That's what I love about her comment...it makes so little sense! But I guess she was implying it was all luck/gambling.

Hmm...on that note, I'm on abit of a heater right now (hence I was looking at my graph happily when she came in lol)....might put a few lines on the lotto!

me: so yah i play poker
friend: yah but i'd stop soon its all luck
me: yah im all luck all the time

end

"You what!?... You know, I get awful hard up in the winter, could probably use $500"

I really don't like to tell people this is what i'm doing to get by. Honestly, i feel better lying to them telling them " i do odds and ends".I really can't explain, i don't know why i do it. I saw a friend that i used to work with at a B&M job today, he asked me what i'm doing now. He's still working the same job. I just looked at him and ended up saying, "ya know, i'm still looking for work." Unfortunately most of my friends aren't going to think "good for you man, you don't have to work like us, but you make 3 times as much." It makes them feel better if i say stuff like this, and i don't have to come off as an arrogant prick. I think i've just had too many negative experiences telling people about it. Most people either don't believe me or consider it to be a very irresponsible choice.

You work with 400 people?

not impossible

I can't even stand to talk about poker with people who play poker online and aren't terrible.

Even they say stupid things like "I can't believe you shoved A5...A5 isn't a good hand".

I like it, but what about maybe including the picture of him burning 100 million dollars in there at the end?

The funniest one I ever saw was this woman who had 2 boxes left.

0

and $200,000


It seemed like they really were being nice to her and wanted her to do the right thing. Her yearly salary was said to be 30k as a teacher. They offered her...

$110,000

She declined, picked the wrong box, and the show ended with the credits running and her crying. I thought it was the most golden momen the show ever had.

It was pretty damn degen too.

Hopefully not a math teacher!

Hahaha.

Just started reading this thread but this one stands out at me. People's reactions to gambling and probability are so weird. Economists have done experiments where they offered people a coin flip for $1 and most refused, then offered $1.10 to $1 on a coin flip, and still most people refused. They kept upping it and upping it until most people accepted (I forget where - I think it was somewhere around 3 to 1!), but there were still people turning down $100 to $1 on a coin flip because they don't gamble. On the other hand, lots of people are happy to go to a casino and take $0.95 to $1 on a slot machine all day. For some reason when you throw probability at the human brain it seems like the vast majority of people just blow a fuse and have no concept of things like expected value, variance, and standard deviation.
Which of course is why poker is so profitable - I went to a really good college and my friends I played against then still have absolutely no idea how to play, yet they claim to be good when they play a home game once a month and go to the casino a few times a year. I don't understand how you can play a game as intricate and potentially profitable/costly as poker and not want to learn as much as you can about it. I don't even consider myself a top level player, but I've studied and practiced and learned to the point where I am a solidly winning player. I wasn't any better than anyone else when I started, I just realized that there was definitely a lot more to know about this game, and I wasn't about to sit down and play for money without knowing what I was doing. Yet it seems most people are content to make no effort beyond, at most, simply playing premium starting hands and counting pot odds when calling draws. Smart people can't grasp the variance enough to get past that and see how this game really works.

I've had many of the responses in this thread including the venerable "How much did you lose"

I dont play a lot of poker but i'm a winning player of 80-90k hands or so far after an initial deposit of $160 initially.

I'm lazy and the first (physical) check I had Stars post me ended up staying in my wallet for over a year, and became a nice evidence based response to all the accusations of "Its not real money", "You can't withdraw it" etc. If you can afford it I recommend this technique (but brush up on your "Can you turn this $50 into a $100" responses)

I still ended up with "I bet it bounces" once in a while though, even after i'd tell them i've already cashed a check.

Most of the people seemed to think online poker was playing against the site, not other people in my experience. "Oh. so they're other people sitting at home on a computer too?"

Yep this is about all the effort i've ever made and i'm about a gazillion big-bets up at limit holdem over the last 6 years

My standard reply when asked what I do for a living:

"I work with mentally challenged adults and teens."

I can elaborate and tell them that I generally counsel them in small groups and occasionally one-on-one. I focus primarily on basic decision making and how to make good choices. We play different types of games and tell stories that allow me to diagnose their deficiencies.

I've had some really interesting conversations using this line and never have to listen to bad beat stories, explain how online poker works or get dismissed as a degenerate gambler/liar.[

I'm sooo using this.

Haha I was playing a live game at the time of watching this, and this one guy lost $500 (at a 2/5 game) by giving people 10:1 that this woman would not take the deal. I won $100

My buddy keeps telling me stars are rigged for shure and that I am a sheep for thinking otherwise. He also played 100NL with 30$ roll and doesn't belive in "odds" or "strategy" since only the players who dont have the guts use those. Funny thing is he 10x his roll in 2 days, then split it in half by "unbelivable bad beats". Because he luckboxed so hard in those 2 days I now have to listen to him berating me for proper BRM and not buying in with my whore roll on the highest limit and steal blinds thinking he is the cold stone **** when it comes to poker.

Cause i loose and tilt so bad

yes and im sure those guys would love to have their own forum to flame about annoying disbelievers

you shouldnt ever risk your whore roll on poker IMO

Lol, pure gold. Have to use this some time.

HAHAHAH that's brilliant!!!!

I dont tell anyone that i play poker, but I thought my grampa might understand, since he is a very inteligent person and has studied economi etc, so I told him.

I explained him about EV, variance, BRM, static system with HEM.

And then he was like: Karim... I've been a 10/20 grinder for years now, I know all about what your saying and I am very proud of you being a winning poker player.

And he showed me he's hold'em manager graph and we discussed some hands etc.