reason to pretend that you dont play: I went to my college orientation, and my roomate decided to have a 5$ "poker tournament" wiht 6 other kids in our dorm room. Three of them being girls. I watched the "tourny" after telling them i didnt know how to play. It was then explained to me while being :coached: by the hoster why it is ok to call raises with 56 oop, because the raiser probobally has high cards, so he wont expect it if u hit a 5...

P.s. he didnt know what being oop was :/

what about this " if I make an account and we play together, we can both play at the same table and tell each other our hands over the fone!! WE CANT LOOSE!!!!"

Ugh, this is going to sound so stupid but....

degen = degenerate??!? I always just thought it was 2p2er Degen's last name or something. I can't believe I actually just looked up degen at dictionary.com, then sat there confused for a minute before I figured it all out. woo!

Also I have this same problem, for some reason I only talk about my losses if at all so I keep getting questions like "so you think you're up overall?". ugh.

I've never gotten a negative reaction when I tell people I play for a living. I usually have to answer a question or two but that's it, so I don't mind it. But one time at a live tourney I didn't want to let out that I was a "pro" so when asked if I played alot, I said "Just a little bit online, not much". So most of the rest of the day was the kid with 2 months experience telling me about the finer points of the game. Nice guy, but ya, I know to play tight prelfop.

I get this too from people or "but how much did you have to spend to win that?"

I'm always afraid to meet someone who'll be like "My dad lost his life savings playing online poker."

"Uh...my bad?"

How did you really handle that?

haha, I just shortened it up because I thought the degenerate thread had it that way in the title.

My parents know about how well I do, but not a specific hourly, all my friends seriously think I'm pissing away trust fund money(or something, how else would I have an endless supply to piss away?) 5 hours a day. Joke's on them when I show up in a new car sans payments.

edit: I guess I've dodged the subject pretty well with my friends, because I dont have to explain how much I make to them, but a few ask. I just tell them I obviously do better than I did at the day job I quit. That's probably going to change when I show up with a new car; I'll just ask them how much they make and see how they like it.

That's funny...that's the exact same line my mom gives me.

A few entertaining ignorance is bliss tales...

1.
When I told my sisters I play poker (not for a living just low stakes online and B&M occasionally for fun and extra $$$)

"How much have you won?"
"Oh probably about 5K (at the time)"
"You better stop before you lose it."
"I've built that up from nothing, I won't lose it all, I play low stakes against bad players and win it a little at a time."
"How much is the most you've lost in one night??"

(insert me trying to explain variance, statistics, etc.)

"You better stop before you lose it all."

2.
Me playing in a free NL tourney hosted by a sportsbar chain here in Atlanta (I played these frequently back in the day and hardly at all in the last year, mostly when I found internet poker).

Some random middle aged chick talking about losing money at limit in Tunica and confused as to why because she's pretty good at no limit (she was god awful terrible of course). A random shaved head tatoo'ed guy begins his long winded speech about how limit isn't real poker and stupid and good players can't win, to the agreement of most of the table. I kept my mouth shut the entire time, both amused and sickened.

3.
Another sports bar tourney, guy A talking to guy B about online poker, and how he wins even though they juice the cards for big action and to make it exciting, guy B "oh that makes sense"

4.
I work for an online casino software company so there are several people in the office who play (and alot of them are ok, they'v read 2+2 stuff, etc.) But i never know how to answer "Are you good?" my standard response is something to the effect of "Not particularly, but compared to the people I play against yes."

Not really a reason why I don't tell people I play poker, but I've heard this a lot recently:

<something comes up & it gets out that I play a decent amount of poker>
SomeIdiot: "Yeah, I always wanted to learn how to play, but I can never bluff so there's no point"

when people ask about how much monies ive won or anything my new answer is "enough that i haven't had to get a job yet" combined with a shrug and a look of slight dejection. usually takes care of the follow-ups.

people are really funny about poker with me. i dont tell anyone but a lot of ppl know (cuz theyve seen me play etc).

standard lines:

1) Do you make money?
2) Did you really buy that TV with ONLY your poker winnings?
3) Did you REALLY buy that car with only your poker winnings?
4) Let's play high stakes some time. Like at least $20, maybe even $50 buy in. (usually some hotshot sunglasses kid).
5) Can you teach me?
6) How much did you make today?
7) Will you buy me an engagement ring? (actually had 2 girls ask me that haha)
8) How do you play so many SCREENS at once?!
9) So would you say overall, you are up or down money?
10) What stakes do you play? Oh, I don't know what that means. How much is the buy in?

Also this one which is just so frustrating:

That sucks, they don't sound like 'buddes' at all.

Just punch them in the throat

yeah, my buddies think im a pretty big baller i think. they see me sitting with like 60K at a table adn they're like OMG 60K!!!!!

I can halfway understand most of the stupid questions in here because not everyone understands poker/gambling. But my mom says this all the time, and I can't figure out what the [censored] she/they could POSSIBLY be thinking when she/they ask that... Seriously, WTF????

-ChipsAhoya

60K is a little over the top Baron.

But hey, you lie against your own flesh and blood, so let's call it even.

i love talking to the weekend guys at work. i seriously need to start charging $5/ bad beat story. i usually listen and then when they totally botch the hand, i just say,

"so really when the big money went in, you were way behind"
"well, yeah, but he shouldnt have called from there with a worse hand than my aces"
and this always works....
"he probably knew you sucked and would pay him off if he hit his hand" convo usually ends there.

Baron, you are a big baller.

whaaa ive had 60K at a table on a lot of occasions....40-50K regularly (60K yesterday actually)

i have to go to therapy for my immigration case once a week and i told my therapist that i play poker every now and then and im almost certain she thinks im a GA candidate. she tries to ask me about this everytime. shes very nice but its just so difficult telling people about poker who dont regularly play poker. i can discuss my wins/losses with other regular players but when its discussed with family or people who dont play it makes me want to unload my .45 at the end of the conversation.

Nah, they're my friends; I just havent told them what I earn. They put their money in $3 bottles of Bud Light, I put mine in a 5% savings account. They work 3 times as much as I do and make less, I'm not going to rub it in their faces. I really dont see how my original statement makes them sound [censored]...I only talk about the really bad days, that doesnt make them bad friends.