I'm at a birthday shindig, all the girls go off to the bathroom and I'm talking to some guy. He's talking about work (he picks up garbage off the streets... no joke) and then when the girls get back, one of them listening in is like, "hey, do you know what he (me) does for a living? He plays poker on the internet."

him: "oh, really?"
me: "yeah"

For the next ten minutes, I'm stuck listening to how he won $40 at a home game once and that he prefers pocket twos to pocket aces.

What negative experiences have you guys had when someone found out you play poker for a living and/or on the internet?

Cliff's notes.

I was at this bar/restaurant by my house having dinner with my GF. I ran into a friend who also plays online who was there with his parents and he made a comment to me to the effect of: "see you on Party later tonight."

The bartender and his buddies overheard this and would not stop talking to me about "rigged"-ness. I have not been back since

People always want to learn how to do it too or the cliche... "Hey man, what if I give you $300 of my money for you to double it, can you do that?"

Haha, I've gotten that and I always say the same thing. "Sure, $5,000 sounds reasonable."
Some people don't understand that I might actually have fifty dollars?

I don't really like to bring up poker around anyone who I feel I might have to discuss it with, and the second I bring up the word "online" forget it.

It's hopeless to talk w/ anyone about it, except people who play. I've tried and now I know better.

Which people that play? There are like 3 people at work who I can stand to talk to about poker, and the other 99% I just want to throw gravy at.

I let it slip once at work (while we played poker in the boardroom at lunch) that I play online. They grilled me on how much I make online, but I refused to tell them. One of them asked me what my name is on Stars and I told him.

The next day I show up for the lunch time game and the guy who asked me for my screen name is going on and on about how he watched me win in a few hands what we all make in a week. He'd gone online that night and found me to watch me play.

The rest of the people are the table looked at me like I have a severe gambling problem. A few seemed to be impressed, but I got a few "how can you possibly gamble with that much money?" and "aren't you scared you'll lose and go broke?" It was very uncomfortable.

Since then whenever I've mentioned anything that involved me spending money (like purchasing a larger house, getting a new car, going to Hawaii, etc...), my co-workers will say things like "Good run at poker, eh?" It's annoying.

to mother, after she kept asking:

me: "i dunno, i think i won $450 today or something."

her: "but how much did you lose??"

"How much did you make last month?"

More than you make in a year...

LOL, its sick how often I get this.

Went to go eat sushi a couple weeks ago with my step dad and a whole bunch of other people. College age kid is there with super hot girlfriend. He is a very avid poker player.

Apparently limit is not beatable

Everyone cheats

And J8 is the nuts on a JT8 board, completely disregarding all relevant information of course...its just the nuts

But hey...he had a super hot gf and I post on 2+2 soo....I guess we know who the real winner is

Good God I can't tell you how many times I hear that phrase and every time I do I die a little inside.

i just say, "sure", take the $300, and go busto at a blackjack table.

There are 2 people I can talk poker w/ IRL. One lives in Cali, and one lives in Washington.

my biggest mistake was telling people I play poker

they keep asking how much I'm making.. "hey, I play poker on once a month in my homegame"

and whatnot

Whenever people who don't know I play poker come into my room and I'm sitting at my compter in front of 3 giant monitors I try and say that its my roomates computer and I just needed to use it for a second and mine is the more modest setup across the room. Then I tell them my roomate is addicted to porn.

This guy where I was working found out I played online poker.

HELLO FIFTY BAD BEAT STORIES. The best one was (he had just gotten back from Vegas) "I was at the MGM playing 200NL. I looked down at aces. I only had 100 dollars behind. So I raised to 15, another guy reraised me to 40, and I pushed. He called with kings and rivered a king. My mistake was not having enough money behind to push him off the hand"

YEA IT SURE IS A BIG [censored] MISTAKE TO GET ALL IN PREFLOP WITH POCKET ACES



then another guy found out I played online poker

HELLO 45 MINUTE LECTURE ON HOW HE "KNOWS" ONLINE POKER IS RIGGED, including, but not limited too, when you cashout they make you start losing, if you are clearing a bonus they make you lose, and if you deposit they let you win.

How does he know it is rigged?

Because he deposited 500 dollars to play 3 handed 5/10 LHE and its obviously impossible to lose 50 bb in a session


I'm never letting anyone know I play poker again

I was at a house party once....girl overheard I played poker for a living...I was like F ME another boring night of explaining how you can actually make money playing poker

BUT turns out she's from Las Vegas and her dad has been playing poker for a living for over 20 years ...we talk it up...get to know eachother..and that night I got a drunken bj ....best random hook up of my life

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who gets this.

that would [censored] infuriate me.

[censored] YOU VERY MUCH FOR RUINING THIS PITTY PARTY!!!!!!

All my buddies just assume I'm a degen, but I never talk about winnings; I just tell them about the days I drop a grand and go out for some beers. None of them think I make any money, so they dont want to talk about it. I might run into some of the above problems when I get a new car early next year though since I've been unemployed since April 1. But yeah, I hate talking to ignorant people about it.