A conversation with my housemate the other night:

I was explaining why our internet being down for the past week was a real pain in the ass for me.

'well you know poker is kinda my job right?'

"oh no, i thought you just played for fun"

'dont you realise i havent had a real job for this past year but still have plenty of money?'

"actually i did wonder... wait, you can do that? you must be pretty good then... but how does that work if you cant see their faces? you dont know when they are lying."

'...'

I explained it and I think she got it. I dont bother telling most people because its just a hassle explaining, although all of my close friends who know I play have understood the whole winning at poker concept pretty quickly. One guy is really smart but thinks its the coolest thing ever and nearly every time I see him the first thing he asks is 'you been playing much? winning heaps? how much are you up this week?' ughhh

LOL - thats great....

I hate it when they ask with a serious face after they find out you play poker for a living..."How good are you?"...what kindve response do u expect me to give?

these convos always end up with me wanting to slap the other person in the face with a 5k stack of 100s

One night I had my Stars hat on in a bar, some guy comes up to me and asked if I played. I told him a little, after that he went on to talk about every bad beat he took that week and how Stars was rigged etc...

You had it coming for getting and wearing it.

Only $3 sng donks wear cheap poker merchandise in public.

some guy: so I hear you play poker for a living
me: ....
some guy: awesome! how do you count cards?
me: ....?

Me: Like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ...., 52 and you're done!

I fookin hate it, i told a lad who i went to school with (when drunk big mistake) that i play online for a living, everytime i'm out he comes over and starts asking loads of cr*p about how he gave it a go and lost like $200 so when he said that i told him it was people like him what make me money

One of my other mates a really good friend wanted to learn and asked me to go round his house and he signed up to masion stuck $400 and got him up to $2000 (very loose table i wish i was on it ) but now i wish i didn't cause he's loseing money left right and center but about a month ago he got in from a night out stuck £300 in a casino on the slots first spin £25,000 after play through he ended up with just over £17,000

Live or online? 1 table?

Conventional Wisdom dictates a good player will make one big bet per hour playing limit. So...$6/hour.

The first time I came home from a casino (I actually sucked at poker at this point as it was a year or two before I took it seriously but most people at this table still sucked worse than me and I got pretty lucky) so I finished up like $1800.

I get home and tell my parents I won $1800 and my mom's like, "That's great. But how much did you lose."

I was confused as hell....I didn't know what she was talking about....here I just told her I won $1800 and she's asking me how much I lost. I was like, "what" and she repeated the question so I was like, "uhhh....I lost negative $1800."


The whole time my dad's standing there and kinda starts laughing...I think he figured out what was going on and then he started to tell my mom that what I told them was the net amount.


It doesn't make any sense to me to not net it.





Really though most people I've told about it have been alright. I don't actually have to listen to many stories nor have to listen to too many it's rigged or whatever claims.


I do usually try not to tell people about it though.....especially since at the moment's it's my sole source of income and you never know how people will react to you.


Though one of my g/f's friends asked me recently what I was doing and I said applying to some law schools, still playing poker for a living. And after a while she asked me if I was winning at it. Like, uh....I'm not living on the street right.


And the how much have you made questions. Like what a stupid question. How much have you made at work? What do you want from me...this year? lifetime? I don't carry around a notebook with figures in it. Lately if the conversation ever gets this far I just tell people my approximate current hourly rate.




And of course, "Are you good?" or "How good are you?"


Well I don't know. Do you think your high school's star basketball player who made the All County Team was good? Alright what is he's in a 2 on 2 game with Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant? I'm good enough to beat the level I play for a solid winrate and that's good enough to make some money.

haha great post

Honestly, most of you have stupid friends/parents.

My friends think its cool and introduce me to people as a poker pro (lol and I'm a stock broker). None ask stupid questions, nor do they really ask me about it ever. Most didn't think I was really winning money until I started buying expensive ****. When they ask how much I win I laugh and say "a lot". Some think I am a sick degenerate but I don't care because most people think the stock market is gambling anyway. Chicks like it because most chicks are dumb.

Plus, who cares what anyone thinks? If you make more money then your parents ever did, while being a complete degenerate gambler and booze hound, then...? lol?

But think how much more impressed people would be if you told them your grossed winnings amount instead.

I was in class the other day and this guy who I had just befriended on Facebook the other day goes "so I saw you play poker." I'm like "yeah, do you play?"

...

"Well I play on this Facebook Texas Hold 'Em application... I'm pretty good."

Thankfully he mentioned that he went to a casino once and saw a kid wearing a hat and sunglasses at a 3/6 limit table and thought it was funny. That had some redeeming quality.

Object-oriented programming ?

This contradicts your point, DUCY?

lol nh

The IRS disagrees with you. I think it is stupid as hell to not net it but hey the IRS wants gross wins and total losses so their programs can net it for you.

Lol best quote ever

I made the mistake of telling my friends and family i decided to play for a living. 65% we're not supportive. 25% we're faking it. "Oh that's great, good luck" meaning "he has a gambling problem, but if he makes it big, I want to be there". The other 10% (which were/are poker players understood it's possible and can be done.

Here is my advice. Tell them your starting your own business from home. You play poker part time, it's got it's ups and downs, but you make a little profit. This keeps the uneducated people who know nothing of poker from hounding you, and also keeps the free loaders away as well. "Hey, didn't you win 2G's last night? Why don't you buy?!" This will allow you to play without lying, and provide you will some sort of cover story so you won't get heckled.

Almost any family member will never support you. Only when you become successful, spotlight successful, will they believe you and support you. They are just too ignorant and uneducated to understand poker and how money is made playing poker.

I went through 2 girlfriends. One was always discouraging me, but had no problem with me paying for dinners. And when i had a bad night, and had to talk to someone, it was her and then came the "I told you so, I don't think I can be with someone who gambles their life away". The next one was ok, but did not believe it was possible to make it work. She never gave me a hard time, but lack of support didn't help those tough weeks of cold decks. My point being, it's very hard to play poker for a living and have a girlfriend. They don't understand the long sessions, late nights, the travel, so if you don't have one that understands the game, and IS very supportive, then you must either lie to her, or stay single till you do find one.

So again, tell only people you trust that will support you. There is no reason to tell people that you are playing for a living if they are going to just be negative. This WILL affect you attitude carry into the card room and cost you money.

Good skills.

lcscanada.....It's easier if you can play online:

-No travel....or at least not usually...maybe just for some really big events and the cash games that grow around them

-Easily make your own hours; play from 12-8:30 then hang with the girl; or have lunch with her and play from 2:30-11:30......and play a bunch the 2 or whatever days a week you don't really spend much time with her......or easily play while she is at work or whatever

-And play a ton more hands in less time to blow through variance faster.....will both give you a more consistent earning on a onthly basis......And will lead to less confusion on her or whoever's part about the variance part of the game because they won't see it so much.


My girlfriend's actually quite supportive at this point (she still doesn't want me to do it long term....but then again I don't wanna do it long term unless I'm makin $225K+ per year and I'm not doin that yet so yea.) Bu yea when I have a rough -5BI day or even -1 or even play for 9 hours and only make 1.5 BI's and not be too happy she's quite supportive.


Actually since I've gotten real serious with her I was only playing 50NL, started moving to 100NL and had rough times at first and she'd always try to make me feel better and never make any negative comments. Now I'm beating 100NL for over 5PTBB/100 hands and trying to move to 200Nl and struggling to the tune of about 1 PTBB/100 hands over 15K hands or something and she's doing it again.


Maybe I'm lucky...I dunno.



But yea to most people I've come up with a standard line when asked what I do for a living right now......"Well I'm applying to law schools. Right now I'm working on short term investments." Usually they nod and go hmm....hmmm or oh ok or something or whatever...but usually there's no further questions and it seems acceptable.......Why...I dunno? Day Traders are huuuuge gamblers IMO. I'm sure there's a science to it, but I don't think the edge is too high.


And yea btw lifetime poker I'm up over $50K....stock market I'm down $500...and I feel much more control over the poker so f the current gambling definition. I do feel I'm in some good stuff right now in the market though. Hopefully it gets going. I got 30 shares of MHS, 21 of RIG, 20 of KO, 20 of T, and 19 of IBM. Any stock brokers or experts or whatever who read this feel free to PM me with opinions or anything...and I'd highly appreciate any of that actually.

I have a new beef.

Meeting girls who actually know someone who plays online.

"Oh you play for a living? Yeah, I had a friend who once made $2,000 one month from playing online. You should meet him... maybe you two could play each other. I bet he'd win, he's really good!"

Bitch, this guy is a monkey. I'm like 1000x better than any poker playing friend you could possibly have unless you are in like .0001% of the population that knows CTS or some other crazy HSNL guy. ****ing tilts me to no end for some reason to be compared to their "friend" that is just a clown.

I actually once met a guy completely randomly who played poker online (like $50 or $100 NL or something). He "challenged" me to a heads-up tournament live for a whole $100 in front of my friends. I think it was an attempt to embarrass me or something. I told him I'll play him, but only if it is for a minimum of $5k. He crawled away scared.

Aside from that, haven't really had anything awkward happen. The standard dumb **** everyone encounters here. My parents have long been real supportive (though my mom thought I was crazy at first); something about making significantly more than both of them combined at 23 does that.

i like that post!
What limits do you play?

I like this angle, but you have to really say it like you mean it. And when he tries to dodge challenge him seriously for entire roll. It seems if you just say 5k min it turns into what it shouldnt be, a joke. Besides hes not going to play you anyway, but that way people realize your serious.

if thats the scenario i like imo.

brilliant