Why I don't tell people I play poker.

[edfurlong]

My old boss found out through the grapevine somehow. She asked me lots of questions about it for a while, then told me her dad left her mom and has been a degenerate low stakes grinder in California for her whole life. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Sorry lady, tell your dad thanks for the monies.

[krazyace5]

[ QUOTE ]
to mother, after she kept asking:

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

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[T-God]

[ QUOTE ]
My old boss found out through the grapevine somehow. She asked me lots of questions about it for a while, then told me her dad left her mom and has been a degenerate low stakes grinder in California for her whole life. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Sorry lady, tell your dad thanks for the monies.

[/ QUOTE ]
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?

[Wools]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
All my buddies just assume I'm a degen

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[TheScientist]

[ QUOTE ]
to mother, after she kept asking:

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

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[UATrewqaz]

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."

[allaboutmyfetti]

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"

[JKratzer]

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.

[edfurlong]

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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."

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, but I'm a little smarter than a two year old monkey with down syndrome, so its all good.

[obiedman]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
to mother, after she kept asking:

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

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

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]