roommate says no to gambling!

[kennyg]

[emmasdad]

[Molina]

[kennyg]

[redhouse]

[AlexMR]

gam·ble (gmbl)
v. gam·bled, gam·bling, gam·bles
v. intr.

1.
1. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest.
2. To play a game of chance for stakes.
2. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit.
3. To engage in reckless or hazardous behavior: You are gambling with your health by continuing to smoke.

Poker is definetely gambling, as it involves uncertainty. I havent found any definiton that says gambling has to b4e -EV as has been said here.

[Kuso]

[Kuso]

[Rhound50]

[NorthView]

Yep, much as I hate to say it, it's gambling all right, but it's part of the hypocrisy of our societies that playing poker is looked down upon while investing in the stock market or in property is lauded. BS, I say.

Anyway, everyone gambles all the time whether they want to recognise it as such or not. When your roommate drives to work he's effectively gambling that the risk of him being killed on the road is small enough to make it +EV.

BTW, what's the view of his parents got to do with what he chooses to do for a living? I'm sure most people here have done things their parents wouldn't approve of, as their parents probably have themselves!

Finally, IMO if he chose to give up being a salesman to play poker, he'd be getting involved in a far more honest way of earning a living!

[Cactus Jack]

My wife makes statements like, "You think you're the best poker player in the world." To which I reply, "No, and I don't have to be. I only have to be better than 90% and avoid the other ten percent to make money." Yes, that may be gambling, but it's at least smarter than farming (depending on the weather), crossing an ocean without a radio, or spending 30 years working for a corporation and seeing your pension fund stolen by a CEO.

They build those enormous casinos on an average of a 4% advantage. In the long run, that's worth billions to them. Barry Greenstein estimates that a poker player can become quite comfortably well-off with a 1% edge. 1%!! 1/3 of a BB per hour. That kind of makes you sit up and take notice.

Card counters reduce the casino's edge to about even. This is why the casinos try to stop them. Casinos, too, want to avoid the other 10%.

Anyone who is successful at anything is betting. They bet on themselves. That's really all we do. We bet that we are better than our opponents and can continue to improve our games while they enjoy playing at whatever level they find entertaining. We can be professionals and charge them for the priviledge of playing against us, challenging us and themselves and being entertained. I see nothing at all wrong with that.

Your roommate is right, Xaston. It's not for him. You have a passion to do something. He doesn't share that passion. He'd fail. One can only be a success at anything if they are willing to put in more time, energy and emotional committment than the next guy. You can. He's still looking (or waiting for it to come to him).

It's perception. Some of us see it as the general public sees it, as a game of chance, without understanding the whole picture. Some of us see it as knowledge, skill, and courage, disregarding the odds against. It really is gambling, but what isn't? It's simply a more pure form and more visible.

I'm not arguing anymore with anyone who thinks it's dependent on luck, which is really what they are saying. If it weren't for the element of luck, there'd be nobody on whom we can profit. It's not in our best interest to educate anyone.


CJ

[kennyg]

[AlexMR]

I am not encouraging friends to play the game. For me it wasnt really difficult to start showing some profit, but winning with a decent edge, was another thing.

I think most people dont have the patience to beat the games, even online. I have a couple friends who had been playing online for a couple month and they keep losing with consistency because they tilt after htting nothing for two hours. Also, most people really need to learn by their own experience, because most of the times you tell someone how to do something correctly and they just do it "their way".

[bobby]

why discuss? (serious question)

[Kuso]