My least favorite poker platitude

[Rushmore]

"That's why they call it gambling."

I have heard no less than 500 times in my life at poker tables.

Now, one might think the reason I hate it is because the only time I hear it is when some donk just sucked out on me.

Although there might be some truth to that, there's another reason.

The word gambling neither denotes not connotes anything about losing when you're ahead. It is not a form of onomatopoeia. There is nothing ironic nor hyperbolic about it.

Therefore, the statement has no meaning aside form "Yes, I am a donk."

When you get hit by a bus, and you're lying there, bleeding from compound fractures and horrible massive lacerations and other such trauma, nobody needs to walk up to you and say "that's why they call it a bus."

That wouldn't be helpful.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The word gambling neither denotes not connotes anything about losing when you're ahead

I'd say that's precisely what it means in your context. The idea is that nothing is guaranteed. I for one, love to use that phrase to whiny table coaches who likely are laboring under the misconception that poker isn't gambling.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd say that's precisely what it means in your context. The idea is that nothing is guaranteed. I for one, love to use that phrase to whiny table coaches who likely are laboring under the misconception that poker isn't gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

See, now I knew someone was going to say this.

I know that the idea is that nothing is guaranteed. I know that it is a worthy response to the whiny table coach guy (who I have nothing in common with, btw).

I mean to say that we know that poker is gambling. We know that sometimes you lose with the best of it.

They do not call it gambling because you get sucked out on. They call it gambling because you are wagering something on the outcome of an event or series of events, ideally with an edge.

The statement to which I alluded in my original post is invariably used when somebody sucks out, and usually against all rational mathematical reality.

Please do not picture me rolling around on the floor crying after top pair loses to a flush draw that comes in on the river.

I reserve that for runner-runner straights against my top set.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I only hear it when someone is trying to justify (and, in my case, unprovokedly) their stacking of the chips.

And when I hear it, yes, it's annoying, but most notably because it makes no damned sense.

[heavybody]

I hate when people say "nice hand" for no other reason than the cards someone was dealt were nice. I reserve this phrase for the rare occasions when a hand was well played. I was once complimented by an opponent who lost a hand to me in a limit hold-em tournament at the 4 Queens when I checked my made flush to an ace river card that paired him. He bet and I checkraised him. I felt he was chasing with overcards and
I new enough to check the ace.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate when people say "nice hand" for no other reason than the cards someone was dealt were nice. I reserve this phrase for the rare occasions when a hand was well played.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, this is true, if somewhat less annoying.

"Nice hand" should be reserved only to mean only one of three things:

1.)"Well played,"
2.)"Look how graciously I accept your absurd suckout," or
3.)"Holy crap. A royal??!"

I realize this last one betrays your criteria, but that's ok--a straight flush is a damned nice hand, and you just gotta say something.

[chesspain]

[ QUOTE ]


"Nice hand" should be reserved only to mean only one of three things:

1.)"Well played,"
2.)"Look how graciously I accept your absurd suckout," or
3.)"Holy crap. A royal??!"

I realize this last one betrays your criteria, but that's ok--a straight flush is a damned nice hand, and you just gotta say something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice post.

[deacsoft]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate when people say "nice hand"

[/ QUOTE ]

Of all the things to cry about...

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Please do not picture me rolling around on the floor crying after top pair loses to a flush draw that comes in on the river. I reserve that for runner-runner straights against my top set.

But therein lies why they say it. When you show emotion, you prompt a response (and, no, I don't think you actually roll around on the floor, but you get the pont).

A while back a poster asked how you know when you finally "get it." I think you finally get it when nothing that happens at the poker table bothers you to the point that you reveal your emotions to your opponents.

And while they're stacking those chips congratulate them on a job well done, knowing full well it's just a loan.

[dakine]

Hmmm..., You just got sucked out, you got hit real bad in your once large stack, so lets change the phrase to, "that's why you got hit by a bus." /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Rushmore]

I appreciate and agree with what you're saying.

But what I meant to post was that the phrase is nonsensical, and that gets on my nerves.

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
"That's why they call it gambling."

[/ QUOTE ]

Reminds me of the movie "Lost in America" when Garry Marshall said to Albert Brooks: "It's Las Vegas-Gambling-Las Vegas"...

[dogmeat]

I love your comment about "That's why they call it a bus". However, you are completely wrong about the definition of a gamble as far as my copy of Webster's goes: take a chance, a risky undertaking. Did the winner not do this? Did you not do this?

It does not matter whether you are a 2-1 favorite or a 100-1 favorite - you took a "chance" because the outcome was unknown. The only time you could claim otherwise is if the player had no outs because you were betting the nuts and he was unaware. "That's why they call it gambling", because the outcome is unknown.

Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I love your comment about "That's why they call it a bus". However, you are completely wrong about the definition of a gamble as far as my copy of Webster's goes: take a chance, a risky undertaking. Did the winner not do this? Did you not do this?

It does not matter whether you are a 2-1 favorite or a 100-1 favorite - you took a "chance" because the outcome was unknown. The only time you could claim otherwise is if the player had no outs because you were betting the nuts and he was unaware. "That's why they call it gambling", because the outcome is unknown.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with you on all of this. I understand what gambling is.

My point is this: they do not "call it gambling" because someone beats you with an inferior holding. They "call it gambling" because the activity in which you are participating meets the necessary criteria to conform to the definition of the word.

Let's say you're playing football. You catch a pass over the middle, and get hit hard by two guys at once. You fall to the ground, realizing that your right foot is badly broken. One of the guys stands up and says "That's why they call in FOOTball."

This makes sense.

The offending phrase I mentioned is essentially a case of begging the question, to use a semantic term (i.e. you don't use a particular word to define or aid in defining that same particular word).

That's it.

[Willy]

[/ QUOTE ]



" I know that it is a worthy response to the whiny table coach guy (who I have nothing in common with, btw)."

Your post says different.

[heavybody]

Quote the whole sentence please...you know what I meant.

[James282]

Hey Rushmore - you're right. And I laughed at your bus analgoy. People are retards.
-James

[TruePoker CEO]

The words "I am a professional poker player", if they need to be uttered at all hold very little value.

Players who feel this need for such self-certification are generally in some sort of rhetorical difficulty where, whatever their next words coming may be, they would not otherwise stand on their own merits.

[Sponger15SB]

I have no job, the only way I earn money is by playing poker.

What am I?

[Justin A]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no job, the only way I earn money is by playing poker.

What am I?

[/ QUOTE ]

A student.

Justin A

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I have no job, the only way I earn money is by playing poker.

What am I?

[/ QUOTE ]

A student.

Justin A

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha! I'd hardly call myself a student right now, its more like "person enrolled school"

edit- stu·dent ( P ) Pronunciation Key (stdnt, styd-)
n.
One who is enrolled or attends classes at a school, college, or university.

oops....anyways this only further illustrates my point. I hardly go to class or study anymore.

[KJS]

To me, nothing is worse than saying you are sorry for winning a pot in poker.

Sorry implies something happened that you wish didn't, or have regret about a certain outcome. Certainly this word is misused 100% of the time it is utter at poker, since no one has any tinge of regret about winning.

KJS

[coffeecrazy1]

[ QUOTE ]
When you get hit by a bus, and you're lying there, bleeding from compound fractures and horrible massive lacerations and other such trauma, nobody needs to walk up to you and say "that's why they call it a bus."

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I had someone come up to me as I was lying on a basketball court, having just blown out my right ankle, and say "Hey man, could you get off the court, because we're trying to play a game here." The kicker was that I had been playing in said game until said injury.

[J_V]

Good patience Rushmore. I would have thrown my keyboard out the window.

[DrSavage]

I want to state for the record that I agree with everything Rushmore says and that phrase never made any sense to me and I still don't understand why do they call it gambling.

[DrSavage]

[ QUOTE ]
To me, nothing is worse than saying you are sorry for winning a pot in poker.

Sorry implies something happened that you wish didn't, or have regret about a certain outcome. Certainly this word is misused 100% of the time it is utter at poker, since no one has any tinge of regret about winning.

KJS

[/ QUOTE ]

That is simply untrue. Us humans have a something which is called Compassion and it lets us feel sorry for other people even if we are the reason for their sadness. I actually always feel sorry for someone if i suck out against them and don't understand why they keep making a ridiculous reply of "No you're not".

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I want to state for the record that I agree with everything Rushmore says and that phrase never made any sense to me and I still don't understand why do they call it gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uuuuh, thanks but no thanks??? /images/graemlins/confused.gif /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
To me, nothing is worse than saying you are sorry for winning a pot in poker.

Sorry implies something happened that you wish didn't, or have regret about a certain outcome. Certainly this word is misused 100% of the time it is utter at poker, since no one has any tinge of regret about winning.

KJS

[/ QUOTE ]

That is simply untrue. Us humans have a something which is called Compassion and it lets us feel sorry for other people even if we are the reason for their sadness. I actually always feel sorry for someone if i suck out against them and don't understand why they keep making a ridiculous reply of "No you're not".

[/ QUOTE ]

Every time someone tells me "sorry" for sucking out on my I ask them to transfer the ammount of the pot into my account, either that or tell them to go [censored] themselves.

So far nobody has bit on either.

[Chizoad]

While I haven't told anyone who said "sorry" to me to do anything anatomically impossible, I have used that transfer to my bank account line before.

Usually they say you have a point.

[DrSavage]

[ QUOTE ]
Every time someone tells me "sorry" for sucking out on my I ask them to transfer the ammount of the pot into my account, either that or tell them to go [censored] themselves.

So far nobody has bit on either.

[/ QUOTE ]

Feeling sorry and giving away money i won fair and square are two different things. I do immidiately stop feeling sorry for anyone who starts talking [censored] though.

[zaxx19]

Rushmore writes like an 8th grader with an inferiority complex, thats funny...... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Rushmore]

This seems unreasonable and unprovoked. I'm sorry if I posted anything that has offended you.

I understand that you are fairly new here and are probably just trying to get noticed or make waves or something ala the bully in the grade school cafeteria, but really, it's not necessary.

Somebody other than Zaxx please respond and objectively tell me if I'm crazy, or if this guy just attacked me for no apparent reason.

[drewjustdrew]

In defense of Zaxx, I think he is referring to your use of "ironic" and "hyperbolic" in the same sentence. It sounds like you are trying too hard. Maybe that is your standard vocabulary usage, but it is quite unusual, and yes, remarkable.

That being said, this was a personal attack, and in my opinion, Zaxx adds very little value to this forum.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
In defense of Zaxx, I think he is referring to your use of "ironic" and "hyperbolic" in the same sentence. It sounds like you are trying too hard. Maybe that is your standard vocabulary usage, but it is quite unusual, and yes, remarkable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fair enough.

But just for the record, this is just my standard vocabulary usage. Even objectively, I don't see this as remarkable.

I don't see anything particularly affected or highfalutin about using either of the words noted.

As they are clearly distinct from one another, their use was not redundant either.

And I agree that Zaxx brings nothing to the table.

OK. I'll start trying to--as Malcolm X's people (or was it Minister Louis' people?) used to like to say--say it plain from now on.

Oops. OK. I'll start.... now.

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]

When you get hit by a bus, and you're lying there, bleeding from compound fractures and horrible massive lacerations and other such trauma, nobody needs to walk up to you and say "that's why they call it a bus."

That wouldn't be helpful.

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be pretty funny though.

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]

1.)"Well played,"
2.)"Look how graciously I accept your absurd suckout," or
3.)"Holy crap. A royal??!"


[/ QUOTE ]

"Nice hand" in the sense of "pretty cards" used to drive me crazy, too, when I first started playing. Very occasionally I would want to compliment someone on a clever bit of strategy, and then I might say "well played".

But rather than shouting at people who said the foolish "nice hand" thing, I did eventually conclude that I couldn't beat them and so should join them. I only use the expression in sense 2. I realize it's a weakness, and I should just say nothing at all. But for me it means something along the lines of "you dumb XXXXing XXXX, I hate you, you cannot be serious, you are the pits of the earth, that was my pot, I will hunt down your parents and your parents' friends and people who owe you money." But it's best not to display that sort of emotion at the table, so "nh" works well instead.

(Will switch to decaf any day now.)

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
"Nice hand" in the sense of "pretty cards" used to drive me crazy, too, when I first started playing. Very occasionally I would want to compliment someone on a clever bit of strategy, and then I might say "well played".

But rather than shouting at people who said the foolish "nice hand" thing, I did eventually conclude that I couldn't beat them and so should join them.

[/ QUOTE ]


I'm not a big fan of 'nh'.
I get told it all the time when I have AA or catch a full-house or something.
Although sometimes I do get told it in the sense that I think they mean that I played it well and made a smart bet or check-raise or something.

But....a lot of the time that 'nice-hand' is said it really does mean "wow....you completely suck." and I think most people know this and I just don't agree with this usage in that context.

Hellmuth has been known to do this....tell someone "nice hand" and the other guy says "thank you" and then Phil mutters away about "how can they call my raise with KTo??" or something like that.
Well....if that's how you felt about it you shouldn't have said nice-hand in the first place.


I'll sometimes say "nifty" or "golly" if someone catches their runner-runner quads or something.
I'm also a big fan of "Holy Crap!!" if someone flops a royal or something.
I used that last night in a Stars tourney.
I was out of the hand....someone had T9o and the other guy had AA. They raise a little before the flop but are not all-in.....the flop comes T99 and they both go all-in (forget which order). I thought that one was deserving a "golly" and a "holy crap!!"
But certainly the T9o guy from EP calling a raise as he did PF did not deserve 'nice hand' imo....although several others said that.

Later in same tourney my KK all-in loses to AA and I'm out.
I say "oh well....those are the breaks. good luck all."
BTW - I think I said something similar the day before when my AA all-in pre-flop got busted by KK.

I just prefer saying something like that (if I say anything at all...sometimes I'm too busy) over saying "nice hand".

There are just too many times when 'nh' feels to sore-loserish to me.


As far as 'that's why they call it gambling'.
It's stupid....but I don't mind it.
This is how I want my opponents to think.
Lets HAVE FUN and lets GAMBLE IT UP.
It's often used as an excuse to play badly.
"That's why they call it gambling" to them means "any two can win and anything can happen" which is pretty much the same as saying "why even bother thinking about the game since it's completely random anyway?"

This is also a phrase that is used at BJ and roulette and craps tables too of course...typically by players who are betting larger than they should trying to tell people around them that the 'only way to win big is to risk losing big'.

When it's said at the poker-tables....it's typically being said by people who are willing to lose big.
This is the kind of mentality that you should WANT your tables to have isn't it??

[Sponger15SB]

5 seconds ago...

Sponger15: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Sponger15: WOW
Sponger15: NICE READ BUDDY!
Sponger15: YOU ARE AWSOME!

I can't help insulting people

[mackthefork]

[ QUOTE ]
you cannot be serious, you are the pits of the earth

[/ QUOTE ]

JPM takes up poker?

Regards Mack

[ddubois]

[ QUOTE ]
I get told it all the time when I have AA or catch a full-house or something.

[/ QUOTE ]
My first impulse is "No [censored] Sherlock, I wasn't aware aces full was a good hand", but I manage to restrain myself.

[jtr]

Nice post, Bob.

You're absolutely right about the sore-loser-ish qualities of "nh" when it's obviously insincere. You've done me a real favour in reminding me that this is the sort of thing Hellmuth does -- that's it, I will never do it again. If I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, and all that.

Thanks!

PS: the "nice post" at the top was completely sincere, honest.

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]
JPM takes up poker?

[/ QUOTE ]


Absolutely. Can't you picture it?

"That was not a string bet! My chips were on the line! I wanna get the floorman into this, get the damn floorman over here..."

[fsuplayer]

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
In defense of Zaxx, I think he is referring to your use of "ironic" and "hyperbolic" in the same sentence. It sounds like you are trying too hard. Maybe that is your standard vocabulary usage, but it is quite unusual, and yes, remarkable.



Fair enough.

But just for the record, this is just my standard vocabulary usage. Even objectively, I don't see this as remarkable.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW Rushmore, along with Michael Davis and nothumb have more talent/skill writing that almost anyone on 2+2.

One of the reasons I enjoy their posts so much.

rushmore- maybe if you use "dawg" and "gonna" more often, you wont get made fun of as much. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW Rushmore, along with Michael Davis and nothumb have more talent/skill writing that almost anyone on 2+2.

One of the reasons I enjoy their posts so much.

rushmore- maybe if you use "dawg" and "gonna" more often, you wont get made fun of as much.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank's man. Now I wont feel like such a looser. Your the best, dawg.

[Al Mirpuri]

[ QUOTE ]
I hate when people say "nice hand" for no other reason than the cards someone was dealt were nice. I reserve this phrase for the rare occasions when a hand was well played. I was once complimented by an opponent who lost a hand to me in a limit hold-em tournament at the 4 Queens when I checked my made flush to an ace river card that paired him. He bet and I checkraised him. I felt he was chasing with overcards and
I new enough to check the ace.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I first started playing for play money online, nice hand, was awarded to every hand shown down. Now, I play for cash and you see far fewer of those innane remarks.