[Bodhi]

What do you mean by "degenerate" exactly? Its common use seems so relative to social in/out groups that it boils down to "what you do is lame or stupid, and what I do is respectable."

Anyway, the stock market is a form of gambling. All sorts of financial activities, poker included, have a gambling character. Let me go out on a limb here and guess that you don't think people who work on Wall Street are degenerates, do you?

Anyway, I think what you said is as bad as when a graduate student who uses the word "academic" pejoratively. It's bad for Poker, shows a lack of self-esteem and a cow-towing attitude towards herd-values. Although I do have a full time job and a B.A. from UC Berkeley (that's supposed to be respectable, right?), I would be a professional gambler tomorrow if I had the skill and knowledge to do so. It would give me the freedom to go on "degenerate" vacations when I please, read the "degenerate" books I love at my leisure, and afford me the capital to buy "degenerate" property where ever I please.