[MicroBob]

tdarko is pretty much correct.

i understand that it can be frustrating to have such a big win, tell your parents about it, and have them think you're a degenerate.
i'm pretty lucky in that regard in that my Dad understands the concept of taking a small advantage, hitting on that advantage over and over again, and squeaking out a profit in the long-run.
My Mom had concerns...but when asked my Dad's opinion was pretty much told "He's smart enough. He'll do okay."

When I won $12.5k in a tournament last Sept EVERYONE in my family was happy for me. Still my largest tourney win to date.
So I can only imagine how I would have felt if the reaction had been the opposite.


I really don't think it has quite so much to do with your age though. I think it is just their misconceptions about playing winning poker and their general set of beliefs.
In other words...if you were 34 years-old (like me) your parents might still react similarly (believe it or not).

I disagree with granny. I'm not so sure that they will come around if you win another big tourney.
But I might be wrong on that one.


Their concerns are somewhat understandable though from people that don't really 'get it'.

Think about my girl-friends' parents for example. They know that their daughter is quite serious about me...a guy who plays poker on the internet for a living.
They like me okay...but they are pretty concerned about the whole issue of 'well, is he going to be doing this 20-30 years from now?'

On top of that...her parents don't speak english so I can't even sit and intelligently explain that I'm usually just grinding things out by playing multi-tables of 5/10 or 10/20 and that I play WAY under my bankroll.
I can't explain any of it.

I think they're gradually getting better with it. And they're happy that their daughter is happy with me.
But can you really blame them??
Even knowing what I do about how one actually CAN pull in decent money at this...I don't even think I would want a daughter of mine to date an internet-poker player (most of whom obviously don't have the discipline).



Anyway - just keep on with your career goals. Play poker on the side and maybe talk to them again on your next big tourney win.
Perhaps if you keep playing ring-games just mention that you do still play poker occasionally and that it's going pretty well....over the past 3 months you have made $40/hour doing it or something like that.
Talking in terms of an 'hourly-rate' helps get the point across better imo then just saying "I'm winning 1.8BB/100 and have made $5k in the past 3 months on the 2/4 tables."

Again...total money made just sounds like a 'big lottery score'.
Referring to you win-rate in terms of 'per-hour' makes it sound much more serious.