Just witnessed the worst part of poker

[Stork]

yes, somebody has to lose, but i dunno, watching someone lose everything they had in what couldntve been more than an hour isnt pretty.

[Stork]

I've never seen either of them play before, and it could've just been variance, but it didn't take long to realize that nvrwin was winning the big pots and losing the small pots.

[Derek in NYC]

Two words: personal responsibility.

[Stork]

its possible he wouldve gambled it away anyway, but J_V said that he was a good shorthanded player. And btw, it was keysers friend who said that keyser had nothing left to live for. I think he all he meant was that keyser was broke, not that he had literally nothing.

[Stork]

Al, I know this type of thing happens in casinos, but it feels a bit different when its a single person whiping out another person instead of a huge organization doing it, where you can't point out a single person who (fairly) took all his money. Also, it was shocking to see mainly because I felt so close to it. I don't know either of these players, but it was a stunning feeling to watch someone lose all their money as it was happening.

And I don't believe that poker's essential nature is cleaning out compulsive gamblers playing above their head. Sure poker can be that harsh, but it doesn't have to be.

[Piemaster]

You must realise there's no such thing as personal responsibility anymore. If you screw up, find someone to blame, preferably a large corporation who you can sue for millions. If there really is nobody else you can blame (even at a stretch), blame the government. Either sue them or just wait for them to catch you when you fall and feed you loads of benefits.

What you should absolutely NEVER do, under ANY circumstances, is accept some responsibility for your own decisions and your own life.

[speclj]

Well said, Pie.

[StellarWind]

There is a very real part of me that read your story and felt very jealous.

You have just watched the poker equivalent of a sick antelope being attacked by lions. Nothing we can say about the nature of poker is going to make actually seeing it easy to accept.

One thing I don't condone is that nvrwin apparently made a deal for money with catchoftheday and then broke it. That's very wrong.

[BUD]

catch of the day posts on 2+2, iwonder if someone can get the rest of the story ( he uses a name i can not remember)

[JRegs]

I was just wondering about a different perspective. I'm sure some people here have gone broke playing poker (before they learned to become winning players). Are you guys more or less sympathetic to keyser?

For example, my mom grew up in poverty. However, she worked her way through college and found a decent job. Today, she is far less sympathetic to poor people who complain about tax cuts, welfare cuts, etc. It seems that because my mom actually struggled before, she expects those in poverty to work harder like she did.

I would expect that those who have been broke before due to poker will ironically be less sympathetic than the rest of us, and with good reason.

Any thoughts?