poker ethics: do you wonder about who you're taking money from?

[FlFishOn]

Pro poker player is two steps below whore on the sliding scale of job worth. Whores at least leave most of the customers smiling. Poker pro is at least one step above drug dealer.

Do not self-delude here. Pro poker is totally unproductive labor. You do nothing to improve the lot of the species. Ask yourself how thing would be in your absence, better or worse?

But I'm OK with it. I've taken the low road. The view's not so good but it's not too far to fall.

[astroglide]

i'm pretty sure they don't care when they win a pot from me

[SwiftBradley]

well said.

[Eldon]

I don't care whose money it is as long as I win.

[2easy]

[ QUOTE ]
"does walmart take money directly from the pockets of "mom & pop" businesses? of course they do."

What disingenuous liberal garbage!

Mom & Pop lose out thanks to the free choice of thousands of individual consumers, not Walmart. Mom & Pop survive if their goods are correctly priced for the retail environment in which they exist.

No one owes Mom & Pop a protected retail niche. No consumer should be forced to support the price such protection would cost.

[/ QUOTE ]

i love it! a firebreathing right wing reactionary.

however, if you would have bothered to read the context in which this was written, you MIGHT have been able to construe the point being made. and that was that in all facets of life, there are winners and losers, just as there are in poker. which was to say, that in the same sense that it would be wrong to offer protection to the mom and pop, so it would be wrong to artificially protect any other segment of society. i did also mention that i believe each individual is responsible for their own actions, and as such i have no qualms about engaging in competition at the gaming tables.

seems to me that i am responding to a typical "ditto-head" here.

oh, and as to the point about adding anything to the species, this assumes that one has to primarily do that via their vocation. and as i said previously, that factor can be addressed in how one lives ones life overall, both away from the tables as well as at them.

if one were to assume that the only life of signifigance is one where VOCATION provides signifigance, then i guess we should all be priests, doctors, researchers,etc., by that logic.

[moondogg]

These people may care.

[flub]

People keep saying the money is going from stupid to smart. But once you play 30/60 and up you're making most of your money from players good enough to win at the lower limits, but in over their heads here. Sure there are some donks, but if you're only beating the donks you're losing overall.

If I knew someone was playing with money borrowed from the mob, or had seriously overdrawn their credit cards I would feel bad. Otherwise I see the reshuffling of money as a neutral. I also feel if they can take the time to put a couple grand online to play they probably have a decent source of income so can make back whatever they lose.

I don't think pro poker players contribute any more to society then a trust find kid does. Which is to say nothing, unless they contribute outside of poker.

-f

[OrianasDaad]

I don't really care.

[bigalt]

[ QUOTE ]

"If you're game is going to appear on the Travel Channel, then maybe you could claim to be an entertainer. Otherwise, no."

I've thought alot about this entertainment question. The reason I disagree is your above statement can be said about virtually any pro sport. Its only the BIG, final tournaments that bring in lots of viewers. Relatively speaking, how many people go see the local AA ball team, comapred to watch the World Series?

Or a better example might be, how many people go watch the local pro-bowling tournament.

While only 10 people are being "entertained" at any one given table, at least right now millions of people are being entertained watching the WSOP or the weekly WPT games.

Its like any sport - those at the top are being watched, and the rest of us are slugging it out hoping to make it to the majors one day.

my thoughts, anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

sweet, we've worked our way up to the level of minor league bowlers!

i see what you're saying though. i never imagined myself as working in the entertainment industry, even part time. my regular job as a graduate student in an armpit of science will probably contribute to society no more than my poker playing (which just contributes to you sharks), but man, I'm just like Brad Pitt!

[OrianasDaad]

You have to realize that you aren't an "entertainer, per se. You are providing the means for someone else's entertainment.