Play poker --> Bad person?

Does anyone think that playing a lot of poker might cause a bit of a caracter change. From the constant thinking about how to lure an opponent, how to take his/her money and over and onver trying to put ppl to though decissions?

[krimson]

Transfer me $100 on Party and i'll answer your question.

[TaoTe]

Yes, I believe poker can turn a saint into a horrible baby killer overnight. It's worse than drugs or the devil. That is, if the devil existed at all, which I can assure you he doesn't.

[BluffTHIS!]

How is this different from any other line of business that seeks to dominate and eliminate it's rivals to make money? It's not. And I don't think the average business person is constantly trying to deceive and hustle people he meets outside his normal business. As long as poker player is not cheating or hustling gambling degenerates to play he should in fact be constantly thinking about his game to improve it. When you go home to your family or are with friends your poker mindset should only make you more analytical in dealing with life's situations, not turn you into someone who constantly seeks to take advantage of others financially or emotionally in non-poker situations.

[DCWGaming]

It will harden you some, but not make you a bad person.

I mean...you have to learn to disregard and not care about those people who have lost their ass and leave the table knowing they cant pay their rent that month. If you cared about all of the degenerates you'd feel like crap all the time. So in that sense, we're less compassionate.

But as for becoming a bad person...uh not really.

[mosdef]

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How is this different from any other line of business that seeks to dominate and eliminate it's rivals to make money? It's not. And I don't think the average business person is constantly trying to deceive and hustle people he meets outside his normal business.

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i disagree strongly with this statement.

for one thing, you are suggesting that the entire business world is a cut-throat, poker-like atmosphere where all wins come at the expense of the loss of someone else. This is not true. SOME elements of business are like that, i'm sure. But the majority of business is people working together to make the economy grow. it has little or nothing to do with grabbing piles of money from your "opponents".

the difference between the poker world and the real world is the Great Myth of Poker, which basically states that a person's value is defined by winnings/hr. that's why we make up catchy labels like "fish" and "donkey" for the losers. you see, we're great and they'll all worthless, right? that's how it goes, isn't it? a person makes a bad play - that person is a moron or an idiot. you go on a heater and pick up some winnings - you're a bonafide genius, part of the special few "smart guys", the winning players.

so, to the OPs original question, poker doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. but, if you spend hours upon hours playing the game, and you eventually buy into the Myth, then you do run the risk of having your perception of reality badly distorted. don't believe the hype.

[Uglyowl]

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How is this different from any other line of business that seeks to dominate and eliminate it's rivals to make money? It's not. And I don't think the average business person is constantly trying to deceive and hustle people he meets outside his normal business.

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i disagree strongly with this statement.


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Just go down to Wall Street or talk to a mortgage broker. Although appearing to want to help people, those people are the most ruthless around. At least poker players don't have to fake that they are there to help.

[mosdef]

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How is this different from any other line of business that seeks to dominate and eliminate it's rivals to make money? It's not. And I don't think the average business person is constantly trying to deceive and hustle people he meets outside his normal business.

[/ QUOTE ]

i disagree strongly with this statement.


[/ QUOTE ]

Just go down to Wall Street or talk to a mortgage broker. Although appearing to want to help people, those people are the most ruthless around. At least poker players don't have to fake that they are there to help.

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i'm not saying that all business people are saints. i work on Bay St, i know the environment. i just think it's a cop-out for poker players to say "sure, i prey on fish. but that's what the villians in big-business do too so there!"

[GrunchCan]

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But the majority of business is people working together to make the economy grow.

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There is no such nobility in buisness. Everyone who has a job is doing so becasue it is in thier own best interests. Not becasue it is in the best interests of anyone else. I haven't been in the workforce forever, but I have had full-time jobs that I took seriously for 20 years. Never in this time have I ever met a coworker, boss or subordinate who was working "to make the economy grow." Make thier own economy grow, sure. But not in a larger sense.

People do what they need to do in order to pursue thier own interests. They may rationalize things by saying its for the good of everyone, or even by saying its for the good of thier family and "family comes first." But they are still trying to leverage thier own power to yield an advantage for themselves.

For instance, why do people who live in urban areas drive SUVs? One popular reason is becasue they feel it's safer for thier families in the case that they are in an accident. But they either don't realize or don't care that what they think is good for thier family is bad for everyone else. And I'm not talking about the environment. If an SUV and a compact car are in a collision, the person in the compact car is in far greater danger than the person in the SUV becasue they were in an accident with an SUV. If it were compact car versus compact car, things would be more even. But the SUV driver who has selected the SUV becasue it makes his family safer has done so knowing that it puts the other guy at greater risk.

The same is true in buisness. People do what they need to do to survive and thrive. If that means eliminating competition, that's buisness. It happens every day. If you need an example that you can see, just look to MicroSoft.

[mosdef]

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[ QUOTE ]
But the majority of business is people working together to make the economy grow.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is no such nobility in buisness. Everyone who has a job is doing so becasue it is in thier own best interests. Not becasue it is in the best interests of anyone else. I haven't been in the workforce forever, but I have had full-time jobs that I took seriously for 20 years. Never in this time have I ever met a coworker, boss or subordinate who was working "to make the economy grow." Make thier own economy grow, sure. But not in a larger sense.

People do what they need to do in order to pursue thier own interests. They may rationalize things by saying its for the good of everyone, or even by saying its for the good of thier family and "family comes first." But they are still trying to leverage thier own power to yield an advantage for themselves.

For instance, why do people who live in urban areas drive SUVs? One popular reason is becasue they feel it's safer for thier families in the case that they are in an accident. But they either don't realize or don't care that what they think is good for thier family is bad for everyone else. And I'm not talking about the environment. If an SUV and a compact car are in a collision, the person in the compact car is in far greater danger than the person in the SUV becasue they were in an accident with an SUV. If it were compact car versus compact car, things would be more even. But the SUV driver who has selected the SUV becasue it makes his family safer has done so knowing that it puts the other guy at greater risk.

The same is true in buisness. People do what they need to do to survive and thrive. If that means eliminating competition, that's buisness. It happens every day. If you need an example that you can see, just look to MicroSoft.

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i agree. i think i may have miscommunicated my point.

i didn't mean to say that all business people head off to work in the morning thinking about how to make the economy better for everyone. we all go to work thinking about what we need to do to collect our paychecks and have some fun at the same time if possible. however, i think that EFFECTIVELY what most people end up doing is working, usually in a team, to complete a project that makes everyone involved happy, and this is what makes capitalism work, i.e. economies grow, there is an ever-growing range of wealth and all participants take a slice.

my point (one of my points) that i was trying to get across is that in poker, you head out, pick a table, there's a fixed pool of money and you do everything you can to get the biggest possible chunk of that pool at the expense of everyone else. in business, there is a pool that grows if eveyone is working hard, and there is an exchange of product among the players where BOTH players can be happy because they are each getting something that they value more than what they had before. not true in poker.