Playing against friends

Hey guys, I've been lurking around here for a while now, and after last night I finally decided to post.
I play at least twice a week with my best friends. Pretty small stakes (usually $5-$10 buy in), but the game is very loose and the pot usually gets close to $100 for 5 or 6. The same group of 5-6 people play every single time. All of them play for fun, and have the mentality that poker is a game of pure luck. On the other hand, I take poker seriously. I play a lot online, at other live games, and frequently read new books to try to improve my game. We have been playing for about a year now, and the end results have been basically the same. I've won every time we've played except for twice, one of them being last night. I'm not particularly proud of winning so much against them, as none of them take the game seriously at all. However, last night something different happened that is making me reevaluate my stance on playing with them.
We'd been playing for about 2 hours and I was down around $1. I really hadn't been catching any cards and I looked down at A7s in the BB. My buddy was down to less than $1, and he was the only other person in. Knowing how loose he plays (he admits he'll play anything suited or connecting) I put him all in. He instantly called with 54o. Needless to say he catches not only a 5, but a 4 as well. It didn't bother me that he made that call, because that is exactly the type of hand I want somebody to call an all in with when I have A7s. Of course I had to listen to him talk about "how well he played his 54o." I brushed it off and didn't make a big deal out of it because this guy never wins, so in a way I was happy for him. An hour later I'm still at $4. With people buying in multiple times, the average stack is about $10-12. I'm the shortstack by a long ways, even though I'm the only person who didn't buy in again. I get TT on the button and move all in. To my surprise both blinds call me. At first I didn't like it, but when they flipped over their cards I was happy. KJo and QJo, and it looked fairly good that I'd triple up. Along with the theme of last night, a Q comes on the river. Again, I'm not that pissed because frankly I want KJo and QJo calling me when I have TT. There are only 8 outs they can catch when they both call me. I'll take that situation any day. I buy back in, which was probably a mistake. For an hour straight, I hear about how well both of them played their cards against me, and how they deserved to win. It finally struck me, they were rooting for me to lose. They were chriping nonstop about how good they were playing, asking me why I wasn't winning and where my skill was now, even going so far as to take a picture of one of their chipstacks. It got bad enough that I eventually got up and left my chips on the table, and left. Away from the table these guys are my best friends. But at the table, I can't stand them. Its to the point where I think I might not play with them anymore. I don't want poker to ruin our friendship. Ultimately, I think that it won't work, being a serious poker player and playing against friends who do it for fun. Have you guys ever encountered the same situation? What did you do? Thanks for hearing me out on my first rant.

[TomHimself]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey guys, I've been lurking around here for a while now, and after last night I finally decided to post.
I play at least twice a week with my best friends. Pretty small stakes (usually $5-$10 buy in), but the game is very loose and the pot usually gets close to $100 for 5 or 6. The same group of 5-6 people play every single time. All of them play for fun, and have the mentality that poker is a game of pure luck. On the other hand, I take poker seriously. I play a lot online, at other live games, and frequently read new books to try to improve my game. We have been playing for about a year now, and the end results have been basically the same. I've won every time we've played except for twice, one of them being last night. I'm not particularly proud of winning so much against them, as none of them take the game seriously at all. However, last night something different happened that is making me reevaluate my stance on playing with them.
We'd been playing for about 2 hours and I was down around $1. I really hadn't been catching any cards and I looked down at A7s in the BB. My buddy was down to less than $1, and he was the only other person in. Knowing how loose he plays (he admits he'll play anything suited or connecting) I put him all in. He instantly called with 54o. Needless to say he catches not only a 5, but a 4 as well. It didn't bother me that he made that call, because that is exactly the type of hand I want somebody to call an all in with when I have A7s. Of course I had to listen to him talk about "how well he played his 54o." I brushed it off and didn't make a big deal out of it because this guy never wins, so in a way I was happy for him. An hour later I'm still at $4. With people buying in multiple times, the average stack is about $10-12. I'm the shortstack by a long ways, even though I'm the only person who didn't buy in again. I get TT on the button and move all in. To my surprise both blinds call me. At first I didn't like it, but when they flipped over their cards I was happy. KJo and QJo, and it looked fairly good that I'd triple up. Along with the theme of last night, a Q comes on the river. Again, I'm not that pissed because frankly I want KJo and QJo calling me when I have TT. There are only 8 outs they can catch when they both call me. I'll take that situation any day. I buy back in, which was probably a mistake. For an hour straight, I hear about how well both of them played their cards against me, and how they deserved to win. It finally struck me, they were rooting for me to lose. They were chriping nonstop about how good they were playing, asking me why I wasn't winning and where my skill was now, even going so far as to take a picture of one of their chipstacks. It got bad enough that I eventually got up and left my chips on the table, and left. Away from the table these guys are my best friends. But at the table, I can't stand them. Its to the point where I think I might not play with them anymore. I don't want poker to ruin our friendship. Ultimately, I think that it won't work, being a serious poker player and playing against friends who do it for fun. Have you guys ever encountered the same situation? What did you do? Thanks for hearing me out on my first rant.

[/ QUOTE ]wow what are the blinds lol multiple 100$ pots, i wish i could play lol. your friends sound like douchebags especially if they took pictures of their stacks and mocked you. i woulkd try and find a new game

[FouTight]

I seriously don't understand what's wrong with people like you.

Is it really that hard to disassociate playing serious poker and tossing around a few bucks with your friends? I hope to god you don't sit there and calculate pot odds and implied odds and [censored] during this game, because it's supposed to be fun.

And of course they want you to lose, probably because you take an attitude that you are better then them, wether you know it or not, and they want to knock you off.

also, hit the goddamn enter key once and a while.

[ QUOTE ]
I seriously don't understand what's wrong with people like you.

Is it really that hard to disassociate playing serious poker and tossing around a few bucks with your friends? I hope to god you don't sit there and calculate pot odds and implied odds and [censored] during this game, because it's supposed to be fun.

And of course they want you to lose, probably because you take an attitude that you are better then them, wether you know it or not, and they want to knock you off.

also, hit the goddamn enter key once and a while.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you telling me that if you could get into a game that was so loose that its almost guaranteed that you'd make a minimum of 10 times your buy in in less than 3 hours, you wouldn't jump on that opportunity? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure the majority of people here would love to play in a game like this, regardless of who its against. This game alone has made it possible for me to not get a job this summer. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play 8 hours of poker in a week than go do manual labor for 20.

[sully4321]

he means the total pot is $100... not every single pot... the total of everybody's buy-in adds up to $100


aka there is $100 to be won if 1 person gets all the chips


to OP: play for fun, like your friends are. if you cant not take it seriously, dont play

[FouTight]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I seriously don't understand what's wrong with people like you.

Is it really that hard to disassociate playing serious poker and tossing around a few bucks with your friends? I hope to god you don't sit there and calculate pot odds and implied odds and [censored] during this game, because it's supposed to be fun.

And of course they want you to lose, probably because you take an attitude that you are better then them, wether you know it or not, and they want to knock you off.

also, hit the goddamn enter key once and a while.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you telling me that if you could get into a game that was so loose that its almost guaranteed that you'd make a minimum of 10 times your buy in in less than 3 hours, you wouldn't jump on that opportunity? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure the majority of people here would love to play in a game like this, regardless of who its against. This game alone has made it possible for me to not get a job this summer. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play 8 hours of poker in a week than go do manual labor for 20.

[/ QUOTE ]

And THIS IS EXACTLY why they want to bust your stack...

you come off as not wanting to have fun, but just wanting to take their money. If you can't seperate fun from serious poker play, then don't play with them.

And yes, I play in a weekly (weakly) game with friends who are poor players, but I don't stomp on them because it's just not fun for me. If your $10 means that much to you, that you are willing to piss off your friends, go for it dude, but don't complain when they want to bust your stack.

[markisst]

so ur proud of the fact that u dont need a summer job because u take advantage of ur friends?

...dude, ur a [cencored] Ba$tard

[4_2_it]

You are having trouble seperating your 'fun' game from your serious game. I play in a weekly game of dealer's choice (same of the choices include pass the trash, baseball, guts, etc.) with my neighbors. One night the host asks if we want to play a Hold'em Tourney. Everyone agrees (and knows that I am the only one in the group who plays on line). I crushed everyone, there were some hurt feelings and I doubt we will ever play a tournament again. Their bad play was magnified when it appeared that I always had the winning hand. They didn't stop to consider that I only saw 25% of the flops to their 90%+.

I have decided that the $20-$40 per week playing trash games is entertainment and I don't measure how much fun I had by the size of my bankroll. Some weeks I win, other I lose to 5 wild cards, but I always have fun. I suggest you adopt a similar approach since these guys are your best friends.

Also, if you are winning consistently why be thin-skinned after a bad beat and a horse race hand? Laugh it off, you playing with their money!

every year a bunch of us old college buddies go on a labor day weekend trip. one guy plays online, and takes things more seriously than the rest. however, he's able to get away from that form of thinking when we all play that weekend.

last year i cracked his AA with JJ to win a mini-tourney. his reaction was, "damn, i knew to only play AA against you if they were suited."

the point is to echo what others have said on this thread. if you see your close friends as nothing more than you see online donkeys, then you shouldn't play with them.

[Slacker]

They're playing for fun. If you can't do the same, find another game.