Playing With Friends

[Scanner313 0]

I started playing at an underground club about 2 months ago and at first I didn't really know anyone. I play to have fun and to make money, with the 2nd being my primary reason.At first it was nice to bust a guy for his entire stack, but now that I know some of these guys pretty well, I'm starting to regret it a little. I busted a guy (who I consider a friend) Friday night for his entire $380 when I hit a set of Kings to his set of Queens. He reacted like he just lost his rent. I got no satisfaction out of it as I truly felt bad for him.Now, I know poker is about taking other people's money, and I most certainly took his money after that hand, but I'm just wondering if anyone here has found it difficult to play with people you consider your "friends"?I much prefer to play with asssholes and strangers.

[krup24 0]

Money is MoneyI play with my uncle although we usually stay away from the same cash table. We were playing together a few weeks ago ten handed. UTG raises, my uncle very TAG goes pushes, I got AA on the button no way I can fold so I busted em both. It happens.

[Balloon guy 158]

I'm with you. I play for fun, my home game if I clean up one week, I slough off next time. Friends will outlast money everytime.

[Mercury69 3]

I know what you mean, but...you can't be responsible for people who may or may not be playing with money they can afford to donk off. For me, $380 is a big deal, for others, not so much. If the guy brings enough to the table to hurt himself, it's his responsbility, not yours, to deal with it.I appreciate your humanity, however.

[srblan 0]

I started playing at an underground club about 2 months ago and at first I didn't really know anyone. I play to have fun and to make money, with the 2nd being my primary reason.At first it was nice to bust a guy for his entire stack, but now that I know some of these guys pretty well, I'm starting to regret it a little. I busted a guy (who I consider a friend) Friday night for his entire $380 when I hit a set of Kings to his set of Queens. He reacted like he just lost his rent. I got no satisfaction out of it as I truly felt bad for him.Now, I know poker is about taking other people's money, and I most certainly took his money after that hand, but I'm just wondering if anyone here has found it difficult to play with people you consider your "friends"?I much prefer to play with asssholes and strangers.

You have to learn to separate the game from the people, to the extent that you can. Inevitably, if you play at the same place a lot, you will start to become friendly with the people in the game. However, you can't feel bad when you beat them, even if you consider them a friend. Rest assured that they won't be giving you any refunds when they beat you. If you feel bad for the guy you stacked off, it might be a good idea to talk to him about playing with money he can't afford to lose.

[Scanner313 0]

I'm with you. I play for fun, my home game if I clean up one week, I slough off next time. Friends will outlast money everytime.

Well, I'm not saying that I will play my hands differently because it's a friend of mine, after all, they are there to win too. It just sucks to take down a big pot and send some guy home when he's a friend.I absolutely love sending the jackasses home, nothing feels quite as good as that!

[ajs510 122]

Play with your friends for cheap, in a little $5-10 tournament that no one will feel if they lose. Don't make friends at the cash game tables, that's just asking for your conscience to rear up. If they can't afford to lose they shouldn't be playing in the first place.

[Abbaddabba 0]

You probably DID just win his rent money.*******.Why not go steal candy from a baby while you're at it?

[Scanner313 0]

You probably DID just win his rent money.*******.Why not go steal candy from a baby while you're at it?

I only steal candy from infants who don't even realize it's gone. That way they don't cry, and I can feel ok about it. j/k

[srblan 0]

Well, I found out the next day that he was ok with it, but man, the way he reacted that night was brutal! He was playing on a marker (well, 2 in fact, $100 each) and I actually considered paying it off for him. Well, I considered paying off $100, not $200. That's how badly he took it. In the end, I thought about it and said to myself that it would be a nice gesture, but I'm sure he would have given me back the $100 anyway, so why bother.

Good idea that you changed your mind, especially if you have become friendly with a lot of the people. You don't want to lose a friend because you decided not to give some of HIS money back, too.

[Actuary 3]

he may have been working an angleso you take it easy next time.I don't care from whom I take it

[Suited_Up 2]

I started playing at an underground club about 2 months ago and at first I didn't really know anyone. I play to have fun and to make money, with the 2nd being my primary reason.At first it was nice to bust a guy for his entire stack, but now that I know some of these guys pretty well, I'm starting to regret it a little. I busted a guy (who I consider a friend) Friday night for his entire $380 when I hit a set of Kings to his set of Queens. He reacted like he just lost his rent. I got no satisfaction out of it as I truly felt bad for him.Now, I know poker is about taking other people's money, and I most certainly took his money after that hand, but I'm just wondering if anyone here has found it difficult to play with people you consider your "friends"?I much prefer to play with asssholes and strangers.

I don't pay rent, but I react that way too when something like that happens.I'm sure he doesn't take it personally.

[dapokerbum 0]

Whenever I go to the Casino with a friend of mine I let him know when we sit down that I am coming after him as hard as anyone else. They ususally let me know the same thing. I never feel bad about taking his money and he never feels bad about taking mine. the reason we both know we are playing within our bankrolls.It is never your fault for taking some guys rent money. It is his fault for putting it on the felt. Just my two cents..

[NocturnalRob 0]

It is never your fault for taking some guys rent money. It is his fault for putting it on the felt. Just my two cents..

Agreed. If you can't afford to lose your money, even to a friend, then don't play. Although, maybe I would have bought him a beer or two afterwards...

[ricker 0]

Shoot, I'd check-raise my own grandmother in this game.If you're not going to take his money, someone else will...It's nice you feel bad about it, but don't let that be your driving thought everytime you're in a pot with a friend.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

It's a difficult topic to think about. The bottom line is if he's sitting at the table, he should take full responsibility for what happens to him there. He should be practicing proper bankroll management and not be risking more than he can afford to lose. He should know that losing set over set is one of the risks of playing no limit. I mean, were you supposed to fold your top set of kings just because you felt bad? Would he do the same to you?If you consider him a friend, your friendliness toward him should not be expressed through the way you play a hand but rather through every other aspect involved in the game. Obviously be courteous, don't rub in losses, support wins, and if he's truly gambling with money that he can't lose, as a friend it may be your place to suggest that he be more careful with his money.There are ways to be very friendly at a game and respect other players without altering your play to let them off the hook.

[anselm 0]

I struggle with this too. I'm at the point where I almost don't like playing home games with my friends. I take the maxim "Poker is war" very seriously. We laugh and joke but ultimately I'm there to destroy them. When I put or take a bad beat it seems to sting a little harder because it's hard to remove our egos from the game. Online I swear and yell and get really involved - and I think it helps my game. Playing with friends then, it's often hard for me to keep my emotions under wraps.

[fleung22 1]

I have a friend who goes insane if you check-raise him because he doesn't consider it the 'friendly' thing to do. I don't play with him anymore.Friends ARE more important than money and that's why I don't play with friends who can't handle the game of poker. I warn them all that I don't soft play anybody that sits at my table. If you have a problem with that then sit at a different table.I want to have friends. I want to play poker. Just separate the two if you think it's going to cause you to lose one.

[Scanner313 0]

After the hand was over and he had his blow up, he did shake my hand. He's a cool guy and sometimes he just lets his emotions run too high, but it was short lived. He actually screamed "F**K YOU" at some guy who knocked him out of a tourney with a suckout on a monstrously bad call to his all-in push. He walked out that night, and the next day he kind of slinked into the place apologizing to everyone who witnessed it. He admitted that he's not normally like that but he'd been having a bad run lately. I think that was what it was the other night, as we've had some big pot battles in the past and I've come out winning just about all of them. I could understand his frustration.Anyway, I would never rub in a win like that on a friend (or an enemy for that matter, unless the guy was mouthing off to me first). I always try to be respectful when i win a big pot, but even just sitting there pulling all of his chips towards you while he's watching in disgust seems rude to some degree.Anyway, lots of good thoughts on this, I appreciate it. I know it's understood that once you're at the table all friendships are secondary, but I guess that line kind of got blurred for me lately. Now I'm refocused and ready to bust his *** again! Just kidding.

[Bill_Brasky 0]

Your friend sounds like a little_bitch. Maybe you should try hanging out with people that aren't such big_pussies.

[XX44466XX 0]

I've been running a home game for the past couple years with most of the same friends. Lot of cash has been pushed around on the felt and tensions have arose. But if you can't handle the heat, go play bridge.

[Fonzworth 0]

Like they say in Rounders "Caveat Emptor pal!"

[Mercury69 3]

I've been running a home game for the past couple years with most of the same friends. Lot of cash has been pushed around on the felt and tensions have arose. But if you can't handle the heat, go play bridge.

Actually, if you play bridge at 10c a point, it can still be pretty expensive for the losing partnership. Say, for example, you make your 2 "games" uncontested, one of them a small slam. That could amount to over 2000 points right there. If your opponents got no points, you're talking about 200$. Even at a penny a point, someone could get nicely rogered by the end of an evening.The moral of the story? Bridge is an excellent game and can be played for stakes that equal most poker home games.Don't be dissing the Bentley of card games.

[AshleyC 0]

Poker's more important than friends.

[XX44466XX 0]

People lie, cards don't.Hey, we played Yahtzee and Dominoes for a quarter a point and that **** adds up after a few games...