Poker is a Breeding Ground for Sociopaths

[RegGaymer]

When I first began to play poker over 10 years ago it was a fun game to play amongst friends: home games with a ~£5 buy in were a great way to enjoy a weekend evening, as we were newbie teenagers that were too green to know any sort of deep and sophisticated strategy; so we could enjoy drinks, get high, and not take it too seriously. Some of our group decided to study/play the game further, and accordingly moved up from penny stake home games to a more competitive level. One of the things we learned quickly was that to be a successful player one has to detach themself emotionally from the game; there's no point stressing over bad beats, because variance is out of our (player's) control.

Serious poker players have spent years desensitising themselves from the monetary swings, and some undoubtedly pride themselves on their tilt control/lack of emotions.

There's a price to pay for grinding long hours at the tables, and consciously practicing the mental act of containing one's emotions/being cold: one might argue that these mental attributes, which are beneficial as a poker player, cross-over to the player's non-poker social life; inhibiting their 'real life' experience, because they have become a victim of the sociopathic breeding ground that is known as full-time poker.

[Dan Druff]

I've touched on this before.

The reason there are so many assholes/scammers/shady people in poker is because of the allure of easy money.

It's a game where most people believe they are good (as opposed to something like basketball, where you know for a fact that you would never make it playing professionally), and where the rewards for being good are a lucrative, responsibility-free lifestyle where you have no boss or set schedule.

So this attracts the type of person who longs for this easy money, rather than grinding out a moderate living at a 40-hour-per-week job.

And when this type of person inevitably fails, due to lack of skill, poor discipline, poor game selection, poor lifestyle choices, variance, or a combination of these, they often resort to borrowing and then scamming to keep the dream and lifestyle alive.

There's also the problem in that a long term poker lifestyle takes you out of the "9-to-5" mindset, and it's very hard to return to that. So when confronted with the option of either taking a real (and very possibly unpleasant/boring) job, or scamming/borrowing/lying to keep in action, you know which option people choose.

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

Why have I never scammed? I'm thinking my new years resolution will be to scam. Im so far away from that mind set that I have literally been offered money and a car from a rich dude (closet gay) who now has a horrible troll bitch I used to fuck living with him. I said no because I just say no to anything weird offered to me.

He knows I know all his horrible secrets. He inherited 25 million plus God knows what else when his Dad died.

It's like instead of me blackmailing him or even threatening he wants to offer me a buy out I guess. Even the old me would have said no to that but the new me says no to all the crazy outside reity offers I get. Fuck it.

[RegGaymer]

One of the top UK grinders, who went from a min deposit playing micro sng's - to crushing high stakes nl cash and super high roller mtt's in two years - told me that he was diagnosed as a psychopath. I won't reveal his name as I doubt he wants it known publicly, but idk because psychopaths are known to be void of empathy, and certain emotions. You would never guess that he's a psycho, but when I seen the pic of him holding his trophy at the end as he won a live high roller - he looked completely blank and emotionless.

I Know that psychopaths are born like that, and sociopaths are a result of their societal surroundings/experiences. Either way, they both thrive in poker, because they have a higher than average iq, but they have to mimic the emotions portrayed by an empathic person as they look to blend in and hide their disorder.

[WillieMcFML]

Why have I never scammed? I'm thinking my new years resolution will be to scam. Im so far away from that mind set that I have literally been offered money and a car from a rich dude (closet gay) who now has a horrible troll bitch I used to fuck living with him. I said no because I just say no to anything weird offered to me.

He knows I know all his horrible secrets. He inherited 25 million plus God knows what else when his Dad died.

It's like instead of me blackmailing him or even threatening he wants to offer me a buy out I guess. Even the old me would have said no to that but the new me says no to all the crazy outside reity offers I get. Fuck it.

how much money and what type of car?

was it that audi or whatever you took a pic of?

need more info pickles

[GrenadaRoger]

One of the top UK grinders, who went from a min deposit playing micro sng's - to crushing high stakes nl cash and super high roller mtt's in two years - told me that he was diagnosed as a psychopath. I won't reveal his name as I doubt he wants it known publicly, but idk because psychopaths are known to be void of empathy, and certain emotions. You would never guess that he's a psycho, but when I seen the pic of him holding his trophy at the end as he won a live high roller - he looked completely blank and emotionless.

I Know that psychopaths are born like that, and sociopaths are a result of their societal surroundings/experiences. Either way, they both thrive in poker, because they have a higher than average iq, but they have to mimic the emotions portrayed by an empathic person as they look to blend in and hide their disorder.

pyscho's lose touch with reality and care only about themselves...socio's also care only about themselves but see the world properly...did your pyscho friend ever hallucinate or do/say crazy stuff?

edit--correction a psychotic loses touch with reality and often hallucinates...a psychopaths and sociopaths see the world accurately and the difference between the two is more involved---later in this thread i posted excerpts from an article explaining the difference

[BetCheckBet]

I disagree.

There are a few basic qualities required to be successful in poker, mainly a high IQ and a decent grasp of statistical variance. If you are good in those areas there is no reason why you can't handle something so simple as tilt. Its really a non issue for high level players. Additionally psychopaths don't have higher IQs than general population. There seems to be some evidence that their IQ is lower but that could just be because successful psychopaths may be less likely to be identified.

Despite the above psychopaths are overrepresented in poker. That's not because they are better players but because the environment is enticing. The opportunity to make a quick buck, play in a dirty game, angle shoot, scam, and legality issues tend to attract such individuals.

EDIT I see druff already posted this :P

[Jayjami]

[limitles]

Why have I never scammed? I'm thinking my new years resolution will be to scam. Im so far away from that mind set that I have literally been offered money and a car from a rich dude (closet gay) who now has a horrible troll bitch I used to fuck living with him. I said no because I just say no to anything weird offered to me.

He knows I know all his horrible secrets. He inherited 25 million plus God knows what else when his Dad died.

It's like instead of me blackmailing him or even threatening he wants to offer me a buy out I guess. Even the old me would have said no to that but the new me says no to all the crazy outside reity offers I get. Fuck it.

Because you're not a sociopath. Sorry, this will take time to sink in but take my advice and choose another path.

Pathological, pathetic, "path it over here DeShawn"......there are many roads les traveled.

Someone call a moderator.

[gimmick]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiso...ality_disorder

Sociopath and psychopath are just different words for more or less the same thing. Early studies were from prison population so higher IQ was underrepresented for logical reasons. Serial killers/mass murderers are almost never sociopaths (excluding hitmen). Heavily co-morbid with ADHD and likely epigenetic. When nothing worth mentioning is happening society has no need for a large number of sociopaths.

Sociopaths are basically cats if you were to explain the disorder to a 5 year old.

[4Dragons]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiso...ality_disorder

Sociopath and psychopath are just different words for more or less the same thing. Early studies were from prison population so higher IQ was underrepresented for logical reasons. Serial killers/mass murderers are almost never sociopaths (excluding hitmen). Heavily co-morbid with ADHD and likely epigenetic. When nothing worth mentioning is happening society has no need for a large number of sociopaths.

Sociopaths are basically cats if you were to explain the disorder to a 5 year old.

One of these days someone is going to clarify how what you just typed relates to anyone who has been part of an infantry division of the military.

[Buddy Jonathan Jacob]

Dr. David Muchnik, a psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins, did an on successful sociopaths. It focuses more on traditional career paths than poker but there are certainly parallels. It is kind of long, but certainly thought provoking. He believes it is nurture > nature, kind of a side effect of capitalism. If you have 25 minutes to spare it's very illuminating.

[Pooh]

Why have I never scammed? I'm thinking my new years resolution will be to scam. Im so far away from that mind set that I have literally been offered money and a car from a rich dude (closet gay) who now has a horrible troll bitch I used to fuck living with him. I said no because I just say no to anything weird offered to me.

He knows I know all his horrible secrets. He inherited 25 million plus God knows what else when his Dad died.

It's like instead of me blackmailing him or even threatening he wants to offer me a buy out I guess. Even the old me would have said no to that but the new me says no to all the crazy outside reity offers I get. Fuck it.

How could you

[gimmick]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiso...ality_disorder

Sociopath and psychopath are just different words for more or less the same thing. Early studies were from prison population so higher IQ was underrepresented for logical reasons. Serial killers/mass murderers are almost never sociopaths (excluding hitmen). Heavily co-morbid with ADHD and likely epigenetic. When nothing worth mentioning is happening society has no need for a large number of sociopaths.

Sociopaths are basically cats if you were to explain the disorder to a 5 year old.

One of these days someone is going to clarify how what you just typed relates to anyone who has been part of an infantry division of the military.

It's a useful trait in the military. Esp the combo of psychopathy and ADHD. You end up being wired in a way where if there's enough stimuli or some sense of danger you stay alert very long, you don't exactly shook easily and you're very capable of acting/reacting faster than the general population. Also most stressful situations don't cause you stress, they just keep pumping you more noradreline and dopamine.

Professions where you find more sociopaths than average are very simply those where they are more suited than general population. Mostly "dangerous" professions and those that are based on manipulation. It also helps if a certain amount of coldness is required. Criminals, firemen, lawyers, politicians etc.

[lewfather]

Pooh is a closet fag?

[ToasterOven]

Why have I never scammed? I'm thinking my new years resolution will be to scam. Im so far away from that mind set that I have literally been offered money and a car from a rich dude (closet gay) who now has a horrible troll bitch I used to fuck living with him. I said no because I just say no to anything weird offered to me.

He knows I know all his horrible secrets. He inherited 25 million plus God knows what else when his Dad died.

It's like instead of me blackmailing him or even threatening he wants to offer me a buy out I guess. Even the old me would have said no to that but the new me says no to all the crazy outside reity offers I get. Fuck it.

You scam oxygen every few seconds.

[RegGaymer]

pyscho's lose touch with reality and care only about themselves...socio's also care only about themselves but see the world properly...did your pyscho friend ever hallucinate or do/say crazy stuff?

I never met the guy irl, as our convo was via pm online, but he seemed normal to me. He was relatively unknown at the time, but within months of having that convo he went on to win millions in online and live mtt's.

[RegGaymer]

I disagree.

There are a few basic qualities required to be successful in poker, mainly a high IQ and a decent grasp of statistical variance. If you are good in those areas there is no reason why you can't handle something so simple as tilt. Its really a non issue for high level players. Additionally psychopaths don't have higher IQs than general population. There seems to be some evidence that their IQ is lower but that could just be because successful psychopaths may be less likely to be identified.

Despite the above psychopaths are overrepresented in poker. That's not because they are better players but because the environment is enticing. The opportunity to make a quick buck, play in a dirty game, angle shoot, scam, and legality issues tend to attract such individuals.

EDIT I see druff already posted this :P

You may be right that they don't have higher iq's in general, although it seems to be a complicated subject. There was some Swedish studies done, where they found there to be no difference in IQ between Psycho's, and non-psycho's, but there was a correlation whereby psycho's with higher intelligence were likely to partake in more serious criminal activity. The reason why I originally thought that they might have a higher than average iq is because I read somewhere that high power positions, like CEO's, were occupied by people with a higher ratio of sociopathic traits. It's probably because they're known to be expert manipulators, and have no conscience when it comes to making ruthless decisions that affect others in a detrimental way - which would be a problem for people with higher levels of empathy, as they would feel some type of remorse.

I think it's also worth mentioning that it's not as simple as having a high IQ and a decent grasp of statistical variance to be a high level player who handles tilt well.

There are a few basic qualities required to be successful in poker, mainly a high IQ and a decent grasp of statistical variance. If you are good in those areas there is no reason why you can't handle something so simple as tilt. Its really a non issue for high level players.

There are high level players who take shots with their bankroll - knowing that they run the risk of ruin - and tilt manifests naturally when the monetary swings become too volatile. Tilt is a non-issue for high level players who always play within their bankroll, but some players are in long term backing arrangements, some decide to shoot at high buy-in mtt's, or cash games, and tilt occurs naturally to the best of them when things don't go their way.

[RegGaymer]

Poker is a negative sum game after rake, so players are constantly involved in win/lose scenarios. In some cases players may be involved in lose/lose scenarios: if they are both playing game theory optimal, then they both lose to the rake. This is another reason why sociopaths have no qualms with being serious poker players, because they only care about their own personal gratification - whereas most business professions look to provide a valuable service (win/win), even if it is lob-sided in their favour.

A socio/psychopath could be playing heads-up against a guy who is gambling with his family's food + rent money, and even if they somehow had that knowledge, they'd still take him for every penny he had; justifying it in their mind that if they weren't taking his money, then it would be someone else taking his money. Empathy towards the addict and his family does not enter the equation; but a pub owner, or bookmaker, would most likely turn away a customer who was too drunk, or knowingly gambling with money they couldn't afford, respectively, for ethical and moral reasons.

[chinamaniac]

kinda funny, some guy I respect looked me in the eye and asked me if I was a sociopath last night, I said I dont know, but he flat out told me he was a sociopath

i dont even know what a fucking sociop[ath is