Are there friends in poker?

Are there friends in poker?
I ask this cos I have played on a small poker site for a few years now and I play there cos I know most of the players on there and as we play we have a chat and a laugh.
Anyhow tonight I sucked out on a player I have played against for years and he started saying I didnt know how to play poker and was just the same as most players on this site, this is a player I always say HI to and GL, NH etc.
I was shocked and was playing just after this and I told the players on the table what had happened and said that I thought that player "X" who had abused me, was a friend, and a player I know said "is there really any friends in poker?"
I said to him that of course I want to win money but I dont consider the players I play against as enemies, win or lose I aint gonna hate them, but this got me thinking is there really friends in poker?
I like to think yes, I play in tourneys against CC members and win or lose I still consider them friends, I cant hate someone cos I'v win or lose a hand of poker.
I dont think a place like CC would exist if there wasnt such a thing as friends in poker, In the CC freerolls or the CC league of course I always want to win but I aint gonna dislike someone cos they beat me or I beat them.
I would go so far as to say if you had to "dislike" someone to play poker against them I would pack up playing, poker to me as to everyone who plays is about winning money , but it is also about enjoying myself and if I enjoy chatting with people and over the months get to consider them friends am I wrong?

Yes for all moments except when you are in a hand against them. Then prepare to dismember them.

no you can't be friends when your taking there money..sry

You definitely can if the stakes are trivial to you both - I don't think I'd want to play a real friend for stakes where I knew it would really hurt one of us to lose.

I have friends I play with online but I try to keep it where we never play each other or if we do we play light against each other less we are ITM. My reason is I don't like taking money from my friends, I'd much rather do it to someone thats not. Now as for CC the freerolls and league games are fair game, you know every man or woman for them self but at the end of the day we are still apart of CC and for the most part there is no love lost. So I will say there are friends in poker but some of them are sore losers. imo

We had that at the casino. These guys are all playing family pots, everyone limps nobody folds. I am playing my normal game and folding garbage and raising every time I enter the pot. They all start in on me. Hey buddy, this is a friendly game. My response was: "Then consider this a friendly raise" You can't play good poker unless you play to win. The pros do it, why shouldn't we.

I think one can have friends in poker. Because of the stakes involved, I do think it requires some sort of mutual understanding of the terms. On the felt, the friendship ought never to impede playing in a way that is monetarily +EV, and off of it, neither must hold hard feelings against the other regardless of the outcome.

I don't have a problem making friends with people in poker and continuing to play them in spite of the "friend" label. However, I would feel uncomfortable playing for real stakes against friends whom I met outside of the poker context, and who aren't as experienced in the game as I am. It would be fair game within the world of poker to take their money, but IMO completely scummy in any other world I would want to be a part of. So at least for me, it's possible to have friends in poker, but it requires some compartmentalizing of my friends.

NEWTDOG101 said:

I have friends I play with online but I try to keep it where we never play each other or if we do we play light against each other less we are ITM.

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You do know this is blatant cheating though don't you?

Myself, I prefer playing Tournament-style poker as I feel it's a bit less about '**** thy neighbour' (well.. even though it kinda isn't). There's one entry fee... play the 'game' & see how it goes.
Cash tables I feel a bit differently about & never play on cash tables with friends (live or online).
In CC games I consider a bunch of the players/members to be friends (& some the opposite, lol). I don't seem to mind losing to friends or anyone really (one exception -> I don't like losing vs. players I'm not particularly fond of, especially after getting it in far ahead of them... but then again we weren't friends in the first place).
I've had friends invite me over for a game of poker (friends who I've met outside of poker) & have always refused to go & play. I tell them I'd rather play 'hearts' instead of poker (& have gone on to explain that I don't like taking money from friends on the tables).

There are certain people online I am friends with same as playing live but I never would play any different against them. I might chat with them the whole time or whatever, but I'm still on my game.

I'm not playing online to make friends (nor enemies), but I feel most comfortable in a friendly environment (witjout making it less competitive).
I almost never chat during the game though, but during breaks it can be ok.
Once in a 180 man 2,20 turbo ended HU with a guy from my country.
During a 5 min break we were chatting about life in general in a very friendly way, but as play resumed we were 'enemies' again and playing our best to win.
One card away for me to finish first, he hit a 3-outer on the river and recovered.
I finally finished 2nd which I obviously didn't like, but that's in the game and I didn't feel too bad because it was a nice guy.
Would it have been a real moron, I would have hated it to loose the game.
Like in much other games/sports you can have friends, but if you play them I think you have to treat them as anybody else.
I played soccer for years (kinda high amateuristic level) and had many friends playing in other teams.
I can tell you, during the matches we weren't friends at all, but after it, whoever won, we all had great fun again.

In the heat of the moment people will lose their cool. Then they will go back to being a friend 90 percent of the time. Give them some space to be angry, some people have not learned patience as you may have.

I think 10058765 put it far better than I did, I enjoy my poker better in a friendly environment, but I seem to be completely different in my attitude to most people on here.
Most of my poker is played on a small site with about 50 regulars who play there every day and I know them all, we have a good laugh and talk about friends, sport etc as we play, we all want to win and most of the time bad beats, suck outs are taken as just part of poker.
It may be what I have been through in the last few years but I am not going to get stressed or annoyed about winning or losing a few dollars and that is probably why I will never be a good poker player, I have no desire to dismember people so I guess I am the odd one out.
On the site I play there are 5c-10c tables where players have $1-2 at the most and the play is terrible and it is easy money, but I wont play on them cos I dont want to take someones last few cents, I am just not that ruthless and I am quite proud of that.

OzExorcist said:

You definitely can if the stakes are trivial to you both - I don't think I'd want to play a real friend for stakes where I knew it would really hurt one of us to lose.

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^^^This. We all have fun in the CC tournaments, and we used to get a thread going and jump on 2nl on stars and it was alot of fun. It was even fun the few times we jumped to 10nl, I think more because we play each other often enough and know the betting tendencies and if I lost a buy in because I didn't read another CC'ers bet correctly, then shame on me.

There are no friends while playing poker - you can small talk all you want but in the end it's about winning the loot I hold no grudges if I lose to a better hand but conversely if the player has no clue and gets lucky on the turn or river then my blood tends to boil

Once in a ring game I won a good hand after playing a long time at the same table - the guy told me he was going to find me and kill me yeah right - I said nothing. The way I figure he made the call I knew I had him nailed from the get go - if he didn't have the money to lose then he shouldn't have been in the game. While I understand his frustration of losing money having been there plenty of times myself nonetheless he has no one to blame but himself. You have to wonder though what else is going on in their lives which sometimes plays a big role too.

There's friends u grow up with u know they have a temper, u learn how to get around it, but people u meet online can u really say u know them, I like to chat when I play but it does distract me from the game,people say things to put u on tilt, I really don't take it to seriously, I play on a weekly live game we all know each other we've been doing this for over 2 yrs we play the game first then we're friends, we congratulate each other on hands well played and life goes on

I have many friends that are bad sports or sore losers . they are unhappy unless they are the winner . I have explained that there would be no reason for me or anyone to play against them if they won every time .
competition period can bring out the worst in people and add money to the equation and it's really tough . I prefer to play with those who can take a loss well , regardless of if it was a good hand or a two outer . but we are all different so you take what you get .
the meaning of friend in poker is a trick question , in poker you must lie or bluff , trap or trick , and take sometihing from other people in order to be the winner .
there are no " friends in poker " but I play the game with many good friends and am often happy to see them do well and feel no more then a slight twinge when I take them out . if you play different because of how you feel about someone as a person you will lose very often .
friends in poker = colusion

our best example is the mizrachi brothers they love each other but no not play different because of it . jmo

I guess it depends really.

There are many of high stake poker players who are friends, very good friends in real life who have and still do play high stakes poker vs each other and we're talking 100k swings and more.

Jungleman12 and urnotindanger are very good friends who have played each other for 100K+ pots. I suppose it's how you determine a friend, I think I get a good sense that phil ivey and tom dwan are closest of friends, I can just sense it when they are at a table together and one wins a pot vs another player.

yet they have had massively high pots vs each other in the 1million+ region. The same goes with patrick. I guess it all depends from person to person and if they can afford to lose x-amount. Some just can't stand losing, some can.

I personally would rather lose large amounts of money against a friend rather than a stranger, it would wind me up less. It has happened in blackjack before where we was drinking with a friend and we did a stupid bet but that wasn't poker, but we did fall out about it for a while.

You can have friends in poker.
I play in a monthly game and most of them are friends.
No one takes the beats badly and we have all taken them.
We have been doing this for 5 years now and every year we send out invites to play and those guys who tilt, get out of control, or abuse other players aren't invited back.

Poker Orifice said:

You do know this is blatant cheating though don't you?

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Cheating? How so?

Poker Orifice said:

You do know this is blatant cheating though don't you?

... I don't like taking money from friends on the tables).

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Wouldn't have thought there was ever any danger of that happenning.

NEWTDOG101 said:

Cheating? How so?

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It's called collusion.

Oh hardy-har har.... Oh my ... you did a funny.
Nice 'troll' (keep trollin' my posts & perhaps you'll even learn why calling a 4-bet shove 50+bb's deep from a UTG player is -EV (burining money) with KQo)

Colbefc said:

Are there friends in poker?

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The ones you lend money to

I feel like many of the people I play would be considered a friend . I've said things to friends that were in haste and regreted later and those same types of things have been said to me. Time tends to fix the rift (not always but typically)
As to the issue of soft playing friends I agree with Daniel Negreanu's article on the matter (linked below) , you are being unfair to the rest of the field when you do so. Just one persons opinion.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...uuC2Bg&usg=AFQjCNE4SMmbGWkiIuSCjN_rnP0kCYMLUA

It's called collusion.[/quote]
This is one big reason for not playing with friends in an open tourny and why I try to avoid it at all cost, cause I would definitely not want anyone to think of me as misleading or deceiving, "collusion".

Back to the OP, yes there are friends in poker. A person that I discuss poker with daily and they as how my run went today and I say I lose x amount of my roll today and they say well I'll send you x amount back and when you double your profit of it you can give it back, this is indeed a friend in poker. At lease my friends, some may not be so lucky.

Yes you can have friends in poker. After all it was a friend that got me playing poker. Howeve, you are playing to win and the benefit is the money. Do not feel guilty if you felt them, it is part of the game. just remember to not play for stakes that it would hurt you to loose. At that point it is not fun. so keep it fun and play the game.