I'm steaming....

[Doc]

Doc,

What you refer to is a con, cheating, or marketing, but not gambling.  Gambling is betting on a chance.

The games played in casinos have rules to give the house an edge.  A few players might win but overall, but in the long term, the house rakes it in.

There is a difference between a Professional Gambler and a Professional Cheat.  You describe the latter.  Whether or not there are Professional Gamblers out there is another toopic...
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Gambling is merely hedging your bets to your own advantage. Rigging the odds. Sorry, but I will never see that as outright cheating. You lay your money down. It's your responsibility to get it back, one means or another. Honest gambling is an oxymoron of sorts. You lie. It's all layed with dishonesty. Bluffing is just another form of cheating. You are intentionally and actively lying to increase the odds in your favour. Keeping track of somebody's tells... That's just another form of cheating. Rigging the odds in your favour. If you bluff or tally tells, you may as well stoop a little lower, because you are guilty of cheating no matter how you try to weasel out of it.

With casual friends, you play honest. You drink, you laugh, you snack, you play for pennies.

When out to make money, you do what it takes.

And yes, the players on tv... They have big shiny buckles, boots, glasses, the whole bit. Some even wear neckties. Vests. Once you know the illusion, it's easy to spot it. And I have watched them actually nick a card or two the old fashioned way with their fingernail. They reach up behind their ear to rub or scratch, but in reality they are accessing their little spot of oil to mark a card so they can track it. It's all a sham. Just like wrestling. Fraud. It's all a CON. And there are suckers that think it's good tv, who in turn think they can con the public in to thinking this is some sort of actual game, when in reality it is all a multi-layered sham where there are so many people conning each other it's hard to tell where one con ends and another begins. It's no sport. And to anybody that believes it is, with a bunch of honest guys sitting around a table behaving themselves, I have a bridge to sell you.

As for internet poker, I would never play. For the same reason I do not gamble in casinos. It is rigged so that the house gets the lion's share. Not my cup of tea. And I do not trust a game where electronic cards are dealt.