Beware

[JK.]

Beware when gambling or playing poker.
A-beware of the unusually friendly perfect stranger sitting next to you.He talks a lot,laughs at all your jokes.
He is probably lining you up for a loan.

B-Beware of the pretty young girl sitting next to you but not playing.She touches you a lot and smiles.
She talks to you and is very friendly.
She is either a hooker or is stealing your chips.Or both.

c-Beware of the guy sitting next to you who tells you that he has won a lottery.He is waiting to sign the documents and is a little short to play.
Could you lend him a few hundred until tomorrow?

This is just a start .
Can you add to this list?

[C_Bomb]

D - Beware the guy giving you advice about shady characters online who freely admitted that he made bets on the result of a football match, where he had seen the live broadcast and knew the final score and when he went to a club to see some "friends" he bet on the results of that game, whilst they were watching a delayed telecast.

[JK.]

A good point C-Bomb.
Watch out for guys who befriend you and then try to scam you.
Reminds me of an Aussie player who made friends with Esfienderi then made a bet for $1000 with him,knowing the result.
The bet was on a guy ,on how long he would last in the tournament.
The Aussie guy knew that the player was already out.
Not nice thing to do to a new friend.

[Spikey]

Beware of poker event organisers who beg you to lend them money because they are in debt to loan sharks and you are doing them a big favour and saving them money and making you money in the same process because your rate is cheaper than that of the loan sharks.

In fact the best thing is to just run when you hear the word "poker" and don't stay around to make any friends.

[JK.]

Not fair Mike.Not all poker players are bad people.OK,Ivey,Lederer,Ferguson and many others are but there are a lot of nice people who play poker.
I have made some good friends from poker.
You are a nice bloke,one of many in the poker circle.

[Spikey]

There were good people that play poker too, however, those so called good people still keep secrets, don't speak up when they are cheated or when they experience or see things that aren't right. Ivey, Lederer, Ferguson and many others should have been outed long before Black Friday. Maybe they were good people before greed took over too. Then it took over all of them and everyone around them.

My advice is still to forget poker and find another hobby. Or play micro-stakes online poker where the crap doesn't exist.

[JK.]

Marihuana does not give you paranoia but if you have symptoms for paranoia,the drug will enhance them.
Same with poker.
Poker does not make people greedy and scamers.But with all that money floating around,peoples instincs take over.
We can't blame the game.Those people had the symptoms of greed and corruption in them.
They just were unable to control them.