I started playing poker with friends, hanging out, drinking pints and making wild five-bets on the river.

Poker has always been a social game for me, so when I started, I was always generous with my winnings. If I won, I’d buy the beverages, or if I took an exceptionally large pot off a friend, I’d let him have some back. I just played for fun.

But when I started to play for real money, I found that the courtesy I extended to my friends transferred over to the tables.

With a larger stack, I’d call all-ins with garbage. If I sucked out on someone, I’d donk off chips back to them. And I wouldn’t pick on the people to my left and right because we struck up such good conversation.

I like to think I’m a nice guy, but nice guy just doesn’t work in this game.

So a year after picking up poker, I dedicated myself to being a jerk, not in behavior but when it came to winning money, I made a decision to extract every chip I could from my opponents — while still being a nice guy at the table.

For some people, like me, this is harder than imagined. You’re sitting at a table, within a few inches of the people left and right from you. They’re splendid people and now, your job is to crush their spirits.

If you’re a decent human being, then you’ll most likely feel tinges of guilt when you start taking a person’s hard-earned wages. Watching them stand up and walk away with their heads down or even worse, watching them throw a tantrum.— it takes a toll at first.

At some point you have to draw a line. And sometimes, it’s the difference between a winning and losing session. This is a brutal game. They knew the consequences when they sat down.

Resist the urge to pity people. Naturally, when you win, it pisses people off. But if you don’t frustrate people, you aren’t playing this game correctly.