[devinmcafee]

This seems like an overly simplistic way of looking at poker, and I feel is not a fair judgement of the game. The game is not just about deception.

To play poker (and win) you need many skills:

- mastery over your own body, specifically the ability to restrain outward displays of emotion related to the hand you were dealt or the cards being drawn

- the ability to calculate probabilities, because you have limited information and do not know the cards others have, you must assess the current situation and attempt to make decisions using a probabilistic model

- budgeting resources. Your chips are a finite resource and wasting them or not betting enough will affect your future hands

- psychology. You have to learn the way your opponents think. You learn their tells, behavior, and strategies, and have to practice empathy to determine their behavior in a given scenario

That being said, its fine that your friends don't like the game, to each their own! I just personally don't think it's fair to view it through such a narrow lens.

*Edited for formatting