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As poker players, a good number of the people we take money from are pretty messed up people. I don't think most bad players are like this, but many of them are. Some may actually be mentally retarded, and others are simply degenerates gambling away money that they or their family can't afford to lose. It's sad and I think a lot of us prefer not to think about it. That being said, some of the people in this thread getting on their high horse and saying "ZOMG how could you take a retard's money!" are off IMO. You take money from these people frequently online, and just because you can't see their faces doesn't make it any different.
Stories like this used to make me wonder whether I was doing something immoral by gambling at all, but I eventually came to a compromise. I enjoy playing poker, and most of my opponents (even the losing players) enjoy it too. That's why they play and they can afford to lose some money. If some degenerate or retard comes and sits down in my regular game, I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid him because it's his decision to play in my game. But if he wanted to leave, I wouldn't try and goad him into staying. Nor would I go out of my way to set up a special heads-up match against him either, because when I inevitably took his money, I'd be a lot more responsible for enabling him. To use an admittedly overwrought analogy, you're not obligated to save the lives of every person in the world, but you are obligated not to kill anybody.
I would not play a heads-up match against a retard.
Sorry for the long-winded post, I've just thought about this issue a fair amount and thought I'd share my thoughts here.
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