17yo 'hustles' his mom's boyfriend in poker, refuses to return the money. AITA?

Pressuring your girlfriend's son to meet you is a rough situation to begin with...so why not involve money in it?

This 17-year-old boy didn't have a better excuse when his mom urged him to hang out with her boyfriend and his friends for a poker night. Little did they know, OP is a pretty good poker player and he took the guys for a bit of cash. He later went to Reddit to ask:

'AITA (am I the a-hole) for fleecing my mom’s boyfriend at poker?'

u/GasFragrant9549 writes:

My [17m] mom has a new boyfriend that she’s been dating for a little under a year. He’s made overtures to build a relationship with me, but I’ve been away at school at a different state and hence haven’t been able to. Plus, I’m not especially interested, since I am not close with my mom.

I was in the area during summer break, and he invited me to a poker night with his friends. I didn’t want to go, but my mom urged me to, and I didn’t have an excuse because I didn’t have plans, so I reluctantly agreed.

What my mom’s boyfriend and his friends don’t know is that I’m actually pretty good at poker, or at the very least better than them. I sat in on a round before playing, and i realized these guys weren’t good at all.

So, I came up with a plan: I pretend to never have played poker before, bait them, and make money. That way, I make sure he never invites me ever again, and I make some extra cash. I did just that, and ended up making about $150 in cash, which is decent but far from a huge amount when poker is concerned.

My mom’s boyfriend demanded I give the money back to his friends, and my mom sided with him, but I think I earned the money fair and square, and don’t need to return it. I told him this, and he called me a selfish greedy AH (a-hole). AITA (am I the a-hole)?

Sound's like Mom's boyfriend made a big mistake. But should OP return the money?

Here's how the conversation went on Reddit (including a wild response from OP).

No_Barracuda3622 says:

NTA (not the a-hole) for having a good poker face. Why even bet money if they didn't want to lose money? people are dead a** calling OP an a-hole for lying in poker. I didn't realize it was such an honest game.

arcane-logoi writes:

So Mom's bf invited you to a cash poker game that he thought you'd lose. Meaning he had to have been okay with a teenager losing money to a bunch of grown adults or with demanding his friends pay back the literal child.

But it's wildly intolerable to him that his friends lost money in their cash poker game where they, as adults, agreed to bet real money, because *checks notes* a kid won it and not one of the bros. F*** him. NTA.

FaerieQueeneeee says:

NTA you know that if they had won money they wouldn’t pay you back, right?

mdaniel018 writes:

Wait, remember how you were just swearing up and down that what you do isn’t a scam? Buddy, on what planet is hustling not a scam

Yes, it always can and eventually will go wrong. We’ll see how alive you feel when your jaw is wired shut. Please, please stop. To all people here who have told this kid that what he did was great and encouraged him to keep doing it, this might be the time to rethink and chime in. Because this is a recipe for disaster.

But OP had a shocking response:

Considering I’ve played russian roulette for fun, regularly challenge myself to drink entire bottles of vodka/malt liquor while balancing on a ledge just for kicks, and occasionally pay people to hit me the idea of physical harm doesn’t really phase me.

That was unexpected...but he IS only 17.

All in all, Reddit sided with OP and thought Mom's boyfriend had it coming. Let's all hope OP isn't actually playing russian roulette and chugging bottles on ledges, though.