And i do my dips at the gym haha I love being at the gym. If i had to choose: Poker or Gym. Gym all day 
I'd go with poker, because at least poker doesn't make want to puke my bowels out after a gross workout. 
If you have access to the gym, one exercise that helped me a lot to prepare for pull-ups and chin-ups are Slow Negatives (or Slow Degrades) for either of them. It's basically an inverted pull-up or chin-up.
Use a bench, steps, or rack pins that you can set at the desired height in front of pull-up grips. Grab the grips and, without jumping or pushing yourself up with your feet, lift yourself from whatever you stand on until the grips are level with your eyes. So yes, you'll be lifting yourself from higher ground, but degrade lower. Then lower yourself very slowly as low as you can in the air, counting 5 seconds, concentrating on stretching your lats and scapular muscles and stabilizing both your upper body and legs so that they swing the least possible. When reaching down, reel your feet up back on the starting surface, straighten yourself up, and do it again.
As you get better, just lower your bench, step, or rack pins slightly until you can lift yourself from the ground. By the end of this you should be able to do at least 2-3 pull-ups with good form. No need to go all the way over your chin like in PE at school. Between the forehead and the eye sockets is the right target.
Swinging and some level of momentum is normal. Pull-ups and chin-ups are not isolation exercises. A lot of muscle and body parts are involved in the work out, and pulling yourself up effeciently is a swinging motion to move forward up. As long as you don't swing to use momentum like a sling shot. The important thing is that as long you feel your back muscles, your biceps, your shoulders, and your laterals are doing all the work, you should be fine.
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