Why do you play poker...

[whiskeytown]

this is an entry I threw in the blog this week....

when I hear debates about whether one would want the 5 mil. or the bracelet and respect of the poker world, I just wanna smile....it's like choosing between a McD's happy meal and barbarque ribs - or between Bea Arthur and Jessica Alba - simply should be no choice.

--------------------

let me tell ya my poker dream.

I want to get about 5 mil - either thru multiple tourneys or the WSOP -

then I wanna bail on the world - go over to Ireland and take university classes on trad. Irish music - find a small place near the ocean and tell the world to [censored] off...

but not without high speed internet that let's me play online whenever I want...LOL -

it's not about being the greatest - or the richest - it's just about the pipe dream that lets me do whatever I want for the rest of my life...

that's a good dream.

RB

[Wake up CALL]

Your man Kerry would tax so much of your 5 million dollar win that you'd be lucky to be able to afford a single CD and a sleeping bag under an Irish Pub in Boston much less the dream you pursue. Good luck to you and your dreams and if you do win the big one I hope we still have a Republican administration so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

[whiskeytown]

I have been laid off two times in the last 4 years - the most recent being today.

I have friends who have been in worse shape - their middle class, family-raising jobs have been replaced by Mcjobs.

I'd rather have a president that supports the middle class and lets them have a job and might tax me a little more if I hit the $5000000 category as a result then a man who deficit spends us into oblivion, and takes from the middle class and gives it to his [censored] oil buddies.

you can talk to me all you want about taxes, the Religious Right, GWB and so forth, but there is no [censored] way in hell you can convince me that this country is better then it was 4 yrs with that [censored] taking over the surplus that the Democrats left him.

You cannot convince me I'm safer or better off with the [censored] quagmire in Iraq....that thing is a siphon that sucks from the middle class while lining the pockets of Halliburton and GWB/Cheney's warmonger buddies.

And as of next week, I'll have the [censored] unemployment check to prove it.

sorry if I'm sore....this is now offically a bad [censored] day.

RB

[Oski]

Good luck man ... starting tomorrow, I will be joining you on the unemployment line.

[whiskeytown]

[censored]....

well, I got a shot. I basically applied for a full time job and was all but assured it was mine...

but 5 weeks and VP wrangling about costs later, and I'm now offically in Limbo -

and I'm not deluding myself into thinking I can duplicate davidross's results at this time - I'll take my poker bankroll and play small ($10/20) tourneys, cause that's my most profitable game right now, but I can't start playing poker for a living....I'm not good enough.

and I don't have the BR for it anyways.

RB

[Sundevils21]

I want money. I don't want to be on tv(especially the WSOP). I would rather build my bankroll all in cash games and ignore all tournaments. Once I became extremely wealthy from cash games, then Id play select tournaments including the WSOP.
Some pro(i think negreanu) said something like, "Most people have never heard of the best poker players in the world and the best players like it that way."

[PhatTBoll]

Being angry at Bush for the economic situation is understandable, but somewhat misplaced. Look at this article (http://www.cepr.net/too_much_bubbly.htm). Notice the date. The reality is that people saw the recession coming two years before Clinton left office, yet nothing was done--by either administration--to alleviate it until it was too late.

It sucks that you lost your job, for sure. As a grad student in my last year of school, I am not exactly optimistic about the job market either. But to blame one political party for the recession, when there is just as much blame lying with the other party, is to ignore the facts.

I wish you the best of luck with your job search.

[Sponger15SB]

I play poker for the money, if I wanted some sort of challege, there would be MUCH MUCH better ways to spend my time, IMO.

and I'd rather not be on TV at all if I ever because extremely good, I don't want to be bugged by a bunch of people whenever I go outside telling me how much I suck or how lucky I got or if I can give them some money or about how last night they were playing poker and their aces got cracked by... etc.

[baggins]

to blame the current administration for the economic woes of the wealthiest nation in the world is ludicrous. that's like blaming Sean Fanning for the subpar content of a gangsta rap album.

one man, even the president, especially the president, does not have control over a nation's economy. an entire 4 years of a political party calling the shots in washington cannot have the instantaneous effect on the economy that you insinuate that it does. economic cycles and trends and growth due to political influence and overall stimuli cannot manifest themselves in such a short period. not major ones, anyway. Clinton and the Dems have just as much responsibility for where we are now as does Bush and the Reps.

to say otherwise would be to ignore sound economic theory and the massive scope of the situation.

[Gronk]

Sounds like a lovely dream(no sarcasm intended) but you don't need 5 mil to fulfill it. Hell, you only need enough to get a plane ticket to ireland. I'm sure they have jobs over there.

[Joe Tall]

I like money.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[Turning Stone Pro]

n/m

[scotnt73]

i play poker for the money. i enjoy playing poker tourneys- they are fun. however i make money playing 2-3 ring games at once which can be quite mind numbing. if someone gave me 1 million dollars to quit playing poker id take it and go back to playing vidio/computer games for fun.

[Blarg]

Well, it's cheaper humiliation than getting a real dominatrix.

Kidding. Actually, I'm really interested in the freedom of it. I hate working 9-5. I'm a decades long insomniac and wander through the work week feeling practically stoned at times. It's not good for my health or my psychology to have to wait for the weekends to really get decent sleep, and I'm not getting any younger, so daily recovery from lack of sleep will probably just get harder every year.

The idea of getting up whenever you want to and working as hard as you want or as little as you want according to the level of cash you feel you want or need in your life sounds ideal to me. I'm the kind of person who can work very long days very hard at full energy if I'm into it, and if I played poker for a living I could easily see myself putting in some very long days if necessary and getting a solid 40-hour work week in no problem. Heck, I used to add B&M play to my working and get in 30-ish hours a week doing that; take out the 40 hours of regular work and I think I could spare some of them to add to poker to make up a classic "full week of work" no problem. Replacing 40 hours of regular work with 10 hours of poker would not be traumatic. Quite the contrary.

The money that can come from successful poker playing would be wonderful too, but I've lived on far less than wonderful all my life, so I don't need that. That's not much of a part of my poker fantasies. Just making enough to have a modest life, lived according to my own still ample energy and in my own best interests, and not having to live with foolish, arrogant, greedy bosses would be nice. More than nice. It would be great. Actually getting rich off poker seems like a separate thing from what I think my vision of an ideal outcome would be for me playing poker. Supporting myself in reasonable, moderate comfort and living by my own rules would be more than good enough for me. It would be nice seeing my productivity going toward increasing my own income and well being instead of that of my bosses.

[Easy E]

You act as if Kerry would have unlimited taxation power... as if the Democrats would have a majority for long (if at all) in Congress when a Democratic president is elected.

[Easy E]

Since it doesn't matter...

Screw that, Fossilman for President! If we ever needed someone to turn a toothpick into a lumberyard....

[kpux]

Because I'm in college and I need the money. Plus it's better than a regular job, at least while I'm in school.

[namknils]

Money! /images/graemlins/grin.gif I do find it fun too.

[MtSmalls]

While economic cycles come and go, each administration does have control, to a large degree on their reactions to them. In this case, Mr. Bush had a compliant congress (he vetoed exactly ZERO bills in 3+ years), and took several actions designed, in his mind, to create a better economy. However, the failure of supply side economics has been shown again and again, and in this case over a four year stretch has led to the worst economic record of any president since the Great Depression.

Bush will claim (and has recently) that the attacks on America and the war in Iraq are to blame for the recovery taking so long. That 9/11 was the sole cause for the loss of over 1 million jobs. This is patently false, and proven by the CBO and his own administration. Even if it were true, it can’t be used as an excuse. The economy thrived after a fashion during the late 50’s (Korea) and again in the late 60’s and early 70’s (Vietnam) so a war, especially such a limited one, cannot be used as the excuse.

The biggest jump in GDP (the best measure of true growth in the economy) in 20 years was in the third quarter of last year, when $400 checks, child tax credits advanced to middle and lower income families, were sent out. Not massive tax cuts to the wealthy, but $400 to the middle and lower class. Guess what, the SPENT those checks. And they were felt across the economy. The idea that people with large incomes would spend their tax breaks on hiring more people in their business is a nice theory, but a poor reality. Reagan realized and raised taxes three times after his massive 1980 tax cut. Bush Sr. recognized and had to go back on the most famous ‘no new taxes’ pledge. Bush the Idiot hasn’t figured it out yet.

This administration will be the first since Herbert Hoover to preside over a loss of jobs in the economy. Nixon/Ford with the pull out in Vietnam and the market collapse in 74, had net new jobs. Carter, with the closest thing this country has seen to hyperinflation for the length of his term, had net new jobs. Clinton, aided by the best economic conditions in 50 years, oversaw the creation of 20 million net new jobs. The current administration, with ONE jobs report left before the election, is looking at more than 900,000 net job losses (net of all government hires). The longest and most chronic unemployment situation since the 1970’s. The Unemployment rate looks good right now at about 5.5%. Guess what, there are millions of people that aren’t counted in that statistic, because the have given up looking for a new job. If they were, correctly, counted in, unemployment would be more than 6%.

Is the current situation solely the current administration’s fault? No, business cycles come and go. If Bush had foregone the massive tax cut last year would we be in better shape? Certainly. If instead of reducing taxes he had funded initiatives like No Child Left Behind to hire more teachers and administrators for our schools, or the COPS program to hire more officers in every county in the country, would there be more jobs today? Certainly. Does this administration deserve our scorn for benefiting themselves and their campaign donors above the needs of the rest of middle and lower class America? Certainly.

[baggins]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the current situation solely the current administration’s fault? No, business cycles come and go. If Bush had foregone the massive tax cut last year would we be in better shape? Certainly. If instead of reducing taxes he had funded initiatives like No Child Left Behind to hire more teachers and administrators for our schools, or the COPS program to hire more officers in every county in the country, would there be more jobs today? Certainly. Does this administration deserve our scorn for benefiting themselves and their campaign donors above the needs of the rest of middle and lower class America? Certainly.

[/ QUOTE ]

this paragraph has one or two worthwhile things in it.

my point is that the economic consequences of an adminstration's economic decisions are, for the most part, not felt right away. it's not like they sign a bill one day and the next day the economy changes due to that bill's effectst. it just doesn't work like that.

in fact, i'd say there's at least a 1-2 year lag on a lot of things. the 'depression' we were in at the start of GWB's term was there due to Clinton's regime. I'm not trying to support GWB here, i don't think he's all that great. but people tend to think that the current economic trends are solely the responsibility/fault/whatever of the current president and his current policies, when this is not true.

[Blarg]

Unemployment of around 5% being normal or even good is not a notion that has always been accepted, either here or around the world. In Japan, unemployment of 1.5 and 2% has been reason for newspaper headlines. Many peoples around the world have economies in which far more than 5% unemployment is perfectly acceptable, and far less is completely unacceptable.

In the richest country in the world, at least on paper although a long way from the top in terms of living standards, 5% unemployment seems like a number not free from heavy politicizing to make it palatable. High unemployment does indeed benefit certain people.

[ QUOTE ]
Guess what, there are millions of people that aren’t counted in that statistic, because the have given up looking for a new job. If they were, correctly, counted in, unemployment would be more than 6%.


[/ QUOTE ]

Very true.

Also, in Los Angeles, where I live, a large part of the economy is underground. Partly that is because we have a huge number of underskilled legal and illegal aliens, and it's much harder for them to get jobs, especially ones that pay anything like a decent wage. The jobs may pay better than they do in Mexico, but expenses in a city like this are also very high, as is our state sales and income tax. When these folks get under the table jobs, the economic statistics won't reflect it accurately, and the same when they lose them. But in a contracting economy, these are the guys who suffer first and most, and there are many millions of them unemployed or underemployed.

Fixing that by joining up with the official economy is hard and potentially unprofitable for many people at the bottom of the economic scale, because they're looking at giving up a gigantic proportion of their income to taxes, and they need that income to live on. So when they go unemployed, as they often do, nobody ever knows, to the tune of many millions at a time.

[emp1346]

i play for the poontang...

/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[BottlesOf]

The groupie love.

[Duke]

Because I can.

~D

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
it's not about being the greatest - or the richest - it's just about the pipe dream that lets me do whatever I want for the rest of my life...

that's a good dream.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember someone referring to this as "[censored]-you" money. I think it was some musician.

~D

[Lawrence Ng]

I have liked playing cards since the day I could learn to shuffle a deck and deal.

I realy don't play for the money at all right now. It's still a hobby for me per say, but I'm good at it and right now I want to build up enough of a bankroll so that I can take myself on a nice half year tourney circuit and see how well I can really do. That of course is not going to be cheap, but it's my ultimate poker challenge, to see how well I can do in big tournaments.

I have already said that I don't want to play poker for a living. If I do make a lot eventually in the 6 digits, then I'll most likely use it to start up a nice coffee or tea house of my own and invest it up.

Do I dream of winning the WSOP? I sure do. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[bunky9590]

The challenge of competition, the thought process you need to have to succeed. The meeting of new people......

Just kidding, as Rod Tidwell said in Jerry McGuire.


SHOW ME THE MONEEEEYYYYYYY!

Gregg

[hectorjelly]

[ QUOTE ]
The challenge of competition, the thought process you need to have to succeed. The meeting of new people......

Just kidding, as Rod Tidwell said in Jerry McGuire.


SHOW ME THE MONEEEEYYYYYYY!

Gregg

[/ QUOTE ]

I like this post.

I play because its the easiest way for me to make money, and I enjoy it.