Surprise!

Why it's yet another doom and gloom article about the perils of a professional poker career! Can someone please explain to me why these tired points need to be rehashed for the 145,000th consecutive time? Okay. Being a professional poker player sucks. In terms of job satisfaction it ranks right below mopping up sperm at the local adult bookstore for $4 per hour. I get it.

That said, many of us, insanely, are attempting to play professionally anyway. It's hard for me to see whose interest it serves to repeat the same depressing information over and over again when maintaining optimism is such a crucial and often difficult part of beginning a professional poker career.

[LearnedfromTV]

A successful pro who eats well, works out daily, has great friends, a hot wife who supports his professional choice, and is investing his money well should write a rebuttal.

[rocketlaunch]

[ QUOTE ]
A successful pro who eats well, works out daily, has great friends, a hot wife who supports his professional choice, and is investing his money well should write a rebuttal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Although I don't fit all of your criteria (no wife), as a pro who loves his life, that's exactly what I was thinking of doing.

The article is simply asinine, making "points" that aren't any more true of poker than many, perhaps most, other jobs, while completely ignoring all the benefits to being pro.

There's little money and no future? The job I left to become pro had even less money and no future. I won't become famous? God forbid! I don't even want to become famous, and even if I did I sure as heck wasn't on the fast track to becoming famous working as a cubicle monkey 40 hours a week.

Unhealthy? The guy eats fast food and never works out. As if going into an office 40 hours a week suddenly means a person will eat nothing but green veggies and run five miles a day. Most office drones lead unhealthy lifestyles, too, and as a poker player I actually have the ability to go to the gym whenever I want since, well gee, I can "work" whenever I want. Because of this flexibility, playing poker allows me to lead a healthier lifestyle. If the author decides not to, that reflects on him, not his career choice.

Dreary? Once again, being a hermit in one's house staring at the computer isn't much different from going into work and staring at a computer for eight hours a day. At least playing poker I don't have to worry about dress codes, office politics, a long commute through traffic or a boss looking over my shoulder making sure I'm not slacking off for a minute. And I hardly ever work 8 full hours in a day.

Poker hasn't ruined any of my relationships. It's the ultimate flexible job. No one's forcing me to play all night (which I admit I often do) so if I want to do something one day, I just keep more reasonable hours the night before. If I want to go out on a Friday night instead of playing, well, gee whiz, I can do exactly that!

The Greenstein reference, "if he spends the majority of his life at a poker table, he will feel that he is a loser in the game of life," is one I agree with. Although, I have to say that this is also true for a lot of jobs--most jobs out there aren't those that are exactly world-changing. Fiddling with spreadsheets for some random company isn't all that fulfilling, either.

Burnout is also an issue that isn't unique to poker. Believe me, I haven't had a job yet that I didn't experience utter and complete burnout, to the point of totally disdaining anything and everything about the job. That is, until I started playing poker. Burnout is still an issue I imagine for lots of players, but for this player at least, I have a much, much higher job satisfaction after thousands and thousands of hours playing poker than I've had at anything else I've done.

I think the author's only real good point is "you probably won't make it." I believe most players who would like to play professionally simply won't make it for any of a variety of reasons that have been rehashed to death (bankroll, ability, dedication, etc). But for someone who does have the ability, playing a game you love for much, much more money than one can make anywhere else and being your own boss to boot is like a dream come true.

I agree that prospective pros, especially college-age or younger ones, really should be aware of all the possible pitfalls and drawbacks to playing professionally. It's not easy, and one really should have lots of discipline, as well as a fallback plan or two (like a degree). But agenda-driven articles like this one that seem designed not to give an accurate view of the pro lifestyle but rather to discourage people from turning pro come hell or high water simply insult everyone involved. The readers aren't that stupid and the professionals aren't all desperate, fat, lonely guys who stare at a computer screen 16 hours a day.

[Python49]

[ QUOTE ]
Although I don't fit all of your criteria (no wife), as a pro who loves his life, that's exactly what I was thinking of doing.

The article is simply asinine, making "points" that aren't any more true of poker than many, perhaps most, other jobs, while completely ignoring all the benefits to being pro.

There's little money and no future? The job I left to become pro had even less money and no future. I won't become famous? God forbid! I don't even want to become famous, and even if I did I sure as heck wasn't on the fast track to becoming famous working as a cubicle monkey 40 hours a week.

Unhealthy? The guy eats fast food and never works out. As if going into an office 40 hours a week suddenly means a person will eat nothing but green veggies and run five miles a day. Most office drones lead unhealthy lifestyles, too, and as a poker player I actually have the ability to go to the gym whenever I want since, well gee, I can "work" whenever I want. Because of this flexibility, playing poker allows me to lead a healthier lifestyle. If the author decides not to, that reflects on him, not his career choice.

Dreary? Once again, being a hermit in one's house staring at the computer isn't much different from going into work and staring at a computer for eight hours a day. At least playing poker I don't have to worry about dress codes, office politics, a long commute through traffic or a boss looking over my shoulder making sure I'm not slacking off for a minute. And I hardly ever work 8 full hours in a day.

Poker hasn't ruined any of my relationships. It's the ultimate flexible job. No one's forcing me to play all night (which I admit I often do) so if I want to do something one day, I just keep more reasonable hours the night before. If I want to go out on a Friday night instead of playing, well, gee whiz, I can do exactly that!

The Greenstein reference, "if he spends the majority of his life at a poker table, he will feel that he is a loser in the game of life," is one I agree with. Although, I have to say that this is also true for a lot of jobs--most jobs out there aren't those that are exactly world-changing. Fiddling with spreadsheets for some random company isn't all that fulfilling, either.

Burnout is also an issue that isn't unique to poker. Believe me, I haven't had a job yet that I didn't experience utter and complete burnout, to the point of totally disdaining anything and everything about the job. That is, until I started playing poker. Burnout is still an issue I imagine for lots of players, but for this player at least, I have a much, much higher job satisfaction after thousands and thousands of hours playing poker than I've had at anything else I've done.

I think the author's only real good point is "you probably won't make it." I believe most players who would like to play professionally simply won't make it for any of a variety of reasons that have been rehashed to death (bankroll, ability, dedication, etc). But for someone who does have the ability, playing a game you love for much, much more money than one can make anywhere else and being your own boss to boot is like a dream come true.

I agree that prospective pros, especially college-age or younger ones, really should be aware of all the possible pitfalls and drawbacks to playing professionally. It's not easy, and one really should have lots of discipline, as well as a fallback plan or two (like a degree). But agenda-driven articles like this one that seem designed not to give an accurate view of the pro lifestyle but rather to discourage people from turning pro come hell or high water simply insult everyone involved. The readers aren't that stupid and the professionals aren't all desperate, fat, lonely guys who stare at a computer screen 16 hours a day.


[/ QUOTE ]
Owned?

Sticky please.

[ianlippert]

[ QUOTE ]
Owned?

Sticky please.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hate to be a spelling Nazi, but its PWNED!

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
But for someone who does have the ability, playing a game you love for much, much more money than one can make anywhere else and being your own boss to boot is like a dream come true.


[/ QUOTE ]
At the risk of a further invasion of DS's SciMathPhil forum into the magazine, I would say its like manna from heaven.

chez