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But compared with other activites, it doesn't compare. It doesn't contribute much to humanity, human knowledge, the general good, etc. It is not totally trivial but not really that deep either. It's a freakin' card game, not quantum mechanics.


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I disagree wholeheartedly. Poker has opened my eyes to a few things just about life in general. One of the main ones being that to really succeed at something you have to work hard and LEARN abuot what it is that makes other people who do it successful. 5 months ago I only had $50 to my name and found this website. I was the typical player that thought they were good or whatever but really did not know much at all. I then spent countless hours READING everything I could on this website and soaking up AS MUCH KNOWLEDGE as I could. I practiced my game, refined my skills, talked with other successful players and found out what it was that I was doing wrong to correct my play. This is the whole process of LEARNING... and it taught me that to really prosper in something you have to put in the time and be willing to learn, be humble enough to accept criticism from others, and to put to use the stuff you have learned. I feel this carries over with MOSTLY every thing else in life that people want to get good at. The time I spent researching, reading, practicing, all was a learning process and I feel like I am 30x more knowledgable about this than I was 5 months ago, and the growth in my bankroll has proven this to be true. Now how does this help in other aspects of life? Well think about it, anything that people become great at what do they do? They follow a similar process. If you want to be great at investing you have to fill your brain with as much knowledge as possible. Learn as much as you can about it and even talk to other people whom are successful at it just like in poker. You then have to learn on your own through trial and error, read books, etc. This is the same process by which people learn.

I can tell you first hand this is not the learning process that has gotten me through school on great academics.. and the average student in college is not "learning" either, they are just doing what they can to get by. Granted, some kids actually are smart enough to understand what it means to learn... alot of people getting those college degrees can get one and not be able to tell you diddly squat about what they learned in their courses. Ive always gotten great marks in school and never really truly felt like I learned a DAMNED thing. Im here on academic scholarship and barely study, all I do is study the night before exams and get the A, this is not true learning... this is just memorization of facts.

I feel like poker for me was a true learning process... and I feel like I could really teach alot because I understand the principles of the game and it is knowledge I have obtained. This same learning process like I said can be applied to plenty of stuff.. learning how to invest, play basketball, gain muscle mass through weight lifting, program computers, etc. I guess what i'm saying is that poker has taught me how to teach myself... i now am beginning to embark on a learning process relating to investing where I will put forth the same time investment in gaining knowledge that I did with poker, read books, read forums online, talk with other successful people in it, and make smart decisions along the way. I feel like ive learned now what kind of effort it really takes to learn something and have success at it. This was not something I feel is taught in college since they deem success based on a score on a test and there are many ways to achieve that high mark without actually learning it for yourself and sustaining the knowledge. I took english literature last semester.... got an A.. i don't remember a damned thing about the class, but if you asked me to explain certain principles in poker such as expected value, standard deviation, variance, bankroll management, I could probably write essays on the topics.