[eastbay]

This article annoyed me, so I wrote the author:

Your article makes it clear that you are disdainful of poker and poker players, but have great respect for athletes. This is perplexing to people who understand both pursuits as being sides of a coin. You seem to fail to grasp the parallels between athletic competition and competitive gamesmanship which is cerebral as opposed to athletic.

Poker is a competitive game that teaches its players a great deal about life, very much as sports can. Poker is often derided as a useless and therefore immoral activity. However, by this argument golf ought to be considered with the same disdain. Hitting a ball towards a hole in the ground so that you can do it again doesn't exactly directly serve any greater good. Sure, you're getting out for a walk which serves some marginal purpose for physical health. In a poker game you are exercising your mind, which also serves some marginal purpose for intellectual health. But, golf is deeper than that, you may say. I agree. But so is poker. The parallels go on: Golf can teach a man about self-control, about calm under pressure, about playing within himself, about the value of self-confidence. Guess what? This is exactly what poker teaches its players as well. But I'd put my chips in on the fact that you've never played the game, so you wouldn't know this.

You mention a young person ("going to MIT") who you imply is wasting his chances at a decent life by zealously pursuing poker.

For every MIT brainiac who has focused on a lucrative career as a poker player at the expense of his schooling, how many athletic kids have ignored their schooling in pursuit of athletic scholarships that they dream will take them to the big leagues and big money? Surely there is no comparison in sheer numbers. So many lives end up also-rans in the quest for athletic fame. Good kids who might have had solid careers if they had anything else on their minds, end up at the bottom of the barrel when the big leagues don't pan out.

Why is the former worthy of derision and the other an admirable pursuit, even if it will almost surely fail?

You include the requisite soundbites from addiction councelors who are "alarmed" and always have an anecdote up their sleeve to scare people.

Are there gambling addicts? Of course. Those with personality disorders bent on self-destruction express them in a variety of different ways. Maybe they repeatedly cheat on their spouses, maybe they drink, maybe they gamble (badly) until they are broke, maybe they chase more socially acceptable "entrepreneurial" ideas which fail time and time again, driving themselves into financial ruin. However, you, as many, seem to be confused about the distinction between a symptom and a disease.

Poker has redeeming qualities just as sport does. The public is starting to catch on. You might want to get on board.

Sincerely,
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