[DavidC]

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geez..... makes no sense.....they take a rake in a casino too (plus a tip)....is he trying to say there is no such thing as a professional poker player? Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, D. Negraneau, etc....they "can't possibly win money playing poker b/c of a rake?" Everyone (without exception) who claims to be up at online poker, is lying? What a whackjob....

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I haven't read past this response, so forgive me if someone already stated this:

Imagine everyone who was currently playing on party poker, kept playing on party poker until they went broke, and no one else was allowed to enter the game, and no one was allowed to bring any money into the game from other incomes other than what was in their current neteller balance or whatever.

Now you can start to see that eventually the house must win ever last penny of money.

In this respect, poker is somewhat similar (but not exactly) a ponzi scheme.

Anyways, this doesn't matter on a practical level, because on a practical level, fish keep coming, busting, and bringing money in from outside of poker to do it with. Professionals do exist, even in the long term.

All that stuff about mathematicians and whatnot doesn't matter though, as it supposes that both players have unlimited money.

--Dave.

Oh yeah, and I guess eventually one guy would be left with a ton of money on party, whoever was best... but in the process a lot of the money on the server would disappear to rake.