[AlanBostick]

Not only do most people not put the effort into becoming money-winning players, they simply don't want to do so.

Likewise, I enjoy playing Scrabble, but I have absolutely no interest in putting the effort needed to become a successful tournament Scrabble player. Doing so would destroy what it is that I enjoy about the game.

Bridge writer Victor Mollo wrote a wonderful book called You Need Never Lose at Bridge. The introduction was all about how how his various characters with whom he populated his chapters on play were each and every one of them winners ... because whether or not they won any particular rubber, they each and every one of them got what they were really playing to get. Many of the so-called fish from whom we money-winners take the money in poker are also winners, because they are getting satisfaction out of the game that maybe some of us money-winners don't get any more, and that this satisfaction, not the money, is why they play.

All this self-congratulation about how hard it is to become a winning poker player is nonsense. How many of you have tried to get good at, say, chess? Jeebus, compared to the work you have to do to become a decent chess player, getting good at poker is child's play.

I consider myself a mediocre poker player, not a good one. I work on my game to improve, and I do improve, but in the grand scheme of things I'm a spear-carrier compared to the stars like Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson.

I've been a winning poker player for almost a decade now. That part was easy.