[WichitaDM]

Well as a poker proffesional for the last 2-3 yrs i look at it like this. My life is 100x better now than it was working for the corporate juggernaut. Lets be honest most companies prey on the weak minded just like a good poker player. So in turn how is it more ethical to go work for a corporation who is a money grubbing, win at all costs entity, but not moral to work for yourself playing a game for money. Isnt this what our athletes do in this country??? They waste years of their life and tons of money training to hopefully one day become a pro athelete. The odds of someone doing that vs a succesful pro poker career is far worse. Ultimately for me, all i need to look at is my life before and after poker. Here we go. I am now a 24 yr old grad student, who has a bachelors in finance.

Before poker here were my facts of life
-Worked 40hrs a week at a entry leve corporate job
-Living paycheck to paycheck
-Occasionally having to borrow money from family and friends
-Was told when and where to be by my employer
-In massive debt
-No savings
-No ability to travel or really obtain anything beyond the basics in life

After Poker
-Have a net worth well over 100k
-Own a 200k house
-Have no debt
-Have more time i can spend with family and friends
-Am the richest person my age i know
-Travel all the time
-Am my own boss

Frankly the corporate world works just like poker. There is deception and dishonesty. There are good breaks and bad. In the end its all about money, just like poker. If we kid ourselves and say that "at least corps produce something" we really miss the pt that many corps produce HARMFUL things(ie most food companies, cigs, alcohol, drugs, WMD [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img], etc. The only thing that makes many corporate jobs more "ethical" is the social stigma that poker players have. While many players are chasing a quick buck, hookers, and coke, this is certainly not true for even most of us. We do PRODUCE when we have more time to enrich ours and other lives through helping people with our free time and helping people through giving money to the needy. We do PRODUCE when we pay our taxes, Ill bet the average poker proffesional who is honest and pays taxes pays more in that the average corporate desk jockey. Anyways in conclusion i dont see anything morally wrong with poker, just like i dont see anything wrong with the corps, our society is built on opportunism, which is at the heart of what poker ultimately is.