The Truth About Playing Poker For a Living

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Poker in itself is neither noble nor ignoble. As Ayn Rand said it's how you play the game. If I play honestly, treat my fellow players well, make a good living, and find intellectual stimulation in learning, playing, and sharing information, then I can consider myself to be a man of good character.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good stuff, but I suspect that one fair connotation of nobility (and character, for that matter) can only be assessed as pertaining to your fellow human beings.

In this context, there are very few occupations which infer nobility or character these days (which is not to say that one would be lacking in either for not having them delivered by his occupation).

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
Do I make charitable contributions? No.

Do I have a nice bunch of friends? No.

Am I good to my family? No.

Is there anything noble about playing poker? From my point of view, yes.



Do I read books? Yes

Enjoy Art? No

Go out in the world? Yes

Is there anything really noble about 99.9% of the world. Yes, I feel that you are confusing the world with people, but the world itself is far more important than the things people do.

I am not "pro," but if I was I certainly wouldn't care about society and making contributions to it. I mean, do we really even need most of the crap that is being produced an consumed on a daily basis? Hell, we don't even need cars or roads or airplanes or anything.

Fuk progress.

We're progressing towards what?

I'm going to die one day and I'm not gonna spend my life working forty hours a week. I don't care what kind of "no good [censored]" this makes me in the eyes of blue collar wage slaves.

I have nothing with the outcast and the unfit; let them die in their misery.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nobody said it was OK to just copy your E-Harmony dating profile here as your response.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

people who quote Ayn Rand should have to shampoo my crotch.


Yeah, heaven forbid we quote someone who thinks humans are free, rational beings rather than slaves to the collective.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
people who quote Ayn Rand should have to shampoo my crotch.


Yeah, heaven forbid we quote someone who thinks humans are free, rational beings rather than slaves to the collective.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen!...oh, wait. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[A_C_Slater]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Do I make charitable contributions? No.

Do I have a nice bunch of friends? No.

Am I good to my family? No.

Is there anything noble about playing poker? From my point of view, yes.



Do I read books? Yes

Enjoy Art? No

Go out in the world? Yes

Is there anything really noble about 99.9% of the world. Yes, I feel that you are confusing the world with people, but the world itself is far more important than the things people do.

I am not "pro," but if I was I certainly wouldn't care about society and making contributions to it. I mean, do we really even need most of the crap that is being produced an consumed on a daily basis? Hell, we don't even need cars or roads or airplanes or anything.

Fuk progress.

We're progressing towards what?

I'm going to die one day and I'm not gonna spend my life working forty hours a week. I don't care what kind of "no good [censored]" this makes me in the eyes of blue collar wage slaves.

I have nothing with the outcast and the unfit; let them die in their misery.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nobody said it was OK to just copy your E-Harmony dating profile here as your response.

[/ QUOTE ]

Those bitches never respond. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]


Quote:
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people who quote Ayn Rand should have to shampoo my crotch.


Yeah, heaven forbid we quote someone who thinks humans are free, rational beings rather than slaves to the collective.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Amen!...oh, wait.

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, jake, I keep finding myself enjoying your posts lately.

Maybe you should be concerned.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Quote:
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Do I make charitable contributions? No.

Do I have a nice bunch of friends? No.

Am I good to my family? No.

Is there anything noble about playing poker? From my point of view, yes.



Do I read books? Yes

Enjoy Art? No

Go out in the world? Yes

Is there anything really noble about 99.9% of the world. Yes, I feel that you are confusing the world with people, but the world itself is far more important than the things people do.

I am not "pro," but if I was I certainly wouldn't care about society and making contributions to it. I mean, do we really even need most of the crap that is being produced an consumed on a daily basis? Hell, we don't even need cars or roads or airplanes or anything.

Fuk progress.

We're progressing towards what?

I'm going to die one day and I'm not gonna spend my life working forty hours a week. I don't care what kind of "no good [censored]" this makes me in the eyes of blue collar wage slaves.

I have nothing with the outcast and the unfit; let them die in their misery.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Nobody said it was OK to just copy your E-Harmony dating profile here as your response.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Those bitches never respond.

[/ QUOTE ]

For a large fee, I can re-work your profile for you.

[brokedickrooster]

When I was a kid, my mother always wanted me to go to college and become a doctor or a lawyer or some other "honorable" profession so I could make a good living to support my family and I suppose "contribute to society". I always told her that you didn't need college to make a living. Everybody is good at something and it doesn't matter what it is, you just have to figure out what it is and you could make a living at it.

When I got out of high school, I had no interest in college, so I eventually got a job as a bouncer in a bar. Not exactly an "honorable" profession, but I was good at it and it paid my bills. I became a bartender, again, not quite "honorable" but I was good at it and paid the bills.

I played poker "socially" and was horrible. I had no idea what I was doing and consistently lost and lost big. My father had a weekly game that was looking for another player and he asked me if I wanted in, I told him no because I was terrible at cards. A couple years later, he asked me again, and wanting to spend more quality time with him I agreed to the weekly game. I lost. and lost. and lost some more. I couln't really afford to lose, but I wanted to keep spending the time with my Dad. So, I bought a poker book. I read it and studied it. I lost less. I bought another book and started to break even. I bought another book and started to win. That was 10 years ago.

I don't play full time now, but almost. I am a consistent winner over the last 10 years. I am 42 years old, married, 3 boys (17, 6, and 1). They have a house, food, clothes, toys, summer camp, sporting equipment, and vacations. Their mother stays home to take care of them and the house (a very important job all by itself). The kids don't go to daycare and aren't home alone all the time because the parents are always working.

Do I have trouble sleeping at night? No, I sleep fine. Do I have trouble justifying how I get this money? No. I work hard at it. I read and study and concentrate. I work hard to excel at my chosen profession.

I'm not a lawyer suing McDonalds for their coffee being too hot. I'm not a doctor watering down his prescriptions to increase my profit line. I don't work for an insurance company using fear to convince someone to buy a lottery ticket on their health. I'm not some corporate CEO playing fast and loose with the numbers to cook the books and screw my 10,000 employees out of their pension funsd and lay them all off when I have to go to prison for two years du to a fraud conviction.

I play cards. I do it honestly. I am good at it. I take care of my family. THAT is honorable.

[Blankstare]

This quote may or may not have something to do with your thread.

"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it."

-- E.W. Teale

I think why gambling in general is looked down upon by the public is because it is consider not responsible to put your welfare or the welfare of loved ones in a venture where there is risk of losing everything.

I have no opinion myself but the question I would ask it what about those who have done the work to eliminate as much risk as possible... the common response I get is it's not how much risk can be eliminated, it is due to the fact that the risk cannot be totally removed.

I find this line of thinking hypocritical on some levels because business often involves risking it all and in most cases risking more then you have (loans).

For those who judge careers based on providing some sort of benefit to society well... hard to argue that poker provides any benefit society other then the money spent by poker players and the people who are employed because of poker players.

Just throwing some thoughts out there.

[flyingmoose]

[ QUOTE ]

Is there really anything noble about 99.9% of the world? No.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's the thing. 99.9% of capitalist america DOES help society. Adam Smith's "magic hand" and all that. Hugh Hephner deserves to be rich, because people take at least as much enjoyment out of reading his magazine as he charges for it. The price of the good is weighed with the amount it costs.

How many losing players make a cost-benefit analysis before gambling? How many people that lose at the table leave feeling that they paid a good price for their entertainment?

This doesn't make us bad friends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, people. Gamblor wasn't making a personal assault on anyone. It was an interesting observation and nothing more.