Poker vs business

[Emmitt2222]

I don't have anything great to add, I just want to make this thread a flamer. It's like the cherry on top.

[Subfallen]

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This is absolutely true; being rich and being *wealthy* are two different things. Shaq is rich. The guy who signs his check is wealthy.

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Shaq is worth almost $250M tho.

[scrub]

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Cognitive dissonance pwns.

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Stop stealing my pet-theory-that-I-like-to-jam-into-every-conversation!

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Is it pathetic that I just spent 5 minutes trying to come up with a pun involving bdk3clash and Festinger?

I have a feeling it is...

scrub

[DpR]

IMO, anyone arguing that this post is incorrect jsut doesnt have the experience to judge. I have done several of the jobs you mention. I got ill and was unable to put in the hrs to continue in them. Now I am at an 'easy' corporate gig and play poker part time. In between I tried poker full time. It is comical to compare the two in either enjoyment or $$$.

While I ceratinly would not say I enjoyed investment banking, just having the daily stimuli of other people was better than the grind of poker. I have done consulting as well where flying aroudn the country all the time absolutley sucked, but the intellectual challenge of sovling diverse problems was far better than picking off a bluff.

To compare the money is just silly. The amount you make in good professions is hundreds if not thousands of times greater than what can be made in poker.

Amazing poker player = $500k
Good VC = $5M (fugghetaboutit if you include the carry)

[ianlippert]

I think its stupid to try and compare the top poker players with the top business men. The basic conclusion that you have proven is that the poker economy is smaller than the world economy. duh! All these examples ppl throw out are the top of work force. Not everyone can afford to attend expensive universities or take the risk of getting into business.

How much easier is it for an average person to make a decent amount of money at poker than millions as a corporate executive? Alot I'd say. Why is poker different than any other business opportunity, its no different than taking a risk and opening up your own local store. Like many have mentioned running your own business is risky and tons of work.

It all depends on your situation and whats best for you. Sure I'd love to be a multi-million dollar CEO of a corporation, but the odds of that happening are next to zero. If someone enjoys playing poker for 20-40 hours a week, whats wrong with that.

[andyfox]

Smart(ass).

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[ThaHero]

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I think its stupid to try and compare the top poker players with the top business men. The basic conclusion that you have proven is that the poker economy is smaller than the world economy. duh! All these examples ppl throw out are the top of work force. Not everyone can afford to attend expensive universities or take the risk of getting into business.

How much easier is it for an average person to make a decent amount of money at poker than millions as a corporate executive? Alot I'd say. Why is poker different than any other business opportunity, its no different than taking a risk and opening up your own local store. Like many have mentioned running your own business is risky and tons of work.

It all depends on your situation and whats best for you. Sure I'd love to be a multi-million dollar CEO of a corporation, but the odds of that happening are next to zero. If someone enjoys playing poker for 20-40 hours a week, whats wrong with that.

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I have to agree with you.

It's obvious that there isn't the same amount of money in the "world poker economy" than there is in business. Video games are a multi-billion dollar business. So is computers, food, movies, and any other business you can think of. Poker is probably at the low ranks. It could possibly hit the billions, but you must consider that this money is shared by more people as well. There is a select few corporations that hold most of the worlds wealth. This money distributes very nicely at the top, whereas adding in the 2-4 grinders for your overall poker economy wouldn't even compare. So let's scratch those people out. How much money at the highest limits is really being circulated in poker on an annual basis? Definately not as much as a soda company, or candy company.

Also, failing in business will put you in more debt than failing at poker. Sure, there are those that are addicted to gambling, and lose everything, but they are the extreme. Take into account those that just break even the rest of their life. Or some that lose enough over their lifetime to be significant but are working normal jobs and don't have any outstanding debt. I know quite a few people with failed businesses that have ended up in large sums of debt and are still paying the IRS 10 years later for messed up taxes, etc.

So business obviously expands higher and lower. It is a lot larger, has more jobs, makes more money, and costs more money. In no way does it accurately compare to poker. Arguing this topic is like arguing apples and oranges. They are two totally different things.

[ianlippert]

Another thing is thing to remember is that the top echelon of poker is not grinding it out for .5BB/hr at party's 30/60 tables. The top of poker is the WPT/WSOP where you have your Hansens and Negreanus. Sure they grind it out everyday to keep up on their game, but all top sports stars do this. Someone please tell me that Daniel Negreanu doesnt love what he is doing with his life. I think a lot of these whiny "If you are smart enough to play poker, you should be smart enough to do something else" are from players that are mainly in it for the money. Sure you can grind out the 10/20 tables for a living but you arent a poker 'player'. You arent playing the game to improve your skill and take down the competition, you've just found your comfort zone and decided to make money grinding it out.

[freepokerforum]

interesting fact..man i would love to be him!

[TimWillTell]

In 1997 I went to Las Vegas for the 'Legends'. At the cash-games I joint a six-handed 15/30 limit holdem-game. The players where a group of Texan-oil-excecutives, who'd just been kicked out of the tournement. They where very friendly and invited me to play.
I sat down, the game started and I didn't know what hit me.
The speed with with these guy's played was dazzling. As soon as I made my action it came back to me almost in a split second. It seemed as if I played against jugglers.
In both their hands, the players had chips, specialy stacked, enableing them to throw in chips without any delay, be it checked, bet, raised, reraised, or capped.
I tried to keep up with the pace, but no matter how fast I acted, (most of the time I took less then a split second) the six guy's together took even less time. This was not poker, this was a circus-act.
I mean, if I sayd "call" it came back to me reraised, before I had a change to put my money in. I'm a fast player, but they made me look like a turtle.
While performing their act, they talked about their jobs in manegment, their cars, Jaguars, Porsches, their yaghts, second en third houses.
Sure they where bragging (?), but I could not understand how they could play that fast maintaining a confersation like that.
They where extremely agressive and loose players, and remarkebly enough capable of laying down strong second-best hands.
It was then, in 1997, at the Horseshoe, that I came to the conclusion, that the best pokerplayers in the world, don't play poker for a living. They play poker, only occasionaly, and only for fun, to take them away from the stress of their daily multi-million-dollar jobs of highstakes poker at topmanegment level.