My story

[BottlesOf]

My parents were against it b/c a) They were worried I was becoming addicted to gmabling and b) They said they'd rather I be a janitor as a profession, b/c poker offers no positive societal contribution. An interesting perspective....

[ace_in_the_hole]

I have always been lucky enough to have parents whoa re intelligent and undersatnd that there is a lot of money to be made in online poker right now. But at the very beggening my mom was always tellingme to cashout then I showed them my pokertracker stats and excel spreadsheets I made so they knew I was treating it like a business and not gambling.

[Ulysses]

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I think that assuming I didn't go bust early on, there is no way I wouldn't be at 15/30 by now. Notice I didn't really allow myself to go bust though, I went back to $.5/1 to regroup. I just think if i hadn't gotten lucky it would have taken a lot longer.

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That sounds like a pretty realistic assessment to me.

As I said earlier, I believe BK's success is due to a combination of luck, skill, and work ethic. BK's story is very similar to bruiser's in the NL forum.

BK's willingness to drop down is an important factor in his ability to take these shots and take advantage of lucky runs at higher limits.

Most guys who take shots like BK bust out because when they start to run bad, they keep playing high while way underbankrolled.

[Ulysses]

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BK has experienced success because of his work ethic. He's gotten lucky a few times when moving up, but it's not like he's been lucky his entire career. He puts in more hands and hours and time thinking about the game than anyone else I know.

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Those who find this story interesting should go read about bruiser in the NL forum. Very similar story. Bruiser pretty much sucked and got really lucky while taking way underbankrolled shots, but while getting lucky he was also working very hard on his game and has turned into a very solid NL player.

[Emperor]

Addiction, I bet there isn't one long term winning player who is addicted. Its boring, its work, and it sucks slightly less than working a job with a bunch of addicts.

66% of Americans abuse drugs or alcohol. (google it) That is 2 of 3 people. It is rampant. I have worked white collar jobs where I KNOW 40% of the white collar employees in my building fell into the addict category. It is ridiculous.

I would guess 7 out of 10 jobs offer no positive societal contribution.

99 out of 100 salesmen are lieing cheating crooks. I'm talking stockbrokers, Investment advisors, Loan officers, and zillions of other sales jobs where your main goal is to screw the customer for as much as you can get them for and let customer service smooth it over. I was one.

Everytime I hear this argument, I ask about Tiger Woods. What does he provide society? Entertainment? Semi-Pro golfers gamble every tournament, and for them its the only way to get to where Tiger is so they can do what Tiger does for Society.

Yes Janitors clean toilets... Great for society.

Any parent that would wish their child to have a respectable job surrounded by addicts has a codependence on society and is no better than a crack addict.

IMO

[Baulucky]

Nice run. Very inspiring.

[Baulucky]

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Most guys who take shots like BK bust out because when they start to run bad, they keep playing high while way underbankrolled.

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[Baulucky]

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Any parent that would wish their child to have a respectable job surrounded by addicts has a codependence on society and is no better than a crack addict.

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[dealer_toe]

Actually Tiger Woods and lots of big name athletes do a lot for society. They're some of the biggest philanthropists in the country. Maybe not directly from playing sports, but some of the money make is used to help society.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Addiction, I bet there isn't one long term winning player who is addicted. Its boring, its work, and it sucks slightly less than working a job with a bunch of addicts.

66% of Americans abuse drugs or alcohol. (google it) That is 2 of 3 people. It is rampant. I have worked white collar jobs where I KNOW 40% of the white collar employees in my building fell into the addict category. It is ridiculous.

I would guess 7 out of 10 jobs offer no positive societal contribution.

99 out of 100 salesmen are lieing cheating crooks. I'm talking stockbrokers, Investment advisors, Loan officers, and zillions of other sales jobs where your main goal is to screw the customer for as much as you can get them for and let customer service smooth it over. I was one.

Everytime I hear this argument, I ask about Tiger Woods. What does he provide society? Entertainment? Semi-Pro golfers gamble every tournament, and for them its the only way to get to where Tiger is so they can do what Tiger does for Society.

Yes Janitors clean toilets... Great for society.

Any parent that would wish their child to have a respectable job surrounded by addicts has a codependence on society and is no better than a crack addict.

IMO

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. Most people work regular jobs, so they tend to overstate what a "contribution" really is, and how normal and healthy standard adult behavior is. If you really looked at how maladjusted society in general is by counting up the eating and drinking and drug disorders, the neurotic compulsions and compensations, the crime, moral hollowness, sex problems, religious buffoonery, and general misery common even among the most polished, glossily happy, camera-worth "success" stories, the unvarnished look at reality you'd put together would make the standard 40 or 50 or more years of 9 to 5 enslavement seem a lot worse than most any of us would ever feel comfortable admitting it is.

It's sad and funny working in offices, like I mostly have, where everyone is trying to pretend he's doing great and almost everyone seems addicted to something harmful or in some way very obviously screwed up. It's like, I won't admit that my wife is a miserable fat harridan and my kids barely even know me, and I don't know how I would get through the week without being toasted, if you won't admit you pretend to be devotedly religious and moral, but really you screw over everyone you possibly have a chance to and have too many neuroses to count, and if Fred doesn't admit he cheats on his wife because it's the only joy he has in his whole imserable life and Tom pretends he doesn't know everyone think's he's a snotty weasel and Pamela doesn't admit she's bulemic and has a crippling lack of self-confidence so she only feels comfortable with men who abuse her and John would never acknowledge that he is a pathological liar and we'll never know that it's Shirley who keeps compulsively stealing things around the place, etc. The world sometimes seems like an ambulatory hospital ward, yet people have the nerve to say that living life in any way off the beaten track provides nothing but unparalleled misery and/or moral peril. When people say that there's only one way to live and you really think about how they're living and how happy they really are, a lot of their professed opinions crumble into meaninglessness and sound like little more than cover stories.