Scary table talk from a losing player

[MustangMarc]

First off, I understand that poker is a game of winners and losers, and for the winners to make the kind of money they do, there must be losers donating all that money.

I also understand that not everyone plays for same reason, not everyone wants to improve their play and all that.

However, those concepts were pretty abstract until my latest live session. I'm playing $3/$6 limit, the lowest they spread at my local card club. One of the guys in the game admits to being down $40,000 over the past two years. I know the high rollers go up and down that much in a night, but if he actually lost that much at $3/$6, OMG!

Lest anyone think he was a shark in fish clothing, he kept losing at the river, "Oh, you have me out-kicked." And he even called two on flop and turn with only a pair of sevens to a board with a Queen.

I don't see how I could keep playing if I was down over 6 thousand BBs. Is this how much it really costs to be a losing player?