Degree vs. Poker......RE:ZeeJustin (IMPO)

[Phishy McFish]

I just hope one of the "role models" on this board post something like I'm about to ......but just in case.

GO TO SCHOOL!! The "type of lifestyle" you're talking about........they made up a word for it.....it's called LAZY.

I'm not judging.....I had a 1.3 GPA in High School because I too was lazy. My entrance exam scores were good enough to get me into college so it didn't matter much. But it meant I had to learn the important "life lesson" later.......

The real world requires hard work. I don't doubt that someone (maybe even you) can make money playing poker. But if it was as easy as reading books and logging on to this website.......c'mon.....if you understand the odds for poker you should be able to figure out that there then would be too many good players and not enough bad ones to supply the money for all the "good" players to live off of.

School gives you options in life (and might expand your social options beyond the D&D crowd (not that there is anything wrong with that)).

Being well rounded is a good thing......

Please note...like the line from Mallrats says "I should know....we can smell our own." One more thing....before you look at the recent post regarding "How many people on here make $20/hr".....and buy into it (I think it's more BS than fact)........try paying close attention to the people you see the most in Casino's (from the Indian Res. ones to Vegas).....you'll see many that are "professionals"......but it doesn't mean they wouldn't be better off in all kinds of ways if they had gone to college and taken a salary job for income and left gambling for fun and a way to enjoy the disposable income the 9-5er brought home.

Now wash your face, make your bed and say your prayers.

[jasonHoldEm]

If the choice is strictly college or poker I think it should definately be college; however, I think there are some people who would benefit from taking a year or two off and playing poker (or working a regular job for that matter).

To be honest I was one of those people who should have taken some time off to get his head on straight but I didn't...instead I bounced around five different majors, wasted a lot of time, and racked up a lot of student loans in the process trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life (and I'm still not sure). I'm sure there are some others like me out there.

I know your post was to discourage the kids who see the dollar signs and think it's going to be the easiest money they ever made...you don't want them to ruin their life and frankly I admire you for that, but all too often kids won't listen and sometimes they need to learn the lesson the hard way. Even if they're successful it's certainly not an easy job, so they might not get "hurt" per se but still learn a good lesson and go back to school with an appreciation they didn't have before.

So anyways...

I'm definately not suggesting "everyone" should drop out of school and start playing poker, but if it's a question of wasting your time in college or at the poker table I think there's more to be learned playing cards. Take some time learn some life lessons and go back to school when you can have an appreciation for why you're in school.

J

[Lori]

Jason, thanks, I've just spent two hours failing to type the post that you just made.

You sum it up very well.

Lori

[Phishy McFish]

I agree with much of what you said as well. AND...I too wasted my early college years....it's hard to make the 8:30am lecture when you're still at the afterbar. Until you learn the "game" in college it isn't easy to win there either. Bartending and college didn't work well for a long time.

ALSO...you were dead on in regards to my point. I think a lot of people get delusions of grandeur either from:

A) Reading this forum (which has exaggerations and truths about success stories IMO) and

B) Getting caught up in thinking Moneymaker sat down at his PC one day and the next day he was a WSOP millionaire.

If it were that easy....well....it just isn’t that easy.

I will post something for the truly math gifted to figure out regarding how many people at each limit could theoretically be winning $20/hr? I couldn't figure that out with your abacus and mine.......but they seem to thrive on that type of problem.....

[thomastem]

I want to add a little to this subject. The main point is that there is many paths to long-term happiness. Notice I use the word happiness and not success. People want to measure success in money and conquests. Happiness is simply enjoying life.

Getting back to paths, there are a lot of them. There are a lot of them because the best path for one individual can be different than another. Aftre highschool you could go to college, go in the armed forces, go to a trade school, go into the workforce, or become an entrepeneur. If you don't do what YOU really want to do you will not excell at it.

If you are one of the rare individuals wanting to be a poker player then the effort it takes to make a living off will come easily. If you don't have the obsession then you will never be happy trying to force the round peg through a square hole. Same with college if you force them to go it will be a waste of time and money.

Soul search and have a logical plan to be who you want to be. Even then when you hit 30 for example you may need change what and who you are to be happy.

[ZeeJustin]

Well looks like we've found a new location for this topic. I replied on the old thread, and figure that post probably belongs here. My latest post

Most of the posts so far I have respected a lot, but you are clearly being very unfair with your post. [ QUOTE ]
GO TO SCHOOL!! The "type of lifestyle" you're talking about........they made up a word for it.....it's called LAZY.

I'm not judging.....

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, you are judging regardless of whether or not you think you are the same as me. I am not lazy at all. I just don't consider raising C's to A's productive, as my last post explains.

I am having trouble understanding you're 4th paragraph. [ QUOTE ]
I don't doubt that someone (maybe even you) can make money playing poker. But if it was as easy as reading books and logging on to this website.......c'mon.....if you understand the odds for poker you should be able to figure out that there then would be too many good players and not enough bad ones to supply the money for all the "good" players to live off of.


[/ QUOTE ]

It seems like you are saying, "if you are smart enough to make a living off of poker, you should realize that it's very unlikely that you can make a living off poker". It seems very paradoxical to me. Maybe you could rephrase it?

Between the lazy comment, the D&D reference, and the [ QUOTE ]
Now wash your face, make your bed and say your prayers.

[/ QUOTE ] comment, I find your post to be very assumtpous (is that a word?) and derogative. Please realize that I am not you.

[Sixth_Rule]

K this is just using my head and most is just my estimates.

but lets take $3 $6 the limit where an average american living wage is supposed to be attainable

average rake is $1.5 * 65 hands an hour is around $97.25
so off the bat the house is winning 16.2083 BB an hour

so there must be at least that much money in bad to meiocre play to allow you to break even. not to mention that there is probalby at least 1 player who is better then you at the table, and one player just as good.

Lets assume that the good players make 2 BB an hour (Thats what everyone here says they make) and you and the other guy just as good want to make 1BB an hour thats 20.2 BB an hour that have to be lost by the horrible players.

that averages out to 2.88 BB an hour that must be lost by the 7 bad players.

now granted 7 out of 10 people are stupid

but what you need to make a living off of poker is this
7 people out of every ten internet poker players (who own a computer, have the internet, a good enough credit rating to own a credit card and have a good enough job so that they can blow $17 every hour they play poker.) must be too stupid to buy a book on poker or search the web to find this web site. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

so whether or not you can make a living off of poker depends on how smart you are, (not how smart you THINK you are) how dedicated you are and how stupid other people are.

as for me well i think i am smarter then 9 out every 10 people but only about 6 out every 10 poker players

[Simon Diamond]

assumtpous (is that a word?)

It isn't in my dictionary, though I do like the word. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Simon

[Lori]

You might turn out to be the exception, but I have not seen a magic player of PT entry, or higher, standard who has wanted to beat poker and failed.

Lori

[n1stunnor]

average rake is $1.5 * 65 hands an hour is around $97.25 so off the bat the house is winning 16.2083 BB an hour

Which is why if you want to play for a living,you should really consider propping.