4 ms·

The prob with..every..mainstream story on (e)poker is the unflinching marketing élan of the writers, and necessity to give a (stil truly) sub-terranean slice of

The prob with..every..mainstream story on (e)poker is the unflinching marketing élan of the writers, and necessity to give a (stil truly) sub-terranean slice of life immediate resonance to the audience. Not too encroach upon anyone's character or existence, let alone the actual people in the article... Poker is an inexorable gambit; both in lifestyle (subjectively define by 'sanity', and career (objectively define buy debt and financial bottoming out. Poker is a fairly pure, distilled hologram of the caprice/randomness, and skill/will that resides over living and life itself, and a stripped bare interplay of emotional and psychological alchemy that everyone has, and lives with. The greatest poker success carries little to not weight, in terms of posterity. IMO, greatest difference between poker and "other jobs". Even aject fail in other occupational pursuits almost always carries over some tangible good productive benefit for you and your career. Whether it's contacts, savings, reputation, experience itself. Contra poker; even after enormous success, the above benefits are a double edged sword at best, where your experience and connections (ability to get back in) are as likely to be the underpinnings of cyclical, fixed failure. At best, it's a totoal unknown; emoyrically, it's pretty obvious. And either way, poker is devoid of true metrics...in the same way -- IMHO -- other businesses get/should be hinged upon. Ironic, since poker is all about a scoreboard and 'statistics'. But the living and breathing reality of metrics is a seperate (undomesticated) species from standard business metrics. One more thing, hopefully more concrete (I'm reticent to be too specific since I know/knew a lot of the actual ppl involved), The luck of poker, applied to people otherwise talented and able, is most profound in the beginnings of their poker experience, most often at adolescent ages where an underlying emotional caprice and aversion (or tolerance..) to risk is extremely strong. Majority of the "long"term winners, had remarkably pain-free beginnings, when their emotional and psychological poker fortress got created. Still, many dropped out of school after losing/borrowings appreciable sums, to persevere. Pointedly, of the latter...most were in financial umbrella's of school and family, and insulated from the psycholigical tumult n emotional traumas that define any poker career. This got too long n fumbling, but personal experience/a vacuum of time on the treadmill/and a general interest necessitated.

knowtheory 16y ago
Let's sum this up more clearly and succinctly. People who win at high stakes poker count in wins/losses, not in value of money earned. Poker has become a lifestyle game. It's about the prestige, not the money.
- anagnorisis 16y ago
  Yes. But no, It's always about the money; the lifestyle is the way poker players show it off to the world, that is otherwise disconnected from their success...or occupation. It's still not even about the money then. But ceaseless acquisition. Of what? The question and answer is virtually irrelevant, despite it being obviously money/chips, and the money/chips being important. The "lifestyle game" perception is a facade. It's easy to digest, and it's what most articles that get written support as the reality. Money is the prestige. And if there is a top, it's apocryphal.
Wolf_Larsen 16y ago
The most important point that you made is that poker brings nothing to the table for a player except money. You learn little that can be monetized away from the table, and spend your time building a bankroll instead of building a business that has value other than the money it brings in. Poker doesn't scale. The goal is to increase your hourly rate. Spend your time coding.
- endlessvoid94 16y ago
  No. way. Playing poker with PEOPLE, at least (not online) has enormous benefits. Learning how to read people in-depth is incredibly valuable. Also learning how to stand your ground and unflinchingly bluff (or deliberatly avoid telegraphing your hand) is also a great skill to have. There's so much more to poker than the money. Unless you're talking only about online poker.
  - Wolf_Larsen 16y ago
    > Learning how to read people in-depth is incredibly valuable. You think that playing poker teaches you how to read people past the poker table? In what context? This sounds very delusional to me. In business, if you are doing anything with a lot of money at stake (that is not illicit), then the cards are always face up if you do enough work. > Also learning how to stand your ground and unflinchingly bluff (or deliberatly avoid telegraphing your hand) is also a great skill to have. You think this is a "great" skill? I think its valuable, but not as valuable as learning code or understanding how the economy works. Also, you didn't even mention discipline or emotional control. Those are real values that poker will teach you. Bankroll management, dealing with long term variance, and getting bad beats make you either toughen up or break. How old are you? How long have you been playing poker? I don't mean it derogatorily. I've played A LOT of poker and I've done a lot of other things. Poker has given me less skills than organizing soccer games.

knowtheory 16y ago

Let's sum this up more clearly and succinctly. People who win at high stakes poker count in wins/losses, not in value of money earned. Poker has become a lifestyle game. It's about the prestige, not the money.

anagnorisis 16y ago
Yes. But no, It's always about the money; the lifestyle is the way poker players show it off to the world, that is otherwise disconnected from their success...or occupation. It's still not even about the money then. But ceaseless acquisition. Of what? The question and answer is virtually irrelevant, despite it being obviously money/chips, and the money/chips being important. The "lifestyle game" perception is a facade. It's easy to digest, and it's what most articles that get written support as the reality. Money is the prestige. And if there is a top, it's apocryphal.

Wolf_Larsen 16y ago

The most important point that you made is that poker brings nothing to the table for a player except money. You learn little that can be monetized away from the table, and spend your time building a bankroll instead of building a business that has value other than the money it brings in. Poker doesn't scale. The goal is to increase your hourly rate. Spend your time coding.

endlessvoid94 16y ago
No. way. Playing poker with PEOPLE, at least (not online) has enormous benefits. Learning how to read people in-depth is incredibly valuable. Also learning how to stand your ground and unflinchingly bluff (or deliberatly avoid telegraphing your hand) is also a great skill to have. There's so much more to poker than the money. Unless you're talking only about online poker.
- Wolf_Larsen 16y ago
  > Learning how to read people in-depth is incredibly valuable. You think that playing poker teaches you how to read people past the poker table? In what context? This sounds very delusional to me. In business, if you are doing anything with a lot of money at stake (that is not illicit), then the cards are always face up if you do enough work. > Also learning how to stand your ground and unflinchingly bluff (or deliberatly avoid telegraphing your hand) is also a great skill to have. You think this is a "great" skill? I think its valuable, but not as valuable as learning code or understanding how the economy works. Also, you didn't even mention discipline or emotional control. Those are real values that poker will teach you. Bankroll management, dealing with long term variance, and getting bad beats make you either toughen up or break. How old are you? How long have you been playing poker? I don't mean it derogatorily. I've played A LOT of poker and I've done a lot of other things. Poker has given me less skills than organizing soccer games.