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If you commit yourself to playing poker 40+ hours a week, to improve your skills, get to a point where you are making $40-60 an hour, and do that as a full time

by 13rules 14y ago

If you commit yourself to playing poker 40+ hours a week, to improve your skills, get to a point where you are making $40-60 an hour, and do that as a full time job for a few years you can make money. What happens on a downswing? If you run into a string of bad luck and bad beats? You can be a great player and go for months without making money. Worse, let's say that you do this for two years. At the end of that two years what skills have you acquired? The ability to play poker. Basically that's it. There might be some tangential skills like reading people, staying calm under pressure, etc. — but, basically you have learned to play cards well. If you spend that two years starting a business, trying out new product/service ideas, testing the markets, programming a website/service/app you are learning skills along the way that can help you down the road. Even if you completely fall on your face and every idea you have is a bust, you have some skills that will help you with your next business venture or (god forbid) getting a job. If you play poker for two years you have none of that.

lotharbot 14y ago
> "There might be some tangential skills like reading people, staying calm under pressure, etc." His poker argument actually started there, and I think this was the more important point. It's stuff like reading people, staying calm under pressure, evaluating probabilities, recognizing the important factors out of hundreds, and making good decisions that make poker valuable even if you don't make it into a career. The point about making it into a career was, IMO, a distraction from the more important point about the life skills acquired from learning the game.
peacemaker 14y ago
I both play poker and have had several business failures so I know what you're talking about. It's my personal opinion that both options are very difficult to rely upon for creating a decent, livable regular income. I'd also say both paths give you plenty of skills you can use in other fields. If I had to choose between the two I'd pick the business route for the reasons you've listed. But relying on one or the other to work out and pay your bills is "crazy"
- 13rules 14y ago
  Good point ... most poker players and entrepreneurs all have a little 'crazy' in them I think :)

by 13rules 14y ago

lotharbot 14y ago

> "There might be some tangential skills like reading people, staying calm under pressure, etc." His poker argument actually started there, and I think this was the more important point. It's stuff like reading people, staying calm under pressure, evaluating probabilities, recognizing the important factors out of hundreds, and making good decisions that make poker valuable even if you don't make it into a career. The point about making it into a career was, IMO, a distraction from the more important point about the life skills acquired from learning the game.

peacemaker 14y ago

I both play poker and have had several business failures so I know what you're talking about. It's my personal opinion that both options are very difficult to rely upon for creating a decent, livable regular income. I'd also say both paths give you plenty of skills you can use in other fields. If I had to choose between the two I'd pick the business route for the reasons you've listed. But relying on one or the other to work out and pay your bills is "crazy"

13rules 14y ago
Good point ... most poker players and entrepreneurs all have a little 'crazy' in them I think :)