Playing Poker for a Living - Keep your day job
Playing poker for a living looks exciting and glamorous, and seems like a dream job. With the fame and fortune that goes along with winning televised poker tournaments, more and more players World Poker Tour dream about becoming a professional player. Here’s a word to the wise: Keep your day job. Everything is not always as it appears.
Those who make a career out of playing poker do so because it seems like a better job than most. Far and away the best thing about being a poker player is that it provides you freedom to be your own boss and work your own hours. To be successful, you have to have real talent, a driving desire World Series of Poker to constantly improve, and a great passion to play (which in my mind should be the most important factor in your decision). And I don’t mean like to play poker, I mean love to play poker. If you don’t love to play, you won’t be happy, and it won’t matter how successful you are.
The legendary Johnny Moss (three-time world champion and inaugural inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame) once said this about playing poker: “It’s a hard way to make an easy living.” That is so true. I used to love to talk to Moss about when he played on the road in the old days. He told me, “Beating the games was the easiest thing to do. The toughest part was getting out of town with the money. You had to dodge the robbers, the cheats, and the cops.” Luckily, poker has passed that era.
Fortunately, those who play tournaments today don’t have to go on the road to play, other than to the finest casino properties in the world. And, yes, most big events pay a million dollars or more to the winner. It is a great life for those who win. The problem is that most don’t. Stress and frustration come into play Texas Holdem for the vast majority. In poker, everyone has to deal with adversity, especially on the tournament trail. Winning tournaments is very difficult to do. Being able to handle defeat regularly takes a special kind of person, and support from loved ones. You have to be mentally tough to handle it.
Perhaps the most underrated skill in playing poker for a living is money management. This could well be more important than being an outstanding player. A C+ player who is an A+ money manager will have more money at the end of the year than a much better player who is a poor money manager. You might be an A+ player, but if you’re a D or F money manager, you will never have money. And if you have any bad habits, such as playing in the pit, betting horses, betting sports, doing drugs, drinking, or whatever, you have very little chance to succeed. And one bad habit is all it takes.
I can attest to the fact that one bad habit is all it takes. I’ve had only one in my life (betting on sports), but it kept me under financial stress for 20 years. On the weekends, when the poker games were the best in Las Vegas, I preferred watching football to playing poker. And if I was playing, I was watching the TV screens rather than focusing on my game. Thus, I paid a double penalty: I lost on sports and missed out on valuable earning potential in poker.
Sadly, most of the top poker players, certainly the high-stakes players, are gamblers by nature. Most of them love action. They like to bet on sports, the horses, and golf, and some like to play in the pit. This results in mental stress from being broke, borrowing money, and getting staked when they do play (meaning they can win only half of what they should be making). And they can borrow money only if they’re honorable, and get staked only if they’re recognized by their peers as being very good players.
The youngest inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame, and perhaps the most successful player of all time, is Chip Reese. He and I were talking one day about Stu Ungar. He agreed with me about Stuey’s unparalleled talent Texas Holdem Poker and abilities as a player. But, Chip then said the magic words to me: “Stuey’s problem was that he never understood the object of the game.” The object of the game is to increase your wealth, improve your lifestyle, and provide for your family.
I don’t want to discourage anyone who has terrific talent and the passion to become a professional poker player. Go for it if you so desire. I wish you all the best, but never fail to recognize how tough it really is.
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Those who make a career out of playing poker do so because it seems like a better job than most. Far and away the best thing about being a poker player is that it provides you freedom to be your own boss and work your own hours. To be successful, you have to have real talent, a driving desire World Series of Poker to constantly improve, and a great passion to play (which in my mind should be the most important factor in your decision). And I don’t mean like to play poker, I mean love to play poker. If you don’t love to play, you won’t be happy, and it won’t matter how successful you are.
The legendary Johnny Moss (three-time world champion and inaugural inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame) once said this about playing poker: “It’s a hard way to make an easy living.” That is so true. I used to love to talk to Moss about when he played on the road in the old days. He told me, “Beating the games was the easiest thing to do. The toughest part was getting out of town with the money. You had to dodge the robbers, the cheats, and the cops.” Luckily, poker has passed that era.
Fortunately, those who play tournaments today don’t have to go on the road to play, other than to the finest casino properties in the world. And, yes, most big events pay a million dollars or more to the winner. It is a great life for those who win. The problem is that most don’t. Stress and frustration come into play Texas Holdem for the vast majority. In poker, everyone has to deal with adversity, especially on the tournament trail. Winning tournaments is very difficult to do. Being able to handle defeat regularly takes a special kind of person, and support from loved ones. You have to be mentally tough to handle it.
Perhaps the most underrated skill in playing poker for a living is money management. This could well be more important than being an outstanding player. A C+ player who is an A+ money manager will have more money at the end of the year than a much better player who is a poor money manager. You might be an A+ player, but if you’re a D or F money manager, you will never have money. And if you have any bad habits, such as playing in the pit, betting horses, betting sports, doing drugs, drinking, or whatever, you have very little chance to succeed. And one bad habit is all it takes.
I can attest to the fact that one bad habit is all it takes. I’ve had only one in my life (betting on sports), but it kept me under financial stress for 20 years. On the weekends, when the poker games were the best in Las Vegas, I preferred watching football to playing poker. And if I was playing, I was watching the TV screens rather than focusing on my game. Thus, I paid a double penalty: I lost on sports and missed out on valuable earning potential in poker.
Sadly, most of the top poker players, certainly the high-stakes players, are gamblers by nature. Most of them love action. They like to bet on sports, the horses, and golf, and some like to play in the pit. This results in mental stress from being broke, borrowing money, and getting staked when they do play (meaning they can win only half of what they should be making). And they can borrow money only if they’re honorable, and get staked only if they’re recognized by their peers as being very good players.
The youngest inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame, and perhaps the most successful player of all time, is Chip Reese. He and I were talking one day about Stu Ungar. He agreed with me about Stuey’s unparalleled talent Texas Holdem Poker and abilities as a player. But, Chip then said the magic words to me: “Stuey’s problem was that he never understood the object of the game.” The object of the game is to increase your wealth, improve your lifestyle, and provide for your family.
I don’t want to discourage anyone who has terrific talent and the passion to become a professional poker player. Go for it if you so desire. I wish you all the best, but never fail to recognize how tough it really is.
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posted by admin at 4:31 AM
1 Comments:
Video slots on the web has a fan club of there own, people just can’t get enough. Even when news slots are launched by the different software developers they get a standing ovation and are attacked with an intensity of a wolf mother protecting her cubs. It is like the New Years sale in Bond street where the entire population of crazy housewife’s fight over every garment and will draw blood if need be.
Lucky us the since the slots are online there is no such thing as a queue and you can play when you want. You don’t even have to get dressed.
Not that this has any relevance to who plays slots and who don’t. There is clearly according to the latest polls more women playing slots then men. Men seem to drift towards the poker and table games. But here is something us men have to watch out for, they are coming. And they are also coming in swarms.
And since we men can not do more then one thing at a time (at least that is what the women say) we are in trouble. Take Blackjack, they should be better at handling two and three hands then us. Texas Hold’em is up for grabs because of the pace and many factors in the game. So when you are playing against a women you might want to hold on to your chips (and maybe your hart as well) she could end up owning both of them. Women know we are simple beings, and do have this factor over us when playing face to face. All men are suckers to a nice smile, so in all fairness any poker game that has both men and women in it should be played online.
At least you will not be distracted by that nice perfume drifting in from the women next to you. It is so faint but a man has certain instincts and will try to get a good sniff. So leaning in (ever so careful) I still get booted from a game for trying to look at other peoples cards. And I had a straight lined up. Even the big smile I got from the women next to me did not really soften the blow of getting booted. At least the dealer understood me and just told me to take a break for a while. That is my 2 cents worth on the topic of women and gambling.
Signing off for now and heading towards the slots, someone told me there is a good chance of meeting women there. At least that is what they tell me on http://www.streetslots.com
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