Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyalCrap
Sorry, I wasn't trying to annoy anyone with the tone of my post. I'm not an insider. Most of the knowledge I have about the finances of professional poker players comes from what I read here on the forums.
Even you seem to admit that only the "elite, truly top professional" players have a steady stream of income and good credit. I love the game and find it sad what seems to be happenning to all but the best-of-the-best of the players.
It seems that many pros who are failing now had a better shot of being profitable through business (e.g., FTP) ownership than in actually playing the game.
RC
Right, you made fine points, and I actually didn't mean to say that *you* were annoying me per se...I think it's just that I have just known about this dynamic of poker heroes actually being degens for a long time now and that there are a lot of smoke and mirrors in poker, and I guess I am just jaded by that awareness.
As for the second paragraph, that is the central irony of poker, and it's been discussed by people more articulate than me. Some of the same traits that make for great poker players lead to total destruction away from the table. Finding a balance that involves choreographing your best and worst instincts on an ongoing basis is a challenging thing, and that is why so many pros fail at it.
Of course it's sad and occasionally devastating, but it's just one of the realities of the poker life from my perspective.