Yeah, if the income is low and/or you cheat on taxes, health insurance doesn't cost much. The honest/successful, not so much.

Your observation about SS is interesting., Those with lower incomes/lower contributions benefit most, but I'd guess that there are a lot of "professional poker players" on SS disability.

I think that'll help my game. Rather than feeling sorry for losers at the poker table and being less aggressive, I should look at them as lazy scammers defrauding my tax dollars. I shall laugh as I steal their mortgages. I guess you actually set me up into becoming a winner. Thank you, sir.

You are welcome, I do what I can

Yeah subsidized health insurance for low wage is like $50 a month, a complete non issue really.

That gets brought up often, but not issue of Social Security. Those with low wages benefit most as a % of the income and ability to preserve their way of living. But if you don’t put anything into it you won’t get anything back or your life annuity at retirement will be small

Your premise is true, but I bet if you ask the 100k/yr poker player and 100k/yr other professions for a job satisfaction rating the poker players would give way higher scores.

And I like how it's a total meritocracy (at least in the lower variance games like nlhe cash) while in previous jobs I've done it's those who suck up to the managers best who get promoted and paid more instead of who are the best and hardest workers.

This is one of the dumbest threads I have ever seen. Making 300K is huge at any job. Making 100k from poker is not that crazy. I know Parx regs making 90-110k playing 2/5 and they are not amazing (IMO)

One of the best skills a poker pro can have is game selection. Playing in an extremely juicy games has a far bigger effect on your bottom line than your skill. Relative skill matters more than absolute skill.

The same in real life.

Job selection can matter much, much more than than job skill. There are near infinite examples of two people with the same skills making drastically different money due to one of them willing to job hop and find greener pastures.

I understand that money should not be the driving force in where or how one earns their money, but do not be afraid to move around to find better situations.

i find it an odd pattern of behavior of the people (its not just op) that constantly come on a poker forum and just seem to hate poker / poker players and want to convince others to do the same.

is difficult to believe someone making 300+k a year and is happy with their life logs onto internet forums to tell people that their life choices / dreams are stupid but ok.

Those high deductible plans are great until you actually have to use them. Not so much a comment on the high deductible plans as much as the ****ed up health care system in the US where the salary of an insurance CEO is more important than keeping people healthy and productive.

This thread has literally been designed for me. I have made more than $300k at a non-poker job and $100k in a year playing poker. Neither is meant as a brag because I will honestly admit both had to do with a lot of luck and a wullingness to table/job select to an extreme degree. I know that for a fact.

I can honestly argue both sides on which was harder. Much of it depends upon a person's skill set and their willingness to take risks (whether through job hopping or playing poker).

I just wanted to point out that there is another option.

Part time dealing poker and part-time playing poker.

This isn't for everyone. I am not arguing that. Far from it. I am just saying that there is an option to stick around poker and still make decent money while playing for more.

If you are willing to live in Vegas/Texas/Florida or be a traveling dealer, it is pretty easy to make a $100k while being semi selective about the hours you work.

NOTE: I have never made $100k dealing, however I know dozens if not hundreds who have. They will work extremely hard (12+ hour days, many days a week) when they do work, but they will also have many months off a year at their discretion. Flexibility is abundant.

I prefer a hybrid route. I consider myself semi retired. I need to make a small amount per year as disposable income. I choose to do that through dealing and playing. I make more through playing than dealing, but the variance is much lower dealing than playing.

I think many people who are trying to make a living playing poker would probably do better dealing. Even if you are better than that, the variance is far less and the flexibility to also play is huge.

Just an alternative.

Most player/dealers I've known have had a hard time doing both. When they were winning a lot at poker, they didn't want to deal. And when they were losing at poker, they didn't want to play.

Your case of being semi-retired and not worrying too much about the hot and cold streaks of poker make you mentally happy in a lukewarm state of mind that doesn't stress you out. But the young guns are all about the hot or cold streaks controlling their lives.

Lol that’s a Captain obvious statement

But another obvious statement is that there’s quite a bit of difference between owing 10K or having it bankrupt you

However none of this is point really, a young person should be taking the high deductible plan and a $50 monthly charge isn’t “omgosh what about the health insurance!”

I’ve done both recently and if you have a work from home arrangement you can basically work whenever you want and more or less have more flexibility than poker

Post Covid and online Black Friday tilted things in favor of job

Poker you always have to work for the money. With job you have vacation and there are certain weeks where no one is doing and you can just binge watch all ten seasons of Curse of Oak Island

depends so much where you live
many places 100k+ (usd) would be extremely tough (if not unattainable) let alone 200 or 300

Not a very well constructed argument. Winning 100k a year poker is dependent on the capital available to the player.

For players with lets say 1m+ liquid poker assets they are willing to lose, averaging 100k a year is not a particularly high bar, I'd expect far more than .1% could do so.

I agree poker is an awful career path in general, especially now, but not how you explained it.

Uh, if working hard was easy it would be called working easy.

Don't focus on your beliefs and feelings and speculations, focus on the facts. It'll take you further in life.

It's a pretty easy thought experiment. Do more than 3-9% of poker players (since the 300k income level sources vary) make more than 100k.

Let's hear a few poker player admit to winning a hundred+ and not committing felony tax evasion. Anyone?

No one is getting $50 health insurance if they're a successful poker player. That is unless they are committing a felony and cheating on taxes. In which case, they're just a cheat in life and probably also at the table.

Paying taxes is like whatever, yelling about that or not really isn’t the point of the post

Even if you made/declared around 40K a subsidized high deductible insurance plan is probably under $100 a month. So it’s not really worthy of the focus it gets as an issue

I don't surround myself with poker players. I haven't been a pro since 2011.

But having been a pro in 2011, most of the poker players I know have been pro for well over 10 years. Watching the industry you love stagnate and diminish doesn't lend to life satisfaction.

Having your earning potential cap then dwindle doesn't lend to life satisfaction either.

I think the biggest issue is poker players (generally) aren't good with their money.

The years I made the most money playing poker (2016/2017), I saved a **** ton...and bought real estate & a business.

Spent most of 2020-2022 on the business to the point it now outstrips my poker earnings.

But I also got the businesses to the point where I have like 10 hours of work a week, so I can go back to poker.

Variance doesn't matter to me at this point. I have an income coming in, so I can just focus on making good decisions.

Figuring out that balance-whether you're a poker player or not- is wayyyyy move valuable than what you make at your "real job", whether at 300K in the real world or 100K in poker.

Being at too 1% at poker is a lot easier than being at top 1% in a normal job .

There’s a myth that poker players are smart.. that’s true for the top elite of elite . But the vast majority are lazy people who want easy money, that’s the type of people that poker attracts .

Also being average at poker you make a lot more money than being average at almost any job.

Fair take. I would say that most of the 10/20+ players I meet are more interesting/motivated than the guys who make 300k+, which I would assume are approximately the top 5% of each category.

This is a horrible opinion, completely incorrect. Making 100k a year playing poker is not difficult. (Making 300k a year playing poker is difficult). Comparing med school to beating 2/5 is just so laughable. I am not exaggerating when I say that studying 1/20th of what a med student studies would make you a professional poker player in like 2 years.

The fact that you think making partner at a firm or literally becoming a doctor is "easy" indicates you have no idea what you're talking about. Sure, the lifestyle of a normal career path is often preferable to poker, but it absolutely isn't easier to make 300 thousand dollars than to beat 2/5 for 50 an hour.

I know 5 people who played poker somewhat seriously after college. ALL of them cleared 100k a year for years easily. 5/5. Some way more. Albeit these are smart people, but most of them spend a laughable amount of time actually studying strategy. 3 of them work full time jobs at highly prestigious firms in addition to poker. If you treat poker like an actual job, you have to really be stupid not to eventually make a reasonable salary if you have access to live games. If you insist on smashing your head into the wall playing online public games then making 100k a year is extremely hard and will get much harder.

I would say lazy smart people.

But your last statement is definitely untrue. Average poker players by definition are those who would break even if there were no rake (and they didn't tip). Since there is always a house charge (except in small homes games), average poker players lose money.

Depends.
Pre Obamacare I could buy one for like 50 bucks a months with a 5k deductible in my 20s.
I had one for years. Had a minor surgery and paid the 5k. Bfd. I don't need insurance for low bill nonsense like a quick doctors appointment to get a prescription. I wish I could buy such a plan today like that for a similar price.

Beats the hell out of punting 5k+ a year on insurance every year even if you never get sick.

Different people in different financial situations have different needs. High deductible plan would be a great option for many people.

Agree that health care in this country is ****ed obviously.

I don't think you realize just that for how many Americans there is no difference between owing $10,000 and bankruptcy.

I do agree that most young people should be taking the high deductible plan. That is simple odds. However, lomgshots do happen and when they do concerning health it can be devastating.

We aren't talking about someone hitting a one outer on you to take a buy-in (or even two or three). We are talking about someone who is perfectly healthy running marathons one day and then posting GoFundMe pages a few months later because they were diagnosed with lymphoma.

Besides, my whole point was nothing about what you said and was more an indictment of the ridiculous healthcare system in the U.S.

In every other civilized nation in the world a person doesn't have gamble that just because they are young and apparently healthy that they won't be wrong. In no other civilized country does a whole family have to declare bankruptcy just because a 33 year old women gets diagnosed with breast cancer.