Outside poker circles at least.

"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a professional poker player. I bluff hard earned money away from people and I'm one of the best in the world at it."
"Wow. You suck."

That's why Phil Ivey has 30k fans on Facebook, compared to millions some singers/actors have.

What's that you're saying? You're not in it for the fame, just for teh monies?
That's swell, but sucessful businessmen are laughing at you, you useless degen gambler.

What's that? You're in it for fun, challange, gamble?
Try marriage instead.

Have a nice day.

F U SIR

OP fails @ life obv.

I think you mean:

What's that? You have a strong desire to end your life?
Try marriage instead.

Why should it be something to be proud of?


Why should being a very well recognized actor be something to be proud of?


Either way .... they did it. Made their family secure for many generations.



I don't understand your, Doctor Poker's, point ..... hey .... if I could I would take care of my family's financial "problems" for the next 50 years .... and then I wouldn't even think about it at all. If I did it by being a professional poker player I wouldn't care .... of if I was a professional stock player .... whatever ... or I mean stock broker .... or person taking stock broker's advice .... whatever .... I'm just gambling on something I don't really understand. I've made a large amount of money playing poker .... and I've lost a portion of that on the stock market .... I'm not trying to draw conclusions or make stupid similarities .... I'm just saying there are obvious similarities and saying one is fine and one is stupid is itself stupid .... and I especially believe that given that in the supposedly stupid one I ccan make money and I don't completely understand how the other one works.

That's the response I usually get when I tell people what I do for a living..

But being a bitter person who attempts to crap on peoples goals and ambitions for no reason is something to be proud of?

OP: "What do you do for a living?"
PRO: "I'm a professional poker player. I bluff hard earned money away from people and I'm one of the best in the world at it."
OP: "Wow. You suck. But how much do u make in a month?"
PRO: "Well, with rakeback and bonuses around 30K."
OP: "Hey, can i give u $100 so u could run it up to $10K?"

lol at OP.
Poker is an out of the ordinary profession and usually when people hear that you are a pro poker player they're interested or find it really cool, except for people who don't know zilch about poker and think you're just a degen.
And lol at comparing Phil Ivey to a famous actor/singer/sportsman
Phil Ivey doesn't get nowhere near as much TV/Magasine/News time as an actor or we. You don't really see 10 000 000 people showing up to see Phil Ivey play, or see a Poker game every day on big TV channels because it's pretty boring to watch and you can't really support a player like you support your home team.
And there's so many business man who make the same kind of money as Phil Ivey yet haven't been seen on a TV screen ever. They don't even have a thousand fan on facebook, man those rich business man must suck balls.

The proffesion of poker is really nothing to be proud of I agree with OP.

But then again neithers slaving away in an office for a multinational for 50 years, or being a blood sucking business fatcat. So who cares.

****ing a corpse isn't anything to be proud of either, but none of us are perfect.

Stop ..... doing ...... that.

I can see OP's point tho.

If i was a business man, or a lottery winner i probably wouldnt actually play much poker. The most I would wana lose, even if i was loaded, would prob be like £300 - £400 at most.

Like why would i want to give my hard earned money away to someone in a poker game? Also with people taking the game so seriously it goes from being fun to... well not being fun!

as for poker players who have a living from it i do get the impression tho that some of them think they are the main man as they have some money from poker and like OP said, business men probably laugh as their total wealth is probablly at least 100x more than the poker players

LOL the whole point of a business is to sucker people out of money, they're donks and they deserve it. Food Chain imo.

Inheriting millions is nothing to be proud of, yet society look up to and often worship people who have simply been born into money.

Also op you seem to care too much at what people think about you. So what if someone is laughing at you? Laugh at them when their boss is grilling them over something mundane ,while you decide whether or not you should have a beer whilst you 'work'

The key here OP is preferance. do what makes you happy and avoid stuff that makes you unhappy. If someone has a different view to you so what? Each to their own.

if i ever get to the halycon heights of pro poker player i'll be proud of it.

because i'll have had to worked my nuts off and made numerous sacrifices to do so.

Seems to me that a guy like Ivey has it better than an actor. He's got money and I'd rather have 30k fans than millions. You would still occasionally get recognized, which has it's advantages, but at the same time wouldn't take over your life.

I agree with OP.

sounds like somebody lost a lot of money recently...wow u suck OP!

pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and even if you're an atheist you could agree that pride has it's downfalls, so what you're saying OP isn't any sort of miraculous observation.

fwiw, to those who play for a living, when asked, it sounds a lot better to say "i'm a gambler" than "i'm a professional poker player".

kind of stupid to be calling out poker players though when your chosen handle is "doctor poker". pot meet kettle?

Rather rich then famous IMO. Also rather rich and unknown then rich and famous.

This

well, dont tell people you play poker for a living. they wouldnt understand anyway. everytime i bring it up at a party or among friends who dont play poker, they tell me ohhh poker? can u make money from poker? just tell them you are a businessman, you will get more respect ffrom general public.

Consistent and bitter loser itt spotted!

I always decide what to do in life based on what other people think of it.