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especially if self made multimillionaire

You know its funny, I just spent the past hour reading through this thread and I really had no idea that most people look at poker as an extremely difficult endeavor.

I know this is going to come off as a brag post I guess to most of you based on the information in this thread, but I thought I'd share a different perspective.

I've been playing poker for a living for about 5 years, mostly all at small/mid stakes online. I've never been a serious grinder, or gambler. I just enjoyed the game and played when I felt like it. I've literally never played anywhere near outside my bankroll. I'm not even close to baller, but I've lived more than comfortably solely off of poker for my entire "career". I never go on NVG or talk to many poker players at all so it is shocking that people consider it such a struggle (not just the playing part but all the other degen/brm issues mentioned in this thread).

I must be lucky that I don't have a serious degen streak I guess. I mean I like winning money but I don't have grand visions of making millions a year like I suppose a lot of you do. I'll never complain about making 100k+/year from my home, so I guess this leads me to stay inline.

When I look at a lot of my opponents who are regs at my stakes all seem to be at least beating the rake, and with the high volume they put in + rakeback, I can't imagine may of them are suffering financially. I guess thats one of the biggest advantages of playing online vs live is that there are far fewer -ev distractions. However to make blanket statements saying that all players will eventually go broke is an insane one, and I think you are all ignoring the types of players like me who aren't obsessed with the glory, and therefore you never hear about. but thanks for the eye opening interesting thread

Can't ****ing stop laughing, this cat is amazing.

Cole South is down 5Mil this year? Any proof? I just don't belive this. I checked his ptr and it doesnt show hes down 5mil this year. Can someone explain?

Peter Eastgate had the right idea, he might have millions now but would lose it all eventually in the long run, unless he kissed corporate poker sites ass. Anybody who think poker is more skill than luck these days is deluded, everybody plays well, and the winning factor is how the cards drop. Nice article OP. I quit myself a few weeks ago and am not wasting my time gambling anymore, because thats what it is, at the end of the day.

must be better ways to rip that tard than that old thing. even cool story bro is more +ev

It's a sophisticated cool story bro - timeless

For info PTR only tracks PLO and NLH, Cole has played a lot of the "other" games.
That 5 millions downswing estimation comes from HighstakesDB which tracks all highstakes games on Full Tilt (and not on Pokerstars)

people who are degen gamblers and entered poker from that standpoint and live that lifestyle if they get on a bad run playing too high then yes they can go broke... people like zigmund,mattusow,isildur will always be broke but they want to gamble & i dont like some of the names you mentioned, how does jason mercier fall into that category?.. when he came on hsp it was the highest he has ever played and he left after 1 buy in, the same with elky & im sure they werent close to being broke after losing it bro

Someone has be winning then?

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Fitter, happier, more productive. Comfortable, not drinking too much, regular exercise at the gym (3 days a week), getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries, at ease.

everybody plays well
everybody plays well
everybody plays well
everybody plays well
everybody plays well
everybody plays well

He owns orange plantations in FLA. very very millionaire from it for decades now.

we've all been there where we started playing for hopes of making it big/glory, i just opened my eyes not to long ago after banning my accounts not because of the money I've lost I'm actually up if that's hard to believe or maybe just in my head but anyways.....the lifestyle is disgusting i would stay locked up in my room for 12 plus hours and god forbid I'd run bad i would have horrible habits such as over eating smoking too much just being as unhealthy as could be.

i can go on and on but you all know how it is, and right now I'm just starting to transition back to a heather lifestyle. The point I'm trying to get across is the faster you realize how hard it is to make a living playing poker the better you will be off in life. I am only 20 years old and I started at 15 i could write a book about the roller coaster I've been on. Now poker was there for me when i had no body else to turn to or get my mind off something. but as far as making final tables and putting up ten k to playing in the ME just seem insane to me these days as apposed to how i used to think.

Tbh I haven't read through all the 200+ posts, so someone might have mentioned this earlier, but this caught my eye:

"When Barry hit the 9 on the turn to crack Tom's aces, the Internet sensation did not move an inch…. just had a sip of his coffee and muttered "Nice Hand." You can tell that at the time, Dwan had money to burn, probably because of Guy Laliberte donking off millions of dollars on Full Tilt Poker. "


Uhm. Wasn't that filmed DURING the isildur rapage? As in, Dwan was sometimes late to the set because he was up playing isil all night? He probably didn't react to the bad beat because he had just lost $1million+ a couple of hours before and just didn't give a **** anymore.

OP doesn't seem too smart here. Just because a couple dealers said Doyle loses the most doesn't mean he's broke.
FT pays you 10 MILLION if you win the main event, don't you think they're paying all their pros when they're on High stakes or PAD? Plus almost every "big name" has other ventures, poker sites etc. All the leaks in the OP had to do with either bad BR management or degen gambling, makes me believe there is still hope for a winning player to exist...

+1 (pragmatism not idealism imo)

interesting read.

Sick bump in sick thread.

Very good read OP. Thanks for bumping this

The value of money is relative to how much you have and what kind of personality you have.

For instance i make a little less then 1200 dollars a month working full time, not even close to alot of money. However i dont give a **** if i lose a 200 or 300 dollar buying at the tables when i play.

However my brother who makes twice as much as me gets anoyyed and doesnt play for a month if he loses a buy in.

ill also note that i have aspirations to eventually be a poker pro and he does not so maybe that makes me more willing to take losses while working towards my goal

anyway tom dwan im sure doesnt care if he loses 500k at the tables, however losing half his bankroll in 2010 to isildur probobly made at least a little sick.

Most people who play poker ultimately end up losers.

It is a bad idea to play poker and expect to come out ahead in the long term. Only a small percentage are successful and maintain that success over the long term.