You're right they are in no way equivalent: in poker you can take time off whenever you want, set your own schedule, work from home, and play a game for a living. Again it just comes down to your values; the most sickening part of this thread is people thinking they know what's best for everyone else.

Moral of the story = don't blow donkament winnins in high stakes cash?

If you disregard all the weird degrees you can get in liberal arts and subjects like that getting a real degree is probably the best you can do for yourself career vise. There are few jobs that pay as good as a MD, some selected fields of engineering and various subjects like mathematics. Some degrees are a waste of time and money but one need to think further ahead then getting a piece of paper. I don't know what happened to you when BF hit but I do know that many players suffered terrible from this and I believe there are still many who have not come back from this hit.

But this is why poker kids need to treat the game more serious. Something like BF could hit again and if liquidity dries up you can probably guess what mega tabling tables at PS will be like. Once a critical level is reached the whole online poker economy could collapse within a few months. Not that I think you will have a problem getting your money out but the games could disappear fast and you don't want to get in a situation where you are forced to act as in you choosing to act.

But lets face it, you won't listen and you will get hurt. You took no action when the DOJ tried to close down internet poker the first time and laughed it away just like you do now. The next crisis online poker goes trough could possibly destroy the market forever, casual games will be there but you won't be able to grind for $1k/month in rake back anymore since they could change their game to suit the business model instead of some whiny poster at 2+2.
You try this for a week, play CG at a casino between 07:00 and 17:00 monday to friday and tell us how good it goes, take a vacation during the big gamble holidays and never ever go to the card room when the tourist buss is parked outside. The same goes for online poker, try to play during office hours and see how good you are doing.

If you are looking at going pro you play all soft games no matter where or when,you travel to another country if you need to and make damn sure to play as much as you can. The tournament circuit has pros the size of a card room following it not playing any tournaments, they are just there for the CG's and make good money playing them. They make so much that they can afford to follow the circuit with all costs that comes with it and still show a profit. Do you think most people on 2+2 could do the same?

While poker differs greatly from a salaried job, acquiring financial security should be on everyone's wish list.

Steady jobs provide security in many ways... health insurance, retirement benefits... available bank credit... employer matched investment funding (do they still do that?)...receiving a steady paycheck whether or not you are productive, etc.

But poker offers no security except by way of winning more money than you need, and then separating that money from your br..

wrong. I'm done responding because you continue to arrogantly post like you know what's best for everyone, but I will say that I am essentially a part-time pro (and, to be fair, coach) and I do fine; in fact I've been happier since I stopped spending so much time on poker and started focusing more on other interests. I'm not saying everyone can or should do that but it works for me.

+1

I wasn't making a value judgment about anyone's lifestyle, I was stating an objective fact: 50K guaranteed is better than a 50K expectation in a poker game in terms of your purchasing power.

The reason is that the poker player has to hold back a significant portion of his net worth as a bankroll to protect against swings, and as a rainy day fund due to his limited access to credit.

If you feel that the advantages of the poker lifestyle make up for these drawbacks, then all the power to you. I don't think anyone in this thread is criticizing poker players for their lifestyle, but rather encouraging people to be realistic about what their life choices entail.

By far my favourite bit.

http://www.lookuppage.com/users/alansmurfit/

How anyone got past the first paragraph is beyond me.

The title question: No I don't feel like almost all poker players are going broke, it's something like 65%. I would say almost is about 92%+

More semantic confusion: I define 'going broke' as poker busting their life poker rolls and never becoming profitable. The actual % of going broke is higher because of those who recognise they suck or use cognitive dissonance rejection teqnique to say the sites are rigged.

please define life poker roll

First of all, I don't need to prove anything now. Everything I said happened. And everything I said was proved right eventually.

People were making fun of me when I said that Farha was broke earlier saying he 'owned business everywhere' when it was kind of documented that he was busto lol.

So yeah, be sarcastic all you want buddy.

About Smurfit, well, I saw what I saw and I interpreted things that way. Maybe I was wrong, but it sure felt that way.

Cheers.

are the last 60 posts what an "AIDs" thread looks like?

are you actually “sickened” by people posting their advice?

rake, travel, gambling, lost respect for money.

There's too many rich gamblers and generally bad rec players who dump money live at 3/5+ for the top 10% of players to go broke. Nonetheless I agree with the general premise that a lot more players are going broke or at the very least not making a decent living anymore.

Some graphs of big name guys who don't seem to be making much anymore:

http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles/Niki-Jedlicka.aspx
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles/sbrugby.aspx
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...-Townsend.aspx
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...how=2013#graph
http://www.highstakesdb.com/profiles...rv%C3%B8y.aspx

obviously there's tons of guys thriving right now in the games, and this is just online. But many players that were crushing a few years ago are down 1m+ this year. When you factor in taxes on winnings paid, plus massive losses this year, you have to assume that a lot of players are going broke.

As long as you can borrow a couple hundred thousand you'll never be broke

Successful people are generally very competitive.

standard thread from busto player

+1 actually looked at each 1 waiting to see if they are actually up lol

My secret to success in the poker business, since I'm a fairly good looking stud, was to marry a rich woman. Now I'm set for life.

Losing it to the game. the only winners is the house. if i loss my chips to you and then your going to lose it again....why because your a degen. looool GG

player A starts with 10$ player B has 10$ too. they both in a pot for 20$. house takes 10% so winner ends with 18$ (playerA). player B tops up another 18$, both go all in. pot 36$ this time Player B wins, House takes 10%. so Player B takes 32.40$. Player B is up 4.40$ house is up 5.60$. Player A top up another 32.40$ both go all in again, pot 64.80$. Player B win and takes the pot, after rake of 6.48$. which makes total rake of 12$. player B has 58.32$ in fort of him. Player B has put 60$ in the game and is down 1.68$, Player A is down 42.40$.. now do you get the maths of poker??

its all an illusions where they sell your own dream too you. By putting all these pros on TV making a Big show, CREATING A MEGA CITY. Its all a big Con. the only winners is the once that run the show. In your head you might think you are running the show and thats because you are dreaming.
by making you think you can become the best, become rich, become famous. as matey says all poker player are broke, well its not a big shock is it?

tournament poker is more of a skill game. you can improve your skill in poker and become more knowledge in the game play, but you will need loadsssssssssssssssssssssss of money to stay in the game.

lets say u get a backer, ok all gg but you get 50% of ur winnings. you spend 100% time and get payed 50% of your time. all ur doing is wasting time. how much time do u enjoy when losing? you can be winning everyday. and 1 more point you end up in debt, hope u find can find a job after you stop playing poker because you need to pay back what you lost.

how many of you lot is making a living from poker? how much do earn every week? do you have a mortgage or a house in your own name? so before you reply to this, have a little think about your life and where poker stands, have you made poker your life? is it dressing your dreams, because of you thinking you can change something in life thought poker. how many of you lot think online poker is rigged?

Ok there might of been a few that made but we still need to look at the bigger picture, look at there life styles and see what are the advantages and disadvantages.

only winner are players that walk away when they are winning.


Good Luck
H Peng

Great post OP (I didn't read all the responses but i'm sure you got flamed over and over for stating the truth about poker which most people simply don't want to hear).

A lot of people still want to believe in the farce that is being a professional poker player. I truly believe there is a very short list of poker players who are long term winners. The smart ones parlay their heightened profile into sponsorship deals (which either allows them to put away money or allows them to continue their "poker career" for a period of time) and the rest either go broke or worse, deep into debt.

There are undoubtedly some people who are, in fact, successful professional poker players but i'd say this is about 5% of the players and the vast majority of this 5% are still in financial trouble because they want to live like they're millionaires when their actual income is in the $50k-250k range.

I occasionally go to Atlantic City (usually borgata to play 2/4 and 3/6 once in a while) but haven't been there in months due to the grimy bums in the poker room. It is very depressing to see these guys playing 2/4, 3/6, or even 10/20 who are obviously playing above their head and when they lose a hand (bad beat or not) they act like their life savings was in that pot (for some, i'm sure this is pretty close to being the case).


Great quote because it's mostly true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN6mp...etailpage#t=57

I have a feeling I'm getting broke... does that prove the OP?

op is the best post i've ever seen on these forums, very accurate.

OP was a harbinger of truth in 2010.