If you have no money at your disposal, you can still have a job.
If you have no money at your disposal, you _cannot_ play poker.

This is why being a real professional poker player is very, very difficult. When you're playing poker, you need to be emotionally detached from money's actual purchasing power. But you cannot be emotionally detached from money you're _not_ playing. Doesn't mean you'll go broke; but you're certainly way, way more likely to.

I hope I have this problem

Well said OP. Subbed.

I always like all the poker/life/health goal threads. Work out this many times a week, play this many hands, post this many hands for analysis, read this many books, lose this much weight, bla bla bla. Anyone posting BS like that is a true degen in the first place and 99% of these douches never do any of it. It makes for boring reading though. Want to be happy? Get a life outside of poker then you will truly enjoy poker.

I subscribed to that poker video site one month and after I watched a video of a dude grinding micros and after the one hour session he had won like 2 BBs for like 2 dollars. I immediately canceled that bull**** and knew a poker career was not in my deck of cards. I don't have the patience to study HUDs all day long and Read this book and that book and analyze this and that when in the end it's a game played by human beings with luck involved. It's gambling people. Period..

wrong, you dont get how poker players operate

Surpise, suprise,... this thread being on first page after TCOOP is over

I have played poker regularly for the past 5 years, and the OP confirms all of my suspicions. This is by far the most insightful and intelligent post I have read on this site, or just about anywhere, for that matter. If you're extremely disciplined and extremely skillful, you can make money playing poker just like you can make money by keeping your money in a bank account. In other words, you can make enough to live on only if you don't need your poker winnings to live on. You can probably net 3%-5% a year return on your bankroll if you manage your bankroll conservatively and wisely. Which is something very, very, few poker players do, in my experience.

well, atleast you were honest with yourself, you should have stopped there. period....

Stopped where?

Thank you

And here's just something to confirm my suspicions:

http://www.highstakesdb.com/4430--da...-is-broke.aspx

Let's face it, there's plenty of money to be won in Poker. If a very good player was smart, he would play within his means, not spend extravagantly and invest a large chunk of his winnings.

But then you have players who are the complete opposite who are also degenerates that wager large amounts on things they don't really understand like sports betting. I mean, Voulgaris has said that he's spent millions on computer models to beat the bookies as edges are so much smaller than before. Then you have degens who probably don't even look into stats for a single game.

1. Play within your means and be smart.
2. Make money, invest (or even just keep it in a bank), keep on playing Poker.
3. Make money, leave the game or drop down to smaller stakes.

Isildur1 is my favourite player, purely because he creates action and will play anyone online, but the guy is probably very close to broke, constantly making stupid decisions. What I'm trying to say is that there are very few players out there who are worthy of my respect. Not that they give a **** about my respect, but money management is the most important aspect to grasp in all endeavors of life.

Generally, the poker players who are going broke are more addicts than poker players.

Gambling addiction is as serious as a drug addiction and addicts don't tend to develop during the period of their addiction which is going to be as long as they can keep it going. Unfortunately for these guys, gambling won't kill you, just make you feel like killing yourself.

I really like the message that the op delivers, whether the details are grossly exaggerated is not important. Don't believe all the glitz and glamour of televised poker, some of these guys are living stressful crazy lives.

One player i think about from time to time is Greg Merson, for the simple fact me and him share a similar backstory (Minus him being a poker pro and me being a rec player). For some reason i don't think anyone with an addict mentality can succeed at poker over the long run

Btw, I'm glad this was bumped, this is a great topic to talk about.

cool story bro

ldo, to make money in poker (or anything really) you need to be far greater than your opponents and in todays games you wont get that by not being addicted to the game.. only frowned upon though because your addicted to a game 99.9% of the population loses at.

This sounds like the best way to go.

So in the game of life, women are the freerolls?

Got paid $1200 that a broke poker player had owed me for 4 years this week. There is hope for us all!

I bet it feels like free monies so enjoy it.

That's crazy. Congrats.

Congrats CAPITAO

Dreams come true, you're living proof.

How are things in egypt nowadays/

nice read

laughed pretty hard when I read about u mentioned Chris Ferguson as a guy who is good with money, he is not good with it, hes GOD with it imo

It would be interesting to have an idea of what well known players are in financial trouble. I'd say it's probably the majority of them, especially those who have degen tendencies both in and outside of poker.

Of my friends who play poker for a living i'd say something like 1 in 5 are broke or close to it and about half are very comfortable financially (mid 5 figs or higher in the bank) with the rest getting by but not broke. Probably 5-10% or so of the guys I know who play for a living have mid six figs in the bank or higher

I'd say closer to 80% have been broke or close to it at least once in their poker careers though (closest I came personally was my roll was down to 5k briefly in 2012 after a 10 month downswing, although then I heated so life is good)