Hi,
I'm a close friend of CursedByaGypsy, and I've been playing with him in the same home game for two years now.
I replied to him personally and he wanted me to post my opinion here, so here goes.
While I think he has some valid points, I think what he's proving is that "it's impossible to win long term in poker without extreme self control, honesty with yourself and controllable ego" not that" it's impossible to win in poker long term"
For me, where home games are concerned, I've been winning consistently for two years. I have my bad stretches, but come back. My average win per session is still going up after 200 recorded sessions, while I'm mostly playing the same stakes.
My losing games are when I go to casinos, because even though the players are weaker than the home games I play, I'm not comfortable with the stakes so it puts me off my game. which to me proves that, it's about self control, limiting ego, and playing stakes you are comfortable with and bankrolled for.
My friend Cursed, is a very good online tournament player. I've watched him and followed him for a while. I think that he would be a consistent winning online tourney player, but thats just my opinion. ( what do i know) His kryptonite though is self control. Taking his winnings into cash games which are way too big especially as he's a better tourney player, or buying into tournaments that are too big for his online bankroll. I think he keeps going back to taking the big risk probably because it gets boring and he wants the rush. Grinding is not in his vocabulary
Anyway examples of players who will not go broke
Ivey obviously unless he has a major breakdown, but at his current level
Greenstein
Lisandro. Read about him( he takes a big percentage of his profits and sinks it into real estate which he rents out) and where he can't touch it
lots of them do this by the way.
they sink the money into investments they can't touch because they know they're degenerates so while they might go broke regarding cash, they know they have a guaranteed nest egg, which produces regular income, i.e. they won't suddenly start sleeping on the side walk.
Remember in a High Stakes episode when Matasow said to someone " the big lesson is not to bluff the rich ones. they'll call. then pointed to Negranu and a few of the others on the table" So if we're using quotes we listen to on tv
, this to me indicates they are not all broke of course.