You can be successful playing poker. But can you be a person of value playing it? I suppose if you got backers you can be of value to them since your winning money for them. If your a coach your a person of value since people are learning from you. But actually playing on your own dime and just winning money for yourself. You are providing people a opponent to play with I suppose. Without opponents there's no game whether its skilled opponents or fish.

stfu

I don't know, can you OP?

yes: pay taxes and $40k a year in rake

No. You should quit and go to a respectable profession that adds value, like middle management, investment banking or marketing

I have no desire to be a person of value according the apparent inane definition you've implied which must go something like "one who provides any sort of service to others".
I try to provide for my family without intentionally hurting anybody/any thing. I do so because I love and care about them; not out of any sense of duty or outside pressure. I play poker because I like poker - I like strategy games. I don't care about trying to live according to any sort of concept such as success or being a person of value, whatever the definition.

Actually the definition of "value" on economics science is larger than only offering direct value for the society.
A Poker professional is also a consumer, so, besides the entertainment point of view that you are offering a fun time to the other players, you actually can be a "person of value" when you use the money you won with your work to buy products/services that brings value to other people/profession and feed the economy.

I said that on this forums many times:

If there were no value on playing poker, than it would be impossible to win money with it.
The money is where the value is and your own definition of value do not have to be the same as other people definition of value.

Open your mind. The world has changed and will keep changing.

you can provide value within your poker circle (role model, coach, sharing hotel rooms to save money, etc) or poker community in general (e.g. phil galfond business)

outside of poker, no.

First of all most jobs are worthless.
Most people aren't exactly nurses.thyere ****ing around on their computers all day .

You job shouldn't define your value.

long way of just saying no?

You can always be a person of value away from the tables, just like you can in any other profession. Very few people do jobs that one would consider as valuable to the community as a whole, but they can choose to donate time/money to causes.

At the table you are providing employment opportunities to the dealers, the floor, cocktail waitresses, chip runners, etc... As others have said, if you make money playing poker and you spend the money on goods or services, then you are helping the economy as a whole and helping others keep employment.

Ask Dan Smith.

Yes because you can then give tatted up girls a place to get down.

A professional poker player does not provide a service to other people unless you consider entertaining recreational players to be a service. The problem with that, however, is that you don't really need professional poker players for games to run; there might be fewer of them or it might be harder to game start, but the presence of pros is not a strict prerequisite.

So yes, there is a categorical difference between being a professional poker player and most other jobs/careers. Your barista might not be saving lives or educating youth, but she is providing a service that consumers find valuable. It is overly simplistic to say that "most" other jobs/careers do not add "value" to society.

It is also difficult to ignore the elephant in the room, which is that poker players literally make their living by taking money from other people. "But Starbucks takes your money too!" Yes, but that is a bargained-for exchange. Recreational poker players are paying the casino a rake for the benefit of the enjoyment of playing poker. The pro poker players' "cut" is not a necessary part of that equation.

It is also overly simplistic to say that a professional poker player adds no "value." Whenever this topic comes up, people are quick to point out that professional poker players pay taxes, act as a consumer for the casino, etc. Pros can donate money, or use the flexibility the job provides to be a better partner, parent, friend, or volunteer.

The bottom line is that playing poker contributes less than most other jobs/careers, but that doesn't mean that pros are not persons of "value," or that they are merely a suck on social resources.

Well a poker player is someone's child, and could also be a husband/wife, parent etc.

I think those roles are valuable in society.

Obviously yes.

You can have interactions that entertain people or inspire new ideas to solve their problems. These things can have great value but some players are better at providing them than others.

Chip Reese is considered by many to be the greatest cash game player of all time but all accounts I have heard is that his success was largely due to his ability to create an enjoyable and interesting social atmosphere so that whales were willing to gamble with him. They found the enjoyment of the game to be worth playing in a game where they gave up an edge, just like the high stakes pit player who gets treated like a king by the casino.

At that level, I would say yes, he was providing value. Guys with the financial resources to do just about anything they wanted for entertainment were voluntarily deciding that playing in his game was the most appealing option available to them. If the game didn't exist, they'd have to settle for a less appealing option to spend their time.

CrazyLond -- I think you are right that there are some pros who truly offer a unique or substantially more enjoyable experience for players. But it's safe to say those players are few and far between.

If you value your time, then yes your job should define you. Sucks when you cant find a job with no value........I guess I am super lucky even though I work my ass off.

why must there always be a purpose or impact on society?
Some people mind there own business and if you play poker professionally and you can sustain yourself, whats wrong with that?

From another angle; I'd rather have a poker player sustaining himself then some unemployed arts major unable to find a job to his liking and being a burden to society..

I agree 100%
Whenever these questions of "Do poker players contribute anything to society" type threads pop up I find them annoying.

Oh you're an accountant or salesman, providing so much to the world? Stahp

For most of history, nearly all time eternal, one human to the next has had absolutely no effect on society whatsoever. We've just been trying to survive. Most poker players are the same too nowadays.

Curious to know how many of these discussions we get per year here on NVG.

👏👏👏👏

short answer: no
long answer: noooooooooooo