Gonna get really off topic from the book and long winded with this one, but I think it's a good question.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amin70
Hey Matthew,
In conclusion of the book you are talking about online cash game is dried up for last 5 years.
And that poker is getting tougher and tougher. I agree as well.
Do you think is poker still going to be profitable for next 5 years
For these who work hard and study the game?
Yes. But whether or not it's worth your time from a financial perspective is harder to say.
I'm in the foot fixing business now (currently a podiatry resident) so I get a lot of exposure to really successful podiatrists and as well as less (from a financial perspective) successful podiatrists. I also get a ton of exposure to other medical specialties. There is a huge variation of salaries both within my field and other medical specialties.
Do I think most smart, hard working Americans are going to be able to earn as much money playing poker as they could in medicine? No, not at all. It depends on your specialty and a bunch of other factors, but you'll probably make between $100-$200/hr after benefits as a physician. But, that requires 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school, and 3 to 8 (neurosurgery lol) years of residency.
So, if you're smart and want to maximize your earnings, then medicine > poker for almost everyone in America. But for any comparison like this you have to keep in mind:
1) There's an insane amount of delayed gratification in medicine. A good poker player can start making money at 18 whereas you'll likely be at least 30 before you make money in medicine with a tonnnnnn of debt.
2) You get INSANE freedom and have the ability for INSANE lifestyle with poker. On Tuesday, we had our first surgical case at 7:30am and our last case (an add-on trauma) ended at 11:30pm (there were breaks in between some of the cases, but I had other stuff to do as well). This doesn't really happen in poker, you basically have no boss and can do what you want. My program is awesome and my specialty is laid back, but the higher paying, more competitive specialties usually, but not always often have all the problems with residency you read about (put it this way -- if you have to pass policies to cap a resident on an average of 80 hour work week, imagine how hard the average resident had to have been working to make that policy come to fruition. And many programs who have historically worked residents for 80+ hours/week are going to be the hyper intense programs/specialties that aren't going to follow the rules anyways).
3) Most people aren't American, so talking about American medicine (or investment banking, underwater welding, etc) salaries doesn't really apply to you if you're from a less rich Eastern European or African nation (both of which I've coached people from, who were making way more money via poker than they could in a normal job, but less than a highly paid American physician or MBA)
Ok, so that was super long-winded as I warned. My point is this -- I don't think most people from rich countries are capable of making more money playing poker than they could at a typical job if they per sued lucrative careers. But not everyone is from a 1st world country. Not everyone can tolerate the delayed gratification and debt (if you're American) you need to make it in most (if not all) fields. And the most successful poker players I know just straight up really enjoy playing poker, so some people prefer that lifestyle even if it makes them more than they could have in other fields.
And lastly, keep in mind just like its super difficult to break into HSNL for most people, it's super hard to successfully become a professional in most lucrative fields (orthopedic surgery, dermatology, investment banking, etc) as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amin70
I like to be an MTT player, but many people say poker is not profitable anymore.
See above. Poker is definitely profitable if you're good. It's just whether or not it's worth your time compared to pursuing another career.
If you have fun playing poker and making $10/hour, then none of this is really relevant and it's just an awesome hobby anyways.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amin70
In addition, if there is no profit, why do we have so many pros?
I could be wrong here, but probably at least partly because of the fact that most countries aren't America rich. Grinding for $8/hour is pretty damn sweet when the average wage in your country is $1/hour. And these lower stake winners make it harder for people to move up and you win their money at NL$100+, which is what you'd realistically need to be winning at to make it financially worth your time rather than just pursue a conventional career.
Small sample, but I coach a few MTT pros sporadically and I just looked at the GDP per capita of the countries they are from. For the most part I know their results and they're doing quite well by American salary standards, and absolutely KILLING IT when you look at how much they made relative to their countries average salary. So keep in mind making $50 to $150k/year for you may be much different for you than for them.