Originally Posted by NickyC
This will most certainly come off long winded, but I'd like to be able to explain my feeling on this topic the best I can. I'd like to premise this by saying I've never played professionally, nor do I have the poker ability to do so to be painfully honest (some of you will rightfully feel this disqualifies anything I might post on this subject, which I accept). I've thought long and hard in the past about putting in the time it would take to be successful at this game in the long term, to the point where it could be my sole source of income. After being brutally honest with myself, I realized I wouldn't be able to do it and thus I've scaled back playing poker big time. It's now nothing more than a once, maybe twice a month thing for me now. Hell, I even go months at times now not playing.
For me, quite honestly it all boiled down to the long run. Did I really want to spend the most financially productive years of my life (25-55), playing a card game which more likely than not would be a dead end? Suppose I play cards well for 10 years, then at age 35 burn out and decide to do something else. What could I possibly do? I have ten years with absolutely ZERO to put on a resume. We have an economy that is imploding, with an ever shrinking job base. The fact of the matter is, the blue collar jobs, manufacturing, etc. that we've lost over the past 15-20 years are NEVER coming back. Automation, outsourcing, debt levels, etc., all point to the painful conclusion that the standard of living our parents and grandparents enjoyed is nothing but a thing of the past for the vast majority of us. The jobs with 40 hour work weeks, 3 weeks of paid vacation per year, health insurace, a pension, and a gold watch when you retire at 55 are long gone. They've been replaced with work weeks untill you drop, buy your own health insurance, no company matching contributions, and retirement fantasies due to a stock market crippled with fraud. Even savers are screwed now with the nonstop zero percent interest rates. We are well, and truly screwed in this country. No new taxes on the wealty, entitlement cuts, or any other BS politician's line about how to turn things around will save us. You are on your own to make the life you will have, and it's going to be difficult no matter what.
Coming to this realization several years ago, I've decided to devote my career to gaining skills and experience that is not common. My best advice is to find a niche career, something in demand, which requires a ton of training/education, and just go with it. As the economy continues to deteroriate, layoffs continue, and more people become beholden to the government, those who have the skills and experience in demanding jobs are the ones who will have a fighting chance. You see, we are rapidly devolving into a service based economy. There are less and less skillfull, experienced workers. Older workers are staying on the job due to their retirements being cleaned out by Wall Street fraud, so fewer and fewer new graduates and young people are finding REAL employment. They are taking service jobs to pass the time until this pipe dream of an improving economy materializes. One day, they're all going to wake up in their mid 30s, either delivering pizzas or bartending, and wonder WTF happened. These people will be completely unemployable, just like someone who has spent the past 10 years playing a card game.
The dirty, not so little secret, is in this economy employers just aren't hiring the unemployed. It is absolutely ESSENTIAL that you maintain real, continuous employment. You see in this economy, with millions unemployed, with a true unemployment rate of around 16% (which is not some bogus, lala land government statistic), employers can be as picky as they want to be with new workers. Why would they ever hire someone who has been out of work for two years, when before them sits a resume of someone who is currently employed, has sharp skills, and has never been laid off? Right or wrong, a stigma still applies to many who have been laid off (which I believe is unjust). Many employers will see somebody laid off, and attribute the lay off to the worker themselves. Employers think "Well, I know we laid off the worst 10% of our workforce, so that's probably what this guys former company did". What do you think an employer is going to do with a resume that has a 10 year gap of NOTHING? If you ran a business, would you honestly hire some guy who has spent the past 10 years of his life in a casino, with absolutely no skills? You know your honest answer to this.
In my opinion, card playing should only be considered a part time affair. You should be devoting your best years to furthering a real career, something that will provide for you and your family in the best and worst of times for decades to come. When you're in the business world, you meet people, you make connections. You'd be amazed at the career choices people have given me. When you get into a profession such as law, which is what I'm in, so many paths open before your eyes, paths you never even considered. Answer me this, does this happen to you at a poker table? Has anyone ever offered you a job, asked you to represent them, or asked for a few hours of your time to discuss a joint venture at a poker table? You just don't meet the people you need to meet in life in a card room, and that's the brutally honest truth. Life is more about who you know, not what you know. I've worked my damned azz off in life, and my biggest breaks have come from other people. It is VERY hard to make it in this world now without connections. The best part of having connections is if the unthinkable happens and you are laid off, you have a rolodex of people you can hitup. I try to make all the connections I can, I use LinkedIn, etc. You just never know when you might have to make that call.
To sum up this mass bloviation, I don't think poker should ever be anything other than a part time gig to pick up a little extra money. As well, your job and career should never take a back seat to this game. A career is probably the most important thing you'll ever undertake in your life, and to waste so many years playing a zero sum card game, in my honest opinion, is selling yourself short of what you're truly capable of in life.
