Quote:
Originally Posted by AliceWhat
I've read this thread through, and I would llike to add my thoughts on it.
As far as I can see, the poker dream is very much alive today. There's no doubt, it was much easier to make huge money a decade ago, or even 3-4 years ago. But achiving a "dream" and making a ton of money is, by definition, not something every second person can do. It wouldn't really be called a dream, if there was a clear way, like you just do this and this and that, there you go, mr. millionaire. Only a very tiny percentage of those people who are winners (a very tiny percentage of all poker players) can finally make it. Either by winning a bigger tournament, or by becoming one of the best cash players in the world playing the highest stakes. Now this is something not many will reach, but I do think it is achievable. And hey, if the question is whether the dream is alive, the answer is yes. Like most of other "dreams", it will stay only a dream for the vast majority of players, but that's what makes it a dream.
Now, if I interpret it in another way, the dream is very much alive for quite a lot of people. I've started playing last summer, but only have taken it seriously since this January or so. My poker dream is to make a decent living from playing one day. This is a thing many people in 2nd world countries still consider as an achiveable goal. I live in Hungary, in Central Europe, but financially we are much closer to the East than to the West. The average salary here is somewhere around 550-600 USD, converted from our currency, of course. (You might see statistics that say it's over 800, but they are just faked by our government.) I earn about 630-650 with an ok job (project manager in a boring office, not too much to do), that is roughly 3,5 USD hourly. I've seen several posters' harmonious opinion about "10 bucks an hour, hardly a dreamjob". You can imagine how big a dream it would be for people who make one third of it hourly. Viewing it from this direction, the dream is alive and achievable. Making 10 bucks an hour would not make me a millionaire, but it would certainly mean an easier life. Earning more money, having more freedom by doing something that you like to do. That's a big enough dream for me and many others.
In general I agree with you, because in general to succeed in just about anything you have to, as they say in amateur wrestling, embrace the grind.
I was in an army band. We had a trombone player who, before every rehearsal, warmed up by playing scales. He told me that by doing that every day, by the end of the week every scale had been practiced. By "every" scale, he meant in every key: major, minor, chromatic, modal, and maybe others as well. Yo-Yo Ma* (18 Grammy Awards and an apprearance on The Simpsons) has been overheard practicing scales in his hotel room for six straight hours.
Very few actors make the big money and it doesn't happen overnight. Many Los Angeles-based actors are really waiters or in retail, and spend their free time going to auditions. In fact, they climb a ladder just like poker players moving up levels, starting with high school acting, then drama school and the auditions--you get the idea.
If you want to get really good at anything you better put the time in. I devote 40 hours a week to poker (studying and playing). Since my wife works 40 hours it doesn't seem right that I would be willing to do less, in fact, one of the things that I love about poker is that I don't have to ask a boss if I can work overtime. I can work more hours if I want to make more money. Forty hours a week is the minimum.
One more thing. Where you live does make a big difference on how much money you need to make, but it's not just about what country you're in. Even in the US it depends a lot where you live and on your situation.
I'm a US player. For many years I lived in a neighborhood in the state of Michigan where making 50K a year was big money and you could buy a decent house for 30K. Now my wife and I live in a paid-for mobile home that she inherited. It's big enough for my wife and I to each have an office.
We live about 5 miles from a state park on Lake Michigan. The lot rent is $400 a month and the "mobile home community" (that's what it says on the sign) covers the water bill. I am a retired veteran, which means that my wife and I can fly free (when space is available) on any military flight in the United States. Clearly I don't have to be in the Global Poker Index top 100 to have a comfortable life.
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*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Yo_Ma