Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxeth
It’s the reason why I think being a professional poker player in any game or format is an extremely stupid career choice.
For most people. For some people, it might be a decent choice or the best choice based on their other options. If you ignore the "I can make so much money doing this, it will be a great career both now and in the future" implied claim, you might wind up with some people who should play poker for a living. In better poker days, I told newer players that consciously going pro was silly -- if they made so much money playing poker that other jobs made no sense, they'd figure it out it was time to go pro.
In the current poker environment, your statement hits a higher % of aspiring full time players. I think of it this way. Since at least the 70's(?), there were at least a few full time poker pros who played in public casinos in the US. There have been a few times when that number was large. If there are 10,000 pros, the profile is different than when there are 200. I'm not sure what the number is today.
My definition of "for a living" is different than others. In the time that people could be on their parent's health insurance, living rent free in the basement, and make a ton of money on Paradise and Party poker are different than moving to LA or Florida to play in public casinos. Right now, rent and health insurance cost a ton compared what most people could expect to make in a 2/5 NL or 20/40 limit game. Some few people might have circumstances that make this not important. Even in the 80's and 90's, I'd guess surprisingly many full time "poker pros" had a spouses income, a retirement, or some other factor make their poker earnings more of a nice side income than a full-time/pay the rent, sort of deal. Old poster Jim Brier used to talk a lot about that, to pull a name out of the past.
I don't think you're wrong in the vast majority of cases. The exceptions might disagree with you with passion.