The Well: King Yao

[King Yao]

"Strictly from a financial standpoint, is there any reason for a winning poker player to handicap sports? There are a couple guys that I follow because it requires very little time and effort on my part, but in my experience the time that goes into handicapping makes it a much less profitable use of time than playing poker. Agree? Disagree?"

It depends how you handicap. Are you a "scouting" handicapper where you have to watch the games to get a good feel? Are you a fundamental handicapper that needs a lot of time to input current statistics as they happen? Are you a relative-value handicapper that just looks at a database and compares value in different bets? This is pretty much what I do for baseball...it takes me about 5 minutes a day now. It did take me a long time to set up my database, but now it is almost automated.

Also, do you ever feel you need a break from playing poker? If so, then another positive EV activity can really be a nice addition. Some people don't mind just playing poker 24/7, but others get a bit bored and lose focus. So a different activity can help.
Sorry for the vague answer, but "it depends".