poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Cliff notes at bottom.

Sorry if this has already been discussed, couldn't find anything on it though, so here goes.

It's my contention that being an online poker pro is one of the hardest jobs a person could do. What are you thoughts on this?

I will explain my thoughts...

I play mid-stakes 6max LHE for a living. I try to play as much as I can each month, to make the most money I can, and as many tables as possible to maximise my hourly rate.

I've found that playing 6 tables is optimal for me in terms of hourly rate, and I just cannot drive myself to play more than 40k hands each month. Sure, I could play less tables and it would ease the load on my mind a bit - but I'd make less per hour. And I could play less each month, but I want to make the max I can.

Given the outline of 'my job' above, I truly believe what I'm doing is one of the most difficult jobs there is. I am constantly making decisions... many easy decisions like preflop and c-betting flops HU... but many difficult decisions that really take some thought. After a long session, my brain is just about fried. It takes so much concentration and focus - there's no looking out the window and thinking about the weekend like most jobs.

And then there's the swings. I think I handle these better than most. But I have yet to meet a poker pro (and I know quite a lot) that is uneffected psychologically by the swings. 100BB downswings in one day are quite common... breakeven stretches for weeks... 3-500BB downswings. It's hard to remain unphased. It's not even the money that bothers us - it's that thought in the back of your mind that you're no longer playing winning poker. The games are constantly getting tougher... am I currently being outplayed? It doesn't feel like I am... but I keep losing... this is what goes through a poker pros mind.

I'm trying to think of what other jobs are tougher. Sure, you have physical jobs... labourer, whatever... that's not the kinda difficulty I'm talking about. I would love to go out and "labour" for the same money I'm making playing poker, but it just doesn't happen. Any sort of office jobs is usually pretty repetitive and doesn't require a lot of brain power once you've been doing it for a while... plus you can always sit and do nothing for 5 minutes and nobody would know. I'm thinking something like a surgeon might be difficult... there's the emotional aspect of playing with someones life, but I'm sure once you get the experience that goes away. And then there's the old favourite of comparing a poker pro to an air-traffic controller...

I'm sure being an air-traffic controller is mentally intensive. You can't look away from the screen (similar to poker). You literally have peoples lives in your hands - emotional aspect. But just how many difficult decisions do you have to make? I'd say most decisions are pretty rudimentary. Can it really compare to being constantly put in tough spots by other smart players trying to outplay you?

I started writing this thread because I've just come off the phone with a girl I've started seeing. She's very demanding of my time... I've told her I'm busy when I play poker and that I can't be disturbed - but she doesn't see why I can't talk on the phone, or chat on msn at the same time. I am stupid, because I've allowed it whilst just playing 3 tables before... but once I crank up 6 tables and try to talk, she may as well be talking to herself. She doesn't understand how difficult it is. Does anyone that doesn't play? We have argument about this... I have said to her, "You have no idea what I'm trying to do here" (play winning poker). I really think it's one of the hardest things you can do.

Would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

joop

Cliff notes : I think being a poker pro is one of the toughest jobs there is and would like peoples opinion on this.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Most mentally end emotionally demanding maybe; it's at least up there. Hardest no.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Care to go into more detail?

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

40k hands a month doesn't sound like that much. Are you still in school or do you have another job?

I do agree it is near impossible to play more then 2-3 tables and have any meaningful conversation with anyone. But I do over 40k hands a week and still have time for an active social life and GF so I'm not sure what the issue is. 6 tabling it you shouldn't be playing more then 3 hours a day.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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Care to go into more detail?

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You've never done hard physical labour, right? Try farming in the middle of winter in a cold country or working in a mine in Nigeria.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
40k hands a month doesn't sound like that much. Are you still in school or do you have another job?

I do agree it is near impossible to play more then 2-3 tables and have any meaningful conversation with anyone. But I do over 40k hands a week and still have time for an active social life and GF so I'm not sure what the issue is. 6 tabling it you shouldn't be playing more then 3 hours a day.

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40k hands a weeek? Ummm. You're obviously very new to poker. Come back in a couple of years and tell me you play 40k hands a week.

I've been playing as a pro for 3yrs now... I know a lot of pros... 40k hands a month is probably just above average for a pro. I would say between 30 and 40k is about average.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Care to go into more detail?

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You've never done hard physical labour, right? Try farming in the middle of winter in a cold country or working in a mine in Nigeria.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you missed the part of my post where I said, "Sure, you have physical jobs... labourer, whatever... that's not the kinda difficulty I'm talking about.".

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

3 years. WOW. I'm impressed. lol. I use to do 40k a month when they didn't allow multi-tabling.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

40k hands is about 400hrs of poker single tabling @ 100 hands/hr.

So that's over 100hrs of poker a week. Ummm, okay.

All I can say is the experience I've had, and the discussions I've had with other poker pros... 40k hands a month, month after month, is a pretty decent amount. Most poker pros play 30hrs or less each week.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

One thing I wanted to add in to my initial post, and kinda mentioned it, but didn't make it that clear. But I think it's becoming evident...

Is the question of whether anyone can really understand how difficult it is to be a poker pro, when they haven't actually done it? It seems to me they just cannot understand it. Is there anyone out there that has done many difficult jobs AND played poker for a living - so they can offer their comparison.

And just to clarify, I'm not talking 20k hands a month of 3-4 tabling small stakes for 6 months. I'm talking 40k hands a month of 6 tabling tough mid-stakes LHE games for year after year.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

So if you are only playing 30 hours a week why don't you have time for your GF?

That is what I'm having trouble following. People with 9-5 jobs work more hours then that and they don't even get choose when they work and they manage. So I'm not following what your problem is?

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

joop:

there is just no way that a job where you set your own hours and are in control of all of your decisions can possibly be a hard job.

if you are exploiting tiny edges and have little or no savings, it can become very, very difficult - if this is the case, then yes, poker is hard.

when things are going bad, poker is a very difficult job. when things are going well, poker is the easiest thing in the world and you wonder why everyone doesn't do it.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
So if you are only playing 30 hours a week why don't you have time for your GF?

That is what I'm having trouble following. People with 9-5 jobs work more hours then that and they don't even get choose when they work and they manage. So I'm not following what your problem is?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not having time for a woman wasn't really the crux of my post. All I mentioned in fact, was that she seems to think I can talk/chat whilst playing - and that she can never understand how difficult what I'm doing is.

Let's stick to the primary point of the thread. How difficult is being a poker pro.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Ok I misunderstood. Sorry.

It isn't hard at all.

1) The level of play is a joke. Compared to when I first started playing it is so much easier to make money now.

2) Online adds a whole level of convenience. I use to either play underground or drive 4-6 hours to get to the closest legal game. Now I can play roll out of bed and just log on.

3) It has gained in respectability. Now when I tell people I bet on sports and play poker for a living they think it is interesting. 10 years ago they thought it was sketchy and probably that I was dealing drugs or something else illegal.

4) Physically it is pretty much nil. You get to set your own hours. You can work 20 hours a week or 100.

5) It is 100% merit based. No office politics. No BS to deal with.

Poker is only hard as Triumph stated when someone is playing with no savings and needs to win constantly.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

I posted in NVG and I'll post here aswell, OP you are an idiot and you insult everyone who works for a living. I have no idea how you people survive in real life?!

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Playing multi-table-online-meta-poker seem demanding on the brain yes but I wouldn`t call it "hard" sorry.

It sounds to me like you don`t know how to manage your time and work.
If 6 tables is too demanding you know the answer to that...play less tables?
Don`t be a slave to the money it`s not worthed.

Think about so many people in the world that hate their job and do it only for the money.
They have fixed work hours,deadlines and bosses.
They hate doing the boring job and feel miserable for it but they have no choice in the mater...they must.

The idea behind playing poker for a living is to avoid that trap, to work on your own hours without bosses and deadlines.
And most importantly, to make a living doing something that you enjoy doing.
That`s the simple secret to happiness.
To get payed for something that you would do for free.

Now.. your post sounds like you don`t enjoy what you are doing, you find it hard and it interferes with your social life.
Do the math and tell me how is that different from the millions of biter people doing some boring worthless office jobs while daydreaming for something better.

This is exactly why I`m not a fan of online poker.

Live poker on the other hand is something totally different.
Being a mostly live pro with putting few online hours in the mix is a perfect job for someone who loves the game of poker.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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Ok I misunderstood. Sorry.

It isn't hard at all.



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I don't know how to edit quotes, so I will just address your points in order.

1) I've only been playing 3 years, but in that time the games have only gotten tougher and tougher. Not sure what games you play, but I thought this was widely regarded as fact.

2) Playing online is considerably more difficult than playing live, I don't care how far you have to commute to play live. Commuting doesn't make the actual job difficult, per se. Online I play 500 hands an hour, live - people play about 35-40 hands/hr. Online is much more mentally intensive.

3) Respectability doesn't have much to do with difficulty. Kinda off-topic.

4) I did mentioned in my first post that I didn't want to compare physical labour type jobs with being a poker pro. It is a different kind of difficult - I have worked a very hard laborious job before, you can't compare the two. Setting your own hours has nothing to do with the difficulty of the job... I'm sure most jobs are available in "part-time" roles, or limited hours. So since I said most poker pros play 30hrs/wk or less, lets compare apples with apples and look at other jobs where you work 30hrs or less - so probably any other job, in a part-time position.

5) True, merit based. Which adds stress. You can't go into work and slack off because you know the salary comes in regardless - you have to be at your best whenever you work. Poker doesn't have office politics, that is true... not sure how hard that is to deal with, never been in that situation.

Most poker pros have savings and do not "need" to win constantly. If you ask them if there job is difficult, I'm guessing most would say yes. They sure wouldn't say, "well, I have savings, so I don't need to win constantly... soooo, it's pretty easy".

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

1) Over the last 3 years I'd say the game has stayed consistent. About 2003 the games became so soft that it is hard to judge but anyone who can't make money now never will.

2) Commuting does make the job harder. So does the number of hands played / hr. Making decisions isn't hard. If I want to play 1-2 tables I can do it while reading the newspaper. It requires very little attention. Making decisions is only draining when you get to multi-tabling. You might want to decrease the number of tables you play.

I also find equipment makes a major difference. At home I can 8-12 table no problem because I have a duel monitor set up. With my tablet I'm pretty much limited to 4-5 tables. You are playing 6 tables so I assume you have s decent setup?

The one aspect of playing online that is much harder about online is that when it goes bad it is so much faster. You can get hit hard by a series of bad beats in rapid concession and that can be mentally exhausting. Again I think this is a bigger issue if you are playing with a short bankroll and making enough just to live day to day. If you have savings this will be much less draining.

4) The flexibility of the hours is important. I can play right now or if I don't feel like it I can play tonight. When you have a job even part time you'd need to show up at a specific place and specific time.

I think you are under estimating the importance of having plenty of savings. If I run bad for a month I'm not going to freak out. Someone who is a week away from needing rent money is going to be under a lot of pressure. That really changes the mental stress of the game.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

LOL HARD AT OP!!!!!

Im an electronic engineer.
Ever tried working on a technical project to a deadline?
Ever tried a 36 hour straight shift THEN going to site to fit the thing?
Ever had a contract that could make/break you hinge on whether you can get something to work in the next 8 hours?

Thats pressure son.

Even then thats not even close to being the toughest job, there are hundreds tougher.

Off the top of my head its probably nursing or anything medical.
Seriously, have a long think about getting into the real world.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
LOL HARD AT OP!!!!!

Im an electronic engineer.
Ever tried working on a technical project to a deadline?
Ever tried a 36 hour straight shift THEN going to site to fit the thing?
Ever had a contract that could make/break you hinge on whether you can get something to work in the next 8 hours?

Thats pressure son.

Even then thats not even close to being the toughest job, there are hundreds tougher.

Off the top of my head its probably nursing or anything medical.
Seriously, have a long think about getting into the real world.

[/ QUOTE ]

What this guy said, plus what i said above which you selevtively avoided answering. Grow up ffs, you insult everyone with a job with that question.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Just a few notes...

I don't think commuting makes a job harder. Two brothers both work as accountants... one walks out his front door and accross the road each day. The other catches a train for 2hrs into London, and back home each day. Which one has the harder job? Neither - they're both accountants. Commute is irrelevant, IMO. Which one has a harder time getting to their job? Obviously the second guy.

In regards to number of tables played. Since someone else also suggested playing less tables to make things easier. This is kinda a non-issue, since I started in my inital post "given the outline of 'my job' above", and that was playing 6 tables and 40k hands a month. That's what we're comparing to other jobs. I'm not looking for a way to make my job easier, I'm accepting it for what it is - and wanting to compare it to other jobs.

I get the feeling you play NL? There's a big difference between 6max LHE and NL in number of tables people can manage... playing winning poker at 8-12 tables of 6max LHE is pretty much unheard of at midstakes. There was a thread in MHSH a while ago where the consensus was that to acheive a modest winrate in todays games, people were playing 4 tables on average.

Flexibility. I guess having flexible hours makes it an easier job. It's more the time that I am playing that I was comparing, though [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

And regarding savings - a midstakes pro will have 6months living expenses ready to fall back on, so that is not an issue. Any "pro" that is living week to week isn't being much of a professional.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

this has to be a joke post. the only hard part is mentally in that you don't have a guarenteed income.

other than that it is undoubtedly one of the easiest.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
this has to be a joke post. the only hard part is mentally in that you don't have a guarenteed income.

other than that it is undoubtedly one of the easiest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not a joke.

How long were you a pro?

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

I used to do cleanouts, move furniture, cut grass, flip burger as well as other food service crap and all were harder then playing poke imo.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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[ QUOTE ]
this has to be a joke post. the only hard part is mentally in that you don't have a guarenteed income.

other than that it is undoubtedly one of the easiest.

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Not a joke.

How long were you a pro?

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meh played for last 3.5 years as much as i can. 6 months each year full time, other 6 months almost full time. took about 6-7 weeks off each year to pass exams.

i want to carry on playing pro now. making $250/hr+ at a computer game is every mans dream.

the only times i haven't wanted to go pro is when ive been losing, and that mainly becuase i haven't been playing well enough. my fault for playing badly, not the profession (and no not variance, just not playing well).

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Dude, try teaching kids.

With most jobs, if you refine your skills or get more experience, you are not directly (or immediately) compensated for it. Or your undercompensated.

Poker is great that way. It's one of the few meritocracies. Really, I can't think of another profession where skill and reward are more directly correlated. Maybe pro sports.

This is the benefit that outweighs all the bad.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

how about paremedic? at least if your aces get cracked nobody dies. plus they work 78 hour shifts sometimes...

I work in a factory 40 hours a week and make crap, poker is how i relax in my free time, i think people in situations like mine are why your post is causing aggrivation. I beleive that anything could seem very hard out of context but if you went and got a full time job doing something like assembly line work i think youd be DYING to go back to poker, dont complain TOO much, you are one of the lucky ones.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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I used to do cleanouts, move furniture, cut grass, flip burger as well as other food service crap and all were harder then playing poke imo.

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Playing poker is much harder then flipping burgers or being a cashier or whatever, at least on a per hour basis. Obviously pokers better overall because you make way more, can set your own hours, and don't really have to play that much, but if you offered my 300/hour to flip burgers vs. 300/hour to play poker I'd flip the burgers.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

[ QUOTE ]
With most jobs, if you refine your skills or get more experience, you are not directly (or immediately) compensated for it. Or your undercompensated.

Poker is great that way. It's one of the few meritocracies. Really, I can't think of another profession where skill and reward are more directly correlated. Maybe pro sports.

This is the benefit that outweighs all the bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a point some other people have touched on, so I'd like to address it. The fact that in poker we are rewarded monetarily directly based on our skill level doesn't make the job less/more difficult.

I like your pro-sports analogy because I'm into cycling and have thought about competing. I consider playing poker as a pro similar to this endeavor... and it's exactly why I consider poker to be so difficult.

As you get better and better at poker you start to move up the stakes... and of course, you come accross tougher and tougher competition. It's the same in cycling, say you are a CAT3 racer and move up to CAT2... you got better, but so did everyone else - it's still just as hard as ever, it never gets easier just because you got better. Same when you move up to CAT1, then you're racing against guys that are one step away from going pro. It's the same with weight training at the gym - you are almost always lifting close to your max... it never gets easier, because when you get stronger, you put more weight on the bar.

When you move up stakes in poker, it's good because you make more money - but it actually become harder, because your opponents are generally much more skilled. If I could sit and play $1/2 and make the same money I can at my current stakes, my "job" would be much easier. I wouldn't have to think nearly as much, I could go on auto-pilot, I wouldn't be faced with as many difficult decisions - and the general stress of playing would be much less because I'm up against easier competition.

I liken this to most other jobs. Your skills increase, you gain more experience and knowledge of your work, but it never actually gets anymore difficult. Say you're working in McDonald's for example. You've been there a couple of years and can handle the mad rushes of peak hour - you can make 300 burgers an hour, or whatever. The manager doesn't come up to you and say, "Hey buddy, we like your work - we're moving you up to our super-store, you're gonna need to pump out 500 burgers an hour". Another example, say you're an accountant... this job requires basic math skills... it never gets any harder, you do the same [censored] day in day out... after a while, you are going to be able to do it on auto-pilot. It's not like some day all of a sudden you're gonna have to be doing complex calculas - it just stays what it is. Most jobs continue to be the same, whilst the employee becomes more proficient... how much money you make is irrelevant.

There's an economic balance in the world where people are paid a suitable amount based on the difficulty of their job. There's a reason labourers aren't paid well - because it's mindless grunt work. Same with flipping burgers. Same for a cleaner... what's difficult about their job? Nothing. That's why they get paid so little.

So what about the well paid jobs... like a doctor or a lawyer. These are much higher paid because they are more difficult. They require much more knowledge, a much higher education, demand more of the employee, and generally are much more stressful - this is why they pay more. I feel it's the same for poker... if poker is so easy, like most people in this thread claim it to be, then why isn't everyone doing it? Because it's not. It's like trading the stock market... oh, that must be easy, sit on your ass every day and click buy or sell when stocks are going up/down... EASY! If it's so easy, why does almost everyone that attempts to trade for a living end up failing.

Generally, the highest paid jobs are the most difficult. There's a reason poker is one of the higher paid jobs.

Oh, and to all those people saying how lucky I am to play poker for a living... how exactly have I been lucky? Making poker my life for 3years wasn't luck. Working my ass off to beat these games day in day out wasn't luck. I *wish* I could be one of these poker pros that says poker is easy... I wish I had a natural ability to beat the games with little effort... unfortunately it's been a damn hard slug for me.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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There's an economic balance in the world where people are paid a suitable amount based on the difficulty of their job.

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This is rubbish.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

i woke up this morning and wanted to play more online poker.

no matter how good the day before has been at accountancy, i will never want to go to work (my brother would testify this and he's been working a bit over 4 years).

and yes, the above quote is completely incorrect.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

This debate really centres upon what is meant be "hard". I think the poster makes a pretty decent effort to explain that he is talking about the mental difficulty of poker rather than physical. Trying to compare what is a harder job, working in a mine or being a surgeon is of course totally dependant upon which of these definitions you are discussing. In many jobs you are paid for your knowledge, rather than length of hours or physical demands- academia for example. Being an acedemic isnt too difficult if thats what you do (its what i do), but many people would find it tough. Put a bunch of professors down a mine and they probably couldnt take the work, but stick a bunch of miners in a lecture hall and they couldnt either. Very tough to compare the two.

Getting back to the initial point, I still disagree with the post. I would say the difference is that the work you do playing poker is heavily rewarded (i assume) financially, but if you didnt aim for that kind of money you could play less tables, drop down limits, and still earn far more per hour than most people. Doing this does not need nearly as much focus, especially with experience behind you. Dunno how much you earn but there are probably not many jobs out there that you could earn the same wihout 7 or so years of study and a whole lot of effort. If youre after the big money then stressing out playing higher limits and 6 tables is just what you have to do. You have a choice to lessen your work load, lessen your stress levels, and still grind a steady profit to live on, and still earn as much as most low level professionals. Of course, this is totally dependant on where you live and what you can do outside of poker, but there arent many jobs where you are your own boss like that. I would say im a semi-pro but wouldnt want to spend my days grinding on a computer screen. If you can handle doing that then good luck but I dont think you can compare its difficulty to some 'real life' jobs

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

i get the feeling youve never done any real work in your life. as far as my comment on lucky, i meant it in the sense that if you are capable of playing a game for a living you are one of the lucky few. in all sincerity, if its so tough for you maybe you dont like it, try getting a dayjob and see how you feel in a year, perspective helps.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

I think the problem is OP is isolating the act of poker itself to a meaningless level. He wants to strip away all the elements of employment and compare just the bare act of the job.

As such he is right to judge that poker is difficult. It has stressful periods when it is running bad, it requires a special skill etc. Being a greater at Walmart is thus much easier.

This is a meaningless exercise. The way he has set it up digging a ditch for $9/hr is the same as digging a ditch for $700/hr. He is just comparing the act of ditch digging and so everything else doesn't matter. In reality it does matter.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

any kind of medical doctor working in a hospital has a harder job than a poker pro (esp. surgeons), working ungodly hours, night shifts, having ppl die in your hands, killing ppl by tiny mistakes, fear of law suits etc... is alot worse than anything a pro poker player could face...

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

FWIW, the hardest job I ever had was door-to-door selling.

It was sort of like poker. You could pitch 100 people in a day and make no sales. Or you could blow up and make $500 in commissions.

I think jobs where your everyday performace is tied directly to reward are harder. Employees who get a bi-weekly paycheck can slack off (or lose focus) a day here and there. But there paycheck is still the same amount.

You can't slack off at the poker tables at all and expect your paycheck to remain the same. Maybe this is what the OP is getting at.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Prop traders

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

Don't know why everybody is giving OP so much greif. What he said definitely has some merit even if it's not entirely accurate. On the surface, yes online poker pro sounds like a breeze. Playing a game for a living that doesn't even require pants sounds pretty sweet, but it's not quite that easy. Maybe for some people it is, mostly those that absolutely love playing poker, but for most it isn't quite so fun.

I also think it's a little hypocritical for some people to compare their job to being a professional poker player, given they have no experience as a pro, and only imagine it as fun and games.

There is no doubt that most jobs are tougher in terms of lifestyle. You have to put in way more hours making literally a fraction of what a good online player makes. However, when you're playing poker there is no downtime like 99% of jobs. You are constantly making decisions where as almost all jobs have significant downtime, and a lot of people only work hard enough to still earn a paycheck every week. That attitude doesn't work for professional poker. Playing bad will not make you money, in fact quite the opposite.

I would also say that putting in a lot of hours playing poker is much harder than putting in the same hours at practically any other job.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

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I would also say that putting in a lot of hours playing poker is much harder than putting in the same hours at practically any other job.

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The problem is you can't compare hours. You have to compare earnings. Stocking store shelves after hours is pretty easy and if you compare 4 hours of that vs 4 hours of poker then obviously poker is harder. But poker also pays 50 times as much. If you compare 200 hours of stock shelves vs 4 hours of poker then poker is much easier.

That is the problem with OP's post. He wants to just look at the actual job without any of the other relevant information. That is why he is getting so much grief since everyone else is looking at the complete picture.

Re: poker pro - hardest job there is?
 

If you really think your job is hard then you need to take a step back and examine what you are doing. You say you want to make the highest hourly rate, but why? If someone would pay you $100 an hour to walk or $110 to run, and you choose to run, then you will probably think you have a tough job: "man, every day I work for 4 hours and I'm completely exhausted!". There is also a fable that goes something like this: a king tells a peasant that he can run in a circle until sundown, and the man can keep all of the land inside the circle he makes. Naturally, the man runs as fast as he can to make a big circle, and just as he finishes at sundown, he collapses and dies.

I would suggest that you read some books on sports psychology or self-hypnosis. Figure out what your motivation is, what your goals are. Even 30 hours a week doing something you find so stressful isn't good for your health in the long term.