poker pro - hardest job there is?

[Henry17]

Anyone who fails at law school is a loser. The hardest part of law school is getting in. Once accepted it is pretty much just three years of killing time.

So if I understand your point. We should say that poker is hard and requires all this special skill when it clearly doesn't so as to not hurt people's feelings?

[Janabis]

It's like you're a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and saying "Oh wow this is the easiest job ever, all I have to do is go to a baseball game once a week and throw balls to some guy for an hour and I get paid $5 million dollars a year! Everyone should do this!" And when someone explains that this is too 'hard' for them you reply "Well it's actually very easy to throw strikes, I don't know why you're so bad at it!"

[killphilNI]

Henry,

I agree with a lot of what you are saying but you seriously underestimating to emotional control and psychological fortitude required to beat the game over a prolonged period of time. Whilst a lot people could take their game to a level where they make $100K if they put in the hours, very few will keep it there when times get tough.

[Henry17]

[ QUOTE ]
It's like you're a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and saying "Oh wow this is the easiest job ever, all I have to do is go to a baseball game once a week and throw balls to some guy for an hour and I get paid $5 million dollars a year! Everyone should do this!" And when someone explains that this is too 'hard' for them you reply "Well it's actually very easy to throw strikes, I don't know why you're so bad at it!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Several problems with you analogy but I'll just point out the most obvious.

MLB pitchers are the top of their profession. Playing at the top level in poker is also hard. We are not talking about that. We are talking about playing at a level where you make $100-150k/year.

[Henry17]

[ QUOTE ]
Henry,

I agree with a lot of what you are saying but you seriously underestimating to emotional control and psychological fortitude required to beat the game over a prolonged period of time. Whilst a lot people could take their game to a level where they make $100K if they put in the hours, very few will keep it there when times get tough.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd actually argue the opposite. The longer you play the less emotional and psychologically taxing the game becomes. When someone is first starting out bad periods are scarier then when they have been playing for 5-10 years and have experience bad streaks many times.

The psychological taxing factor is only relevant to new players or players who are playing with scared money.

[Luciom]

I agree with henry on almost everything. If u r experienced, and properly rolled, win a good/decent win rate, swings dont matter at all. If u make tries at higher stakes, r not properly rolled, or u just barely beat the tables and the rake then u should play lower, so as the swings dont matter at all. But one of the things we r not considering is that in this negative sum game people theoretically could catch up and then in a few years all your experience would be worth so much less. This is not true for lawyers (although a lot of them r having issues with the fact that so many people go to law school, expecially if they r not from top tier schools), or most other professions. The hedge fund and private equity industries r the only analogy i can find in the real world to that sense. So, in a sense poker it's "hard": it has the added uncertainty of the fact that u almost never create value and so the stream of money could indeed diminish a lot in the future (As it did for lhe, and as it did a bit for nlhe as well). I think this is the number one reason for many people not putting their best efforts in this endeavour: they fear it will not be worth it in the future, when they have other career opportunities. So they still play poker, but a far lower level that they could, as we all know than doing more than 1 thing at a time very well is very very hard.

[Janabis]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's like you're a starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and saying "Oh wow this is the easiest job ever, all I have to do is go to a baseball game once a week and throw balls to some guy for an hour and I get paid $5 million dollars a year! Everyone should do this!" And when someone explains that this is too 'hard' for them you reply "Well it's actually very easy to throw strikes, I don't know why you're so bad at it!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Several problems with you analogy but I'll just point out the most obvious.

MLB pitchers are the top of their profession. Playing at the top level in poker is also hard. We are not talking about that. We are talking about playing at a level where you make $100-150k/year.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can take the same analogy with a AAA baseball team with players making $100k/year like a mid-stakes poker pro does. Either job is still too hard for 99.9% of the population.

[Henry17]

Well no. That is why they are not comparable. I can teach almost anyone how to make $100-150k a year playing poker in a month. I know nothing about baseball pitching but I don't believe they could be taken from nothing to AAA pitcher in a month. So the two professions are obviously of different difficulty levels.

[Janabis]

[ QUOTE ]
I can teach almost anyone how to make $100-150k a year playing poker in a month.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't believe that for a second. Think of all the people who have tried expert coaching, watching videos, posting to 2+2, and playing every day and still whine about breaking even at 0.10/0.25NL. Or, the guys who get past the basics but spend their entire poker career going on tilt and blowing their bankrolls every other month because they don't have the mental fortitude or clarity of mind to recognize a -EV playing situation. I don't even think sbrugby or cts could make the kind of claims you're making.

[OnYourBike]

Henry is smarter, wealthier, a better poker player and [censored] hotter chicks than all you.