poker pro - hardest job there is?

[Henry17]

Having more options doesn't make a game harder. No one forces OP to multi-table. If he finds it too mentally challenging he still has the option to scale back to less tables.

The response you quoted though was a tangent issue and really no longer related to OP's post. A side debate broke out about if the game is getting more difficult to beat. I maintain that, if it is harder in the last three years, then it is negligibly harder. That the game became so easy to beat in the 2002-2003 period that any change since is insignificant.

[insyder19]

Playing poker for a living is one of the easiest jobs there are. Maybe betting on sport events is easier, but it's harder to make their constantly money.

[Mathew82]

Playing poker online for a living is an easy job.

[CITIZEN_114]

The hardest part for me is when I turn on the computer, to not browse the internet for 4hrs before I start to grind. It's hard if your character is not really ideal to work on your own.

Other then that, it's not hard compared to the majority of jobs out there but it can be mentaly hard during downswings (even though that shouldn't be a problem if you are well rolled).
Henry got a point about maximizing your earnings though.

[jjacky]

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I never mentioned stressful, I agree that it's not really a stressful job. But multitabling online poker for hours on end is hard because it's so mentally taxing.

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Not really. The level of play is so bad that a good player can just play on autopilot.

A bunch of bad beats in rapid sequence could be mentally taxing but again any pro will have gone though that so many times that it shouldn't even register.

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If a lawyer or engineer had the necessary skills to beat 10/20NL for $500,000/year, or to bat cleanup for the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, I'm sure many of them would quit their jobs and do that instead. But not many of them will, because they don't have the requisite skills and therefore succeeding in professional sports or professional poker would be too 'hard' for them.

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With the loyalty programs and given how soft poker currently is; anyone can make $140k/year+ putting in 48 hours a week. I realize 48 hours is greater then the normal work week but given when I finished law school I was facing 80-100hrs/week it doesn't seem that taxing.

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why do you feel so bitter?

you are making ridicolous and sometimes annoying comments all over the thread. if you are as great a guy as you claim to be (which you most likely aren't, but the same holds true if you are only like 10% as great) you may want to visit a psycholigist to help fix your ego problems. if you made up all the brag-stories you should work on getting your life back on track.

[Luciom]

The OP should probably learn NL and play it up to 2 4. Then he would find the game relaxing and worth it, 6tabling or whatever for 4-5 hours a day with almost no effort (and yes, even playing on autopilot if needed be). Working as a pro in a dying poker specialty where only a few curios people and some tough regs remain IS indeed very hard. Playing poker online in general for a living is very easy if u have the skill, very hard if u dont; but given the skill it's easier than most jobs. U just apply your edge repeatedly and cash out every month. U dont have to make strange decision, in the sense that u saw every situation at least 500 times before so u really dont care to maximize the small perc points related to the actually different details. U just wait for their obvious errors and cash the money, while not making any obvious mistake of your own.
BUT, if u r talking about playing at your best level constantly, 40k hands a month for some years, then yes it is one of the hardest activities i can think of: but u dont really need to do that at all. Just find a game/specialty, where autopilot pays and cash the money, unless u r a poker lover also then study the game all life long trying to improve all those small details which in theory u could never care about and still make more money than most non-top level jobs (i am talkin 100k+ year). It also helps than unless u r american u basically dont pay taxes playing poker online which is a thing i really love of europe (either they dont care or they actually cant tax it, depending on the country).

This said, i fear the easiness of the job will level the field sooner that we think and before 2010 there wont be any more easy money to make around (too many second world people for whom 2k a month is a lot will join the rooms and kill the fishes faster than they get killed now at micro-small stakes).

[Henry17]

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why do you feel so bitter?

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I'm not bitter. You are the one who is getting upset about me stating that it is not hard to make money playing poker. The only reason you would disagree is if you are struggling. I don't know what to say. The game is a joke to beat.

Playing poker at the top level is difficult. Making $100-150k/year playing poker is very easy.

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Working as a pro in a dying poker specialty where only a few curios people and some tough regs remain IS indeed very hard.

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Choosing to play a poker variety that is harder to beat makes no sense and doesn't get anyone credit. If I hire someone to move something from the lobby to my apartment and they choose the stairs, when they had a perfectly good elevator at their disposal, then that is their problem.

[Janabis]

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Playing poker at the top level is difficult. Making $100-150k/year playing poker is very easy.

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As was already pointed out, 99% of the poker population will play poker for their entire lives without ever approaching this level of play, no matter how hard they try. Your response was that you just "don't know how to explain why people are so bad." The truth is that most people would have an easier time becoming a lawyer or learning how to perform brain surgery than they would in learning to play mid/high stakes poker.

[Henry17]

Well the practise of law is pretty easy too. Never went to medical school but it seems a lot harder.

That people don't win at poker doesn't mean any one of them couldn't. Most people are capable of playing winning poker they just don't. Anyone who wants to eat healthy can, but lots of people quickly end up back at McDs. It is not that they can't do it. They have the necessary desire, skills and knowledge but they just don't. Same is true of poker players. Which is a good thing because if everyone did improve the game would become much harder.

Assuming it was acceptable under the T&C to have a bot it would be pretty easy to program a bot AI that would, when you factor loyalty programs, make between $100-150k. This is with a very remedial AI. I think most of society is pretty stupid but not so stupid as to be less capable then an AI.

[jjacky]

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why do you feel so bitter?

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I'm not bitter. You are the one who is getting upset about me stating that it is not hard to make money playing poker. The only reason you would disagree is if you are struggling. I don't know what to say. The game is a joke to beat.


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the obove is (of course) very wrong. with your comments, you devalue the skills necessary to be a poker pro / very successful player. this is upseting and insulting, no matter if i am a professional (who wants his skills to be appreciated), someone who is struggling to make some money or a loser who is completely failing.

if you tell a successful lawyer and someone who failed on law school that the skills necessary to excel in this field are trivial, both would correctly be offended. one because his abilitiy is not respected, the other because it's more embarrassing to fail at something easy that at something difficult.