An Unprecedented Time: Teenagers and Poker

[Jurollo]

So I was thinking about this on a long drive the other day. When, if ever, has their ever been an outlet even remotely as lucrative for 18+ year old kids (and sometimes younger) as online poker is right now? What effects do we think that the opportunity for a fairly large group of youngsters to win/lose fairly large sums of money in a short amount of time will have on this generation short term/long term if any? How many of said prodigies can we suppose will make the most of their winnings? Squander them? I think it will be a VERY interesting dynamic going forward for the next 10-15 years+

[88jayhawks]

I think another questions that can be asked is if the success is sustainable.

[SlowHabit]

You missed the dot com boom.

Edit: The thing I've learned about money is that if it's easy come, then it's easy go. It might be different with other young adults but I doubt it. It is also hard for them to use that money to create opportunities for more moneys. The reason is simple. Most of them want baller status by shopping for expensive items. Now, there's nothing wrong w/ spending lavishly. It's your money; you can do whatever you want with them. You can even light your cigars with them and post in BBV. More props to you.

Obviously there are those out there that will take their poker winnings and rape the world but this group is small. Again, the reason is simple. Most do not recognize that to create wealth, one must use other means beside self as a vehicle to accumulate income. As a poker player, you can only do so much.

[Jurollo]

[ QUOTE ]
You missed the dot com boom.

[/ QUOTE ]
The difference is that the ability to be able to grind up $20-$50 into hundreds of thousands was much more of a struggle when investing in dot coms then it is in the online poker boom.

[SlowHabit]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You missed the dot com boom.

[/ QUOTE ]
The difference there is that to be able to grind up $20-$50 into hundreds of thousands was much more of a struggle, inability in that then it has been in the online poker boom.

[/ QUOTE ]
Can you rephrase the sentence?

[Jurollo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You missed the dot com boom.

[/ QUOTE ]
The difference is that the ability to be able to grind up $20-$50 into hundreds of thousands was much more of a struggle when investing in dot coms then it is in the online poker boom.

[/ QUOTE ]
Can you rephrase the sentence?

[/ QUOTE ]
Haha wow. I am super tired sorry for that.

[jaydub]

[ QUOTE ]
You missed the dot com boom.


[/ QUOTE ]

And the housing boom. A huge number of 18-25 year olds became mortgage brokers / real estate agents and just raked in cash during the good times. An aggressive broker with no morals could kill in a hot market.

J

[Dids]

Isn't the really easy answer to this question "2 years ago?"

[jeffnc]

Bah, there have always been "get rich quick schemes". Some of them work for a short time, some of them work only for a few people. The same "dangers" of youth have always existed. Some people make easy money and don't learn soon enough it's not really that easy. There are a lot of rich and not-so-talented "dot commers" out there, for example.

[APXG]

Poker is / was a unprecedented opportunity for 18-22 year olds to a)make lots of money AND b)accumulate an amount of wisdom within a few years it takes most people decades to reach. Future financial success will depend on one's focus on B rather than A, because a focus on B is simply a longer path to A, while a focus on A while disregarding B is a path to financially spoiled ruin, regardless to how much money was made.

In other words, its all about what you learned, partially because the people who are in the top echelon of "accumulated wisdom" are by defualt successful enough financially where the difference between their networth and that of the top top "financial" echelon is not going to be important in the long-term.