An Unprecedented Time: Teenagers and Poker

[inyourface]

Online poker is just not sustainable IMO, these wonderkids who I admire greatly have accumulated ALOT early but I wonder what the cost will be if they have sacrificed an education.

As the OP stated we won't know until 10-15 years down the line but I will be keeping up with it all whether I am still playing online or not myself.

[ArturiusX]

I'm a trader and I'm still waiting for the poker boom to end, all the kids to throw down their bankrolls into a broker, and end up losing it all trying to play the markets like poker [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[yad]

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"My sister for example just graduated law school, did well but not spectacular, and will be making $200k next year at the age of 24."

how do you graduate law school at 24? thats kool though, everyone talks about lawyers being unemployed.

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go to college at 18, graduate at 21 and go directly to law school. 3 years in law school, out at 24. pretty common actually.

[yad]

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i can see your point for sure, but 24 after graduation and initiation to the real world is different to 15-18 and not being able to wait to be legal in vegas so you can go and dump money being a balla with all the other cool kids.

i don't even mean that "omg people are making so much money and going to be so rich". i mean that they have access to so much and are taking it for granted and throwing it away, and it won't last forever and is really a bizarre situation.

like with the 200NL thing, i didnt mean half decent 200NL grinders actually ARE sitting there making 6 figures a year. just that they easily COULD be, without even needing any sort of intellectual brilliance, just the discipline to not piss it away... and that collectively the majority of us will look back on the situation and think w t f

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Fair enough, 15-18 definitely is very different from 24. Still, the number of 15-18 year olds making 6 figures from poker is probably dwarfed by the number of 15-18 year olds making 6 figures from daddies trust fund or whatever -- rich young kids who don't really understand the value of money are hardly something new to the poker boom.

As for people who COULD make lots of money at poker, if only they had the discipline: It's true, but anybody COULD make 100k+ per year, entirely without poker, if they had the discipline. It's not like it really requires that much brilliance to work your ass off, go to a good college, and become a doctor or lawyer or engineer. Certainly anyone who is not inherently pretty stupid could manage it, given enough determination. The thing that holds the vast majority of people back in life is not a lack of intelligence or relevant skills, it's lack of discipline and determination. So yes, these folks could make 100k+ -- but they only have the least important part of what's needed, and lack the most important. Sure they are taking it for granted and throwing it away and it won't last forever -- but this is not very different from the folks who had the smarts to go to that ivy league school (or maybe just the good state school) and instead didn't buckle down in high school and will wind up making much less throughout their whole lives as a consequence. Or those that are more interested in partying than studying in college, or whatever.

[Hume]

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6ptbb/100 at 6-max $25NL = $3 * ~75hands/hr =$2.25/hr/table *8 tables = $18/hr. $18 * 14=$252/day * 360 days = ~$91k. I assume rakeback would put them over 100k but I don't feel like calculating that right now. If they can play 10 tables, get more hands per hour, or beat $50NL for anything more than 3bb/100, they can make over $100k from play alone. Obviously this would be insane and very difficult for anyone without a gun to their head to accomplish, but it is possible.

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How are these crack dream calculations in any way relevant to how many people are currently making 6 figures per year on poker?

[The B]

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I remember I was in Paris for the WPT in summer 2006 and an old, friendly live poker pro who I think has been around for awhile told me something along the lines of "kid, you have 8 thousand-dollars in your hand. go double up." It's stuck with me for a long time.

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[Indiana]

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I think a lot of people will have amazing stories to tell ten years from now, and not much else - many professional poker players included.

A lot of players will have debts and drug addictions that will take years to recover from.

Very few will be able to sustain the comfortable living that they are enjoying now.

It is possible that the success will be prolonged with legislation, or legalization in Asian countries, but even then, the games will dry up again.

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Zee, I seriously disagree that poker will be "dried up" in 10 years. I believe that we are barely scratching the surface of the scratch. Many people thought that Amway would be dead 10 yrs ago and its still a pretty viable company.

Please do explain. Lots of guys were making HUGE bank long before the moneymaker boom, and sure, it may slow down a little, but I cannot see this poker phenomenon drying up anytime soon.

Indy

[Omnificent]

Truely a timely thread...

Being considered over-the-hill at 33 around here, gives one a different perception on things. I early posted a question about the average age of 2p2'ers simply out of the amazement on some of the rudeness displayed by posters to either simple requests for HH help or (shock and awe) accomplishments made.. I suppose one could chalk this up to the far and few that post this shyte, but reading through hundreds of threads, the theme does seem consistent. Now to attribute this to success online?? not sure, but I do think it's alarming.

It is unfortunate that the media continues to portray poker as a "get rich quick" scheme that any average joe can pull off, and perhaps that is why there is a perception that hey..if you aren't raking it in big in a short period of time then your contribution to society, whether in poker circles or not, is irrelevant and your some idiot that deserves to get a reply of "you suck ass"..

In a more direct answer to the OP..I think the dynamic will be freightening for more then for it will be for less..to explain..

Those players that are willing to put in the time/effort/dedication to earn and then learn will make contributions to society far and above our wildest, but those that choose to earn and not learn will burn out and fade away, so the societal implications are two fold, both great and saddening.

[SlowHabit]

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I think a lot of people will have amazing stories to tell ten years from now, and not much else - many professional poker players included.

A lot of players will have debts and drug addictions that will take years to recover from.

Very few will be able to sustain the comfortable living that they are enjoying now.

It is possible that the success will be prolonged with legislation, or legalization in Asian countries, but even then, the games will dry up again.

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Zee, I seriously disagree that poker will be "dried up" in 10 years. I believe that we are barely scratching the surface of the scratch. Many people thought that Amway would be dead 10 yrs ago and its still a pretty viable company.

Please do explain. Lots of guys were making HUGE bank long before the moneymaker boom, and sure, it may slow down a little, but I cannot see this poker phenomenon drying up anytime soon.

Indy

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In my opinion, "dry up" means the games get tougher at the higher limits. One can only move up the blinds to a certain point.

A simple example would be the good regulars at 2k NL. They don't like the variance [or not good enough] at 25/50NL+ so they chill at 2k and shoot at the players taking shots.

[Indiana]

so could we agree that it will always be doable to make, say, 100K/yr, but that making a lot more than that will get harder and harder as time progresses?