Post
Topic
Board Gambling discussion
Re: [AMA] The Life of a Professional Gambler
by
tyKiwanuka
on 30/01/2020, 14:48:43 UTC
You are saying in the OP, "I am doing this since around 15 years", but since I don't know your age, I can't determine for how long you've been in this business actually.

The thing is that I'm a poker player myself, not professional, but I love Texas Hold'em, and I play this game a lot(I'm in total profit of about 0.15 BTC from 3 years of playing). And I have a theory, that anyone who knows the rules of the game and also has the knowledge of the basic concepts of probability, can be in profit for 2-3 years in a row just because of luck. I came up with this theory not because of my personal experience, but rather after reading and watching videos about famous poker players. Tom Dwan, for example, was losing millions of USD within a particular year, and not just once.

What are your thoughts on that?

I went pro, or tried to, after maybe half a year of losing and saying to myself I either up my game and start winning or quit. So I am betting for around 15,5 years.

If you are playing profitable for 2-3 years in a row, you are not lucky, but have developed some skill to beat the tables. You can't be just lucky for 2-3 years winning with poker. You know, the good thing in poker, and what is quite contrary to betting, is, that you don't always have to compete with the best of the best. In poker you can choose your limit that fits your skills and what you are comfortable with. You can play small stakes and take money from a lot of donks. When you rise up the limits, it will get harder to make some money and you are probably the donk then Grin If you play high-stakes poker with small stakes skills, you will probably have to file for bankruptcy very soon.

In betting you will always have to compete with the best of the best. There are no markets for newbies or not so skilled people. You compete with all the sharks right from the get go.

With all those rich poker players losing millions or even going broke at some point, this is for various reasons I think. The playing style of Tom Dwan is pretty reckless to say the least. So some variance is very much expected with him. And poker players often go through rough stretches, where they are just not able to play their A game for a long time. But if you win $10m over a few years and then lose $3m in one year, it's not that bad of an average income I think Wink And it's something you have to deal with mentally, work your way through this, maybe do some additional theory and not go on tilt. Believe in your abilities and always try to improve. Not improving is deadly.
These very good poker pros often earn lots of money at a very young age and this might be a bit overwhelming for them and not healthy. They never learned to value money and that it's hard work earning it for normal people. And they think that they can make millions playing poker forever. So they get a bit careless and cocky I think. Every good businessman went broke at least once earlier in his career they say Wink