[keyle]

Thanks for your candid report. Not enough people tell it how it is, and everyone thinks they're special.

Fact is, a lot of top players also have deals on the side, with brands and ambassador things. I feel you need those deals to make up for the bad runs.

I love the game, but the variance can inflate egos and the grind makes other hobbies more attractive.

[ryandrake]

> Thanks for your candid report. Not enough people tell it how it is, and everyone thinks they're special.

That's a good point, too, one I failed to mention. A lot of people are losing poker players, but they don't know it. They don't keep records, and they don't manage and analyze their bankroll over time. A losing poker player has a negative EV. If you buy in to 20 $1000 tournaments, bink one of them for $15K, you're on top of the world, but guess what, you're a losing poker player. Cash players are even worse. They donk off $500 a night but only remember that time last week when they were up $5000 and cashed out. Congratulations, but your EV is still negative.

By my own measure, I was a losing poker player for most of my years playing the game, and I have a spreadsheet to prove it.

[_9omd]

A similar thing happens with stock and crypto traders. They do a ton of trading during a bull market and feel like a genius, because they bagged a few big wins, but they downplay all their big losses. At the end of the year and once short term capital gains are factored in, they end up making less than the total market index, but due to poor record keeping are convinced they’re some kind of trading savant. Once the market turns down they’ll likely lose it all and be forced to become a social media influencer selling bullshit trading courses to unsuspecting victims.

[jSully24]

I thought this describes many gamblers: remember the wins, quickly forget the losers, be it pull tabs, blackjack, slots, etc.

[MaxfordAndSons]

It does, but there is a crucial difference between poker and most of those other forms of gambling, in that it's possible to be a long term winner at poker, as opposed to games that structurally favor the house. So, you have to be dumb to think you can beat slots long term; you merely have to be delusional to think you can beat poker long term.

[markus_zhang]

Yeah. It's difficult to keep track, especially in cash games. But to be pro is to treat it as a business. I completely agree.