On Poker and Stress
Matt Maroon posts about why he quit playing poker for a living. For everyone who aspire to become professionals, it’s worth reading. In fact, for all of us who have decided to stay casual players, it’s still worth reading - because it affirms our decision. Read it here:
http://www.thepokerchronicles.com/archives/000947.html
“Imagine you go to work every day and do your absolute best. You work as hard as you can, do everything perfectly, or at least as close to it as humanly possible, and throughout the day, every 15 minutes, your boss comes over and tells you that you are an idiot. Each time he tells you that everything you do is wrong, even if you know it’s not. Then instead of paying you, he forces you to write a check to the company. ”
Let me add to this analogy that sometimes your boss will pat you on the shoulder, tell you how great you are and give you a large check in reward for doing something you really shouldn’t have. Getting money like this doesn’t make you happy; it frustrates you because you know you didn’t earn it. All this time, you’re looking for some indication that you’re actually performing well (and what’s going on is just your boss being an idiot) but him rewarding you like this is the contrary to what you need.
God, downswings suck. Not getting in over my head and deciding to aim for professional poker is one of many decisions this year that I’m happy about.
This is true but there are degrees in everything…
I would have to say that in most I agree with what Paulson say’s however supplementing your income at a relatively low level isn’t that stressful and is certainly more fun than working in a supermarket…
My youngest brother has been paying his way through University by playing poker and whilst he does find it stressful and at times unrewarding, it’s definately a better prospect than working in Asda which is his other main source of income.
Of course the bigger the stakes the higher the stress and possiblity of large cash losses / bad beats is not something that anybody would relish. But if you take things steady and don’t play for big money, concentrate on lower level freerolls and just getting into the money then hour for hour it can be quite rewarding.
And let’s be honest very few of us are in the position where we feel truly happy about our work or truly valued for our input.
I personally play for fun and hopefully a little profit so it’s difficult to say objectively whether the playing poker is a poor career option or not. But I would say that in most jobs these days there isn’t a huge amount of satisfaction and most of do the daily grind for the paycheque at the end of the month… So if you are good enough to win a lot of cash playing poker - yeah it’s gonna be stressful - but so are most any jobs that offer any decent financial reward.
Any way that’s my two penny’s worth
Comment by MartinBrowne — November 29, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
Great article; it was something I was thinking about a lot lately.
I’ve always aspired to make the most money out of poker as possible, and I’ve found that my biggest downswings are when I play the most (see ~50 STTs in a day :o). Even though I’ve always said I don’t think I could be a pro, I’m only now realizing just how hard that would really be, and how little I’d like to live a life like that.
I’m happy with playing for a couple hours after coming home from my 9-5
Hope you’re still running good on the side games!
oh, and have stox given you your free 3 months?
Comment by ChuckTs — December 1, 2007 @ 7:55 am
Running decent on the sidegames, no word from Stox yet
Comment by F Paulsson — December 5, 2007 @ 2:32 pm