I see a lot of people answering threads with things like "I don't play for the money" or "I just play to have fun". Does a boxer like to get his head beat in, does a Jockey like 2nd place? If you play poker for money you play to win money not loose it. This to me is just more of poker players dismissing their losses and not owning to the mistakes that they make. If you want to play poker and contribute to the game put up and stop making excuses for your losses. I think that responses like this are for people who are losers and cant figure out what they are doing wrong. Can a poker player be successful and profitable with such an attitude or will they always come away a loser? And if not why are you all clogging up the threads with garbage answers? we are here for the love of the competition and to be the alpha. I say man up with your posts, accept your losses and stop justifying your bad play with sheepish answers.
There are people who like to get beaten up just for the sake of a fight (much rare in females than men) these people are not so much masochists as sensation junkies who have found an alternative to drugs to FEEL alive. A Jockey may well be happy with second place because he doesn't want the lack of a social life or stress he'd have to bring into his life in order to beat #1.
As for poker, poker is not a job for many. For many it is an alternative to paying for cocaine or going out to a nightclub and getting laid. It's somethign you pay for a thrill. You have no right at all to conclude why people do what they do.
Some people may not entirely enjoy what they do (be it poker or boxing) but definitely don't want to be number one either. They are happy just being better than most and making do with the joy of playing in and of itself being their foremost reward and the financial gain by being better than most fish being their secondary reward.
You are telling me that every boxer fights as disciplined and cool-headed as Mayweather? No heavyweight boxer or middle-weight boxer can get to 50 wins with no losses do you know why? Above welterweight, which is where Floyd Jr. Mayweather fights, you can't fight logical or flawlessly defensive as the power of the punch from the other guy no matter how solid your form is, can break through your arm via shockwave/force and rattle your ribs to cause internal bleeding form one shot. The reason Mike Tyson despite blatantly not being smart was such a dominant force in the heavyweight boxing world is that you could strategically land 20 hits on him and in 2 shots he'd not-so-metaphorically break your mind open in shock. He had a unique training program that trained only how to punch hard and very little legwork or stamina because his style revolved around not needing strategy. He genuinely enjoyed getting punched and laughed as he was smashed even when he lost he smiled at times. He literally was an animal in the ring and felt no shame in his losses (which resulted from opponents who specialized in minimizing the impact of hits on their body rather than dodging them, you couldn't dodge a tyson smash-hit it went faster than human reaction time, you could only train your chest, neck/jaw and stomach to take a pelting so that you would be able to stand after four hard hits and then he was your prey for the rest of the fight as his diet and build was terrible for drawn out fights). Many boxers other than Floyd Mayweather embrace loss and the glory of having a unique strange style that isn't optimal but feels so fun doing, and this is also true in poker even amongst sharks (Durr, Tony G, Selbst to mention a few).