Job Security. In a time when US unemployment is at it’s highest levels in decades one thing we as poker players ought to be thankful for is that we cannot lose our means of making a living due to anyone’s actions but our own. We cannot be fired, and if we lose money at work, well we have no one to blame but ourselves. Sure you can make excuses as most of us do for running bad and blame the poker gods all we want, but ultimately our luck will even out over our career and if we put in the proper amount of time, hours and dedication we will succeed and make money.
This is not necessarily true in other jobs and the fact that poker is for the most part (with the exception of a few tourney donk winners) a meritocracy where if you work hard and are good at your job you will succeed. Think about all the other people a typical 40 hour a week job employee has to depend on for his or her livelihood. First he has to impress someone enough for them to hire them. Then he has to work hard to keep his or her employer happy so that he won’t be fired. It’s not even enough that he is good at his job and gets his work done, he has to make sure he still looks like he’s busy even if he has no more work to do so he won’t appear lazy. He has to make sure he doesn’t say the wrong thing to his boss, or give some offhand comment that may offend him personally that may be detrimental to him getting a promotion. He may even work hard and do a good job with his work, but a coworker he is working with on a project slacks off and as a result makes him look bad in front of his boss. Even if he and his coworkers do a good job, this does not necessarily translate into being paid more. His boss may still fire him due to the recession hitting, or he may promote someone else that he enjoys working with better but doesn’t do quite as good of work as him or his hard work may just go completely unnoticed. In other words, the system is not setup fairly to reward the hardest and best workers with the highest pay. While poker is not perfect either in this regard, you have to agree that it is a much more fair system than the typical 40 hour a week career guy faces.
So next time you suffer a bad beat, or encounter a big losing streak think about this for a minute. Yeah sure you lost money, sure you got it in good, but as long as you practice half decent bankroll management at least you’ll still be able to go to work tomorrow and have the opportunity to make money working. A lot of others, about 10% of America to be exact, are not lucky enough to be able to say the same.
In case you missed them in the Superbowl.
so very true. I don’t think for a minute that making your living from poker is an easy option but I bet if you listed the downsides v the crap that you need to contend with doing a ‘proper’ job – going pro would be a no brainer. for me at least.
Great post mate. I’ve seen a lot of pro players moaning on their blog about how rough being a poker player is / can be at at last someone who makes sense.
Did I see your name in the top three of a big tourney lately?
Well said. Isn’t the ability to control one’s own destiny ultimately both the most terrifying, and most satisfying things we can achieve? Stopping to be thankful for that is always a good idea, imo.