I ’d say that making a living by gambling is ambiguous so far as status is concerned. On one hand, it’s using cleverness to win again and again, and on the other, it doesn’t have the compliance and stability signaling you get from being a respected professional.
Since the people who are capable of making a living at poker would have a substantial overlap of intelligence and temperament with those who can become professionals, there might well be fewer people going into gambling than could make a living at it.
That is certainly true, but if their grandiose claims are true, it still doesn’t explain why they don’t spend more of their free time gambling. I mean, I’m having a beer or coffee with someone who claims to be able to earn so much from gambling that, if true, this means that he’s paying the opportunity cost of hundreds of dollars an hour for the pleasure of wasting time here with me and my friends instead of going gambling. That just makes no sense at all.
this means that he’s paying the opportunity cost of hundreds of dollars an hour for
the pleasure of wasting time here with me and my friends instead of going gambling.
That just makes no sense at all.
Playing high level poker is mentally very taxing and tiring. Even if one can do it for 2-3 hours per day, it’s often true that trying to spend too much time on it will result in losses.
I ’d say that making a living by gambling is ambiguous so far as status is concerned. On one hand, it’s using cleverness to win again and again, and on the other, it doesn’t have the compliance and stability signaling you get from being a respected professional.
Since the people who are capable of making a living at poker would have a substantial overlap of intelligence and temperament with those who can become professionals, there might well be fewer people going into gambling than could make a living at it.
That is certainly true, but if their grandiose claims are true, it still doesn’t explain why they don’t spend more of their free time gambling. I mean, I’m having a beer or coffee with someone who claims to be able to earn so much from gambling that, if true, this means that he’s paying the opportunity cost of hundreds of dollars an hour for the pleasure of wasting time here with me and my friends instead of going gambling. That just makes no sense at all.
Even Bill Gates and Warren Buffett waste time playing bridge and eating steaks and going to parties.
Playing high level poker is mentally very taxing and tiring. Even if one can do it for 2-3 hours per day, it’s often true that trying to spend too much time on it will result in losses.
People normally have diminishing marginal value for money, and need time off.