For CronoDAS or anyone else thinking of using poker as a handy side-income (or small main income), I have a few words of warning. First, the games have gotten tougher and will continue to do so.
Second, poker is really demanding game psychologically. This is because the expected value of a competent player is so small compared to the inherent variance of the game. The expected value in say one hundred hands might be 1-2 units whereas one standard deviation in similar sample might be 20 units (or even significantly more). This in turn means that a good player might have periods of tens of thousands of hands where he loses money. Dealing with this sounds easy in theory, but is really hard in practice.
That said, it shouldn’t take but couple of months to become a winning player with today’s resources (books and video coaching sites) and make a modest income with effort of only like 20 hours a week.
By the way, another downside of the occupation is that it’s completely useless for the humanity in general and your income will come from people that shouldn’t be playing the game in the first place.
When I played poker with my brother and his friends, I didn’t think it was all that fun, and I didn’t win very much either. I don’t plan on going into online poker for real money any time soon.
Well, there are a few things. I’m good at Magic, but I don’t think I’m good enough to play professionally. I’ve never qualified for the Pro Tour. There seem to be lots of players that are better than I am, and you usually have to be world-class in order to make more than pocket change by playing in Magic tournaments. (In order to get better at Magic, the obvious next step for me to take is to try to seek out players in my area that already are world-class and learn from them.) Additionally, competitive Magic requires a continual investment in new cards; $1000 or more a year is quite possible, and travel costs and entry fees also eat up a large chunk of change.
The closest thing to online poker for Magic is, well, “Magic Online.” At one point, I was playing it and turning a profit, at least in terms of the MTGO event tickets. However, turning MTGO event tickets into cash is difficult, as eBay and PayPal fees eat up a distressingly large percentage of what you can make by selling them, and if someone tries to cheat you, there’s little recourse.
By the way, another downside of the occupation is that it’s completely useless for the humanity in general and your income will come from people that shouldn’t be playing the game in the first place.
If you channel the income in the right direction, it won’t be useless.
I read jajvirta as saying that the occupation itself doesn’t produce positive externalities for mankind, unlike productive work in physics research or something.
Productive work in physics could produce negative externalities if humanity cannot be trusted with new physics results. Hell, even math education could produce negative externalities!
By the way, another downside of the occupation is that it’s completely useless for the humanity in general and your income will come from people that shouldn’t be playing the game in the first place.
In Hunting Fish, A Cross-Country Search for America’s Worst Poker Players, Jay Greenspan conceives of the poker world as a giant inverted pyramid, with the fishiest (i.e., least skilled) players at the top pouring money down the pyramid toward the most skilled players at the bottom, such as Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey.
For CronoDAS or anyone else thinking of using poker as a handy side-income (or small main income), I have a few words of warning. First, the games have gotten tougher and will continue to do so.
Second, poker is really demanding game psychologically. This is because the expected value of a competent player is so small compared to the inherent variance of the game. The expected value in say one hundred hands might be 1-2 units whereas one standard deviation in similar sample might be 20 units (or even significantly more). This in turn means that a good player might have periods of tens of thousands of hands where he loses money. Dealing with this sounds easy in theory, but is really hard in practice.
That said, it shouldn’t take but couple of months to become a winning player with today’s resources (books and video coaching sites) and make a modest income with effort of only like 20 hours a week.
By the way, another downside of the occupation is that it’s completely useless for the humanity in general and your income will come from people that shouldn’t be playing the game in the first place.
When I played poker with my brother and his friends, I didn’t think it was all that fun, and I didn’t win very much either. I don’t plan on going into online poker for real money any time soon.
Magic is my game. ;)
Could you play Magic profiessionally? What’s in the way? Just a matter of startup money?
Well, there are a few things. I’m good at Magic, but I don’t think I’m good enough to play professionally. I’ve never qualified for the Pro Tour. There seem to be lots of players that are better than I am, and you usually have to be world-class in order to make more than pocket change by playing in Magic tournaments. (In order to get better at Magic, the obvious next step for me to take is to try to seek out players in my area that already are world-class and learn from them.) Additionally, competitive Magic requires a continual investment in new cards; $1000 or more a year is quite possible, and travel costs and entry fees also eat up a large chunk of change.
The closest thing to online poker for Magic is, well, “Magic Online.” At one point, I was playing it and turning a profit, at least in terms of the MTGO event tickets. However, turning MTGO event tickets into cash is difficult, as eBay and PayPal fees eat up a distressingly large percentage of what you can make by selling them, and if someone tries to cheat you, there’s little recourse.
If you channel the income in the right direction, it won’t be useless.
I read jajvirta as saying that the occupation itself doesn’t produce positive externalities for mankind, unlike productive work in physics research or something.
Its not only a lack of positive externalities, but the presence of negative externalities. Your gains are someone else’s losses.
You provide entertainment to people. Both players chose to play so even if one player has a negative expectation in $ he might enjoy playing the game.
Productive work in physics could produce negative externalities if humanity cannot be trusted with new physics results. Hell, even math education could produce negative externalities!
In Hunting Fish, A Cross-Country Search for America’s Worst Poker Players, Jay Greenspan conceives of the poker world as a giant inverted pyramid, with the fishiest (i.e., least skilled) players at the top pouring money down the pyramid toward the most skilled players at the bottom, such as Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey.