Last night I went to Atlantic City to see Cirque Dreams at the Taj. (It’s a really good show, btw, and the best seats in the house were only $35.)
Anyway, as I was walking through the casino on the way to the parking garage, it occurred to me — what do the following things have in common?
- Poker
- Day Trading
- Multi-Level Marketing
- Nigerian Scams
The answer is:
In each of these activities, someone who knows what they’re doing is making a whole bunch of money by taking advantage of someone who thinks they know what they’re doing.
There was a time if you went to a bookstore and looked in the games section the large majority of books would be devoted to chess. (Trust me on that one.)
But now, most of the books are about poker.
And a lot of geeks, having achieved varying levels of success at the chessboard, now dream of making it to the final table at the World Series of Poker.
An obsession with chess can be sad. But an obsession with poker can be downright life-destroying.
I honestly believe that it is possible for someone with the right combination of time, intelligence and motivation to make a lot of money playing poker. (I’m not so sure about day trading, MLM, or sending money to Nigeria.) But here’s some advice:
- To become a money-making poker player is 1,000 times harder, and takes 1,000 times as much work, than you think.
- There is a ocean full of sharks who will be licking their chops once they realize you’re one of those guys who thinks he knows everything about Texas Hold’em because he’s read 3 books and owns a copy of Wilson Turbo poker software.
- Remember the all-too-true adage — if you’re sitting at a poker table and you can’t figure out who the sucker is, it’s you. (And even if you’re pretty sure that guy sitting across from you is the sucker, you might want to do a reality check at the end of the evening when the “sucker” leaves with all your money.)
- Finally, if you think long and hard, I’m sure you can come up with something better to do with the amount of time, money, and effort that it takes to become a good poker player. (May I suggest blogging?)
Good luck!
