Pokerific

Most people who know me know that I don't like playing poker, nor do I like gambling in any capacity. My personality is simply to risk averse to allow me to place money on something involving chance. However, I've recently become quite jealous of some friends of mine. Last night a friend of mine won 80K in a 1K buy-in tournament...and that's for placing 4th. The 1st place guy got 200K. I also know of people who make about 4K an hour from playing poker. They do this rather consistently and win more than they lose, thus resulting in quite a nice income for a recent college grad. Now, I know there are people out there who play poker for a living. The online community of poker players has made this even easier to do in recent years. I really don't have very much respect for them. I don't view that as doing any proper work and there's not really any mobility in that job. Sure you can make a ton of money and live in the lap of luxury, but there's really more to life and even more to a job than making money. How can you feel at all productive when your day is spent playing cards? How can you have any effect on the world by doing so other than just increasing your personal net worth and then spending it on hookers and booze? I just think this sort of behavior demonstrates a lack of personal conviction. Now, most of the people I know that earn a lot of money online either do it as a side thing for extra money or are using it for bigger and better things. If I had the ability to make that kind of money, my life choices right now would be a lot more flexible. I would really be able to afford to get into the work I'd really like to do such as owning a business or getting my MBA. It'd be so nice to have that side income which made me not really concerned about money. This is what makes me jealous of my friends that are able to make that kind of money playing online poker. They use it to supplement their lives and in the end be able to make more out of themselves and make their impact on the world. And I respect that.

You got to know when to fold them
Know when to hold them
Know when to walk away
Know when to run