Nov. 01, 2003

A few weeks ago a long-lost friend found me via the miracle of instant messaging and let me know he had read some of my stuff. He asked if I ever played in that tournament where they dump all the money on the table.

"The World Series of Poker?" I asked. Yes, I told him I had played in that once, not for the cardboard box full of money but for one of the smaller events.

"So you're a professional poker player then?" He asked.

I sent a smiley face and explained that I was no closer to being a professional poker player than I was at being the first woman on Mars.

The truth about poker, and other forms of gambling, is that few people earn a consistent income from the game, and not everyone aims to make gambling their profession. "I always liked biking," I noted, "but that doesn't mean I'm following in the footsteps of Lance Armstrong."

The life of a professional gambler isn't any easier than the life of a professional bus driver when it comes to dealing with economics. In fact, it's probably tougher. The bus driver goes to work for eight hours, has his lunch and mandated breaks, then goes about his nonworking life. At the end of the week, he gets his paycheck with deductions duly noted and heads for the bank. He is grateful for the health insurance his company offers and happily contributes to his own retirement fund via and IRA, content in the knowledge that when he's old enough, he'll be able to retire with income and maybe play a little poker.

The poker player has to take money from whatever source he has, be it a full-time job, an inheritance, a savings account, or a loan and risk that money, hoping the risk will bring in a paycheck. Some days he might not find a game or if he does, the game might not last long enough to bring in the kind of money he needs. If he has a bad day or a bad week, he suffers because he has no guaranteed paycheck. And, unless he's a prudent and very successful pro, he has no health insurance, no IRA, probably not even a cheap life-insurance burial plan.

Even the best players have swings in fortune. They could ride high for weeks, months, even a year or so but sooner or later, this will change.

A poker pro doesn't have the luxury of sick days. If he doesn't go to work and risk his money (to say little about his health), his bottom line begins to feel the pinch. Whereas most jobs have paid sick leave, professional gambling doesn't. Plus, if the chosen career is tournament poker, the pro has to pay for transportation to and from tournaments; he has to pay for lodging arrangements, food, transportation, and so forth. To others, these expenses would come once a year, as vacation expenditure. To the poker player they are an ongoing outlay.

And probably the shakiest part of being a professional gambler is the loftiness of the stakes. Unless it doesn't make you nervous to be betting hundreds or thousands of dollars on the turn of a card, you shouldn't even think of turning pro. You can't be afraid to lose and you can't worry about whose money you're winning.

All this means, also, that you cannot have a cavalier attitude about gambling. Gone are the days of people like Amarillo Slim and Nick the Greek, who'd gamble on whether or not the next bus would be on time or the next golf swing would land in a sand trap.

Though the numbers are not large there are people who take their gaming careers even more seriously than most people take their more conventional jobs. Income derived from poker and perhaps a few other games pays the rent, buys diapers, fixes the roof, and pays for vacations. Poker is their career; everything else is a vocation or part time work.

So before you decide to change careers, keep your day job and dabble in gaming. Watch how the money ebbs and flows. If you can't handle both without tears and without holding off on paying the utility bill till next month, well it might just be a good idea to play at gambling, enjoy the wins and suffer the (little) losses. Don't be lured into the field by the stacks of money flashed on your TV screen. Remember, hundreds of people start the quest for that gold bracelet or that giant trophy; only one of them gets it.