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I disagree with Eric here. Yes, poker helps you understand how to make decisions strategically and detach from the outcome. It teaches you to be emotionally resilient during volatile periods, gives you an insight into calculating the expected value of any decision, managing money, and human psychology, which are all useful skills that translate well into life. But all of these can be learned without playing poker.

As you get deeper down the poker rabbit hole as a professional, you are incentivized to compete versus players with weak minds and degenerate behaviors, to lie about your job if somebody asks, and to give up your nights and weekends where the games are best.

The better you get at your job, the less anybody wants you around at your own workplace, which is a terrible feeling. The worst kind of pain a human can have is by inflicting pain on another human, which you are doing constantly as a professional. Also, the game itself is zero EV (at best) and does nothing for the betterment of humanity. As I continued to play for years, I was getting sicker and sicker, both mentally and physically.

With that being said, this took me several years to realize and if you play six times a year with your friends you’re fine, but I believe it is a toxic game for most humans to start to journey seriously into.

The solution, in my opinion, is to take your useful skills and solve problems that improve people’s lives and make a positive impact on the world.

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TheGrinder 1mo ago

this is a hot take!

I agree that poker does nothing to better the world and yes, I used to spend countless nights in massive tournaments just to bust a few seats before the bubble. I got a lot of hate for destroying players with 7deuce. I isolated myself from the outside world (which I still do today but that's a different story). However, I never lied about my job, I didn't care enough about what others thought about how I made my money. I still don't today since most people think that Bitcoiners are just as retarded as poker players.

And yes, it's a toxic game and you must have the mental strength to stand above the toxicity or you'll fail. You're either a shark or you'll get sharked and poker sharks are mor like wolves, we can smell weakness and we will exploit that weakness. Furthermore many professional poker players are also degenerated gamblers. While they excel at poker, they will blow large junks of their winnings on black jack or slots.

However, my poker journey made me the person I am today. I read people like an open book. I have very tight financial management (bankroll) and yes, I'm always looking for an edge when I get involved in something. In many ways the poker mindset has become part of my personality over the years.

Is that a good thing or bad thing? I don't know. All I know is that it works for me.

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TheGrinder 1mo ago

nostr:npub18q204nzhrcrrz8875ytkpf8vk0eg649dc98xuqwsz65znph7z5asz07j7z I meant to add - Poker is what ultimately made me a Bitcoiner. Shortly after poker's black Friday in the US (where I lost a lot of money on UB, FullTilt and PokerStars) I started playing on SealsWithClubs (an Lock Poker) and eventually studied Bitcoin and I've been stacking ever since.

Meyer 1mo ago

Love hearing this!

Unfortunately lots of the poker players I know of are still degenerate gamblers and find their “edge” rigging the game in the shitcoin casino

Beau Winn 1mo ago

I also isolated myself from the outside world too, was constantly looking for people’s weaknesses outside of work hours, and had the most shallow personal relationships during my player career. Ultimately I didn’t like myself at all looking back.

One of my biggest epiphanies was playing against my poker “heroes” like Phil Ivey, Garrett Adelstein, and Daniel Negreanu. With all due respect to them, I realized I didn’t want to become like any of them and with the road I was on, I was likely going to.

It’s been a couple year journey to unwind these toxic patterns that poker played a big role in me developing, but I’m personally much better off now not playing.

Self-love is the answer and once you have this, poker becomes completely uninteresting as you’ll start to be interested in businesses that help people live better lives. I find that if you can look in the mirror and honestly say you love and respect yourself, then you are doing well.

I wouldn’t change anything just like you, and it’s a part of my story. I learned these lessons at the perfect time in my life.

Thanks for sharing your story and I’m glad you find this poker mentality works for you in your life. I found it didn’t work for me at all and I didn’t like the person I was becoming.