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.