Are you a poker player?

There is more to playing poker than just playing cards. In fact in my opinion any form of gambling for a living and poker is included in that is one of the most difficult ways to make a living. There are many reasons behind this and there is an age old saying in poker that highlights exactly what I am trying to say. The old saying is that “to play poker is a tough way to make an easy living”. What exactly does that mean and how can you use the words “tough” and “easy” in the same sentence pertaining to the same thing?

Well if you pass through the tough times and make it to the stage where you are a winning player then poker becomes easy in that aspect. You can beat players simply because you are better than them and over time then money will surely come your way. However the biggest stumbling block is that money does not come your way all the time. How do you think that bad players keep on playing poker? They keep on playing poker for one simple reason and this is to do with the fact that they are not always bad players.

What I mean by this is that they often have long winning streaks that are often so long that it can really make some players think that they are beating the game. So when poor players get lucky for long periods of time then who do you think gets unlucky? You guessed it, the good players and the winning players that’s who. This is when poker gets “tough” because you are doing all of the right things time after time and pot after pot and yet you are still losing money. You see weak players all around you getting lucky and taking your money and life just seems so unfair!

This is what is meant by "tough" because although the money flows to winning players eventually, that can and does often take a very long time to materialise. So the phrase "tough way to make an easy living" basically means that the tough part is to do with the fact that you can be the best player on the table or even in the world for that matter but yet whatever you seem to do, there will be periods where you will endure terrible losing runs that make you wonder why you ever decided to play poker in the first place.

There are numerous examples of good solid professional players who have gone as far as to break even over 100,000 hands of poker. Limit hold’em players have lost 500 big bets or more and tournament players have gone over a year without seriously cashing. This just underlines how much short term variance that there is in poker but if you can come to terms with this and mentally accept it then poker really does become an “easy” living. This is in terms of not having to answer to anyone and not having to go out to work.