Did I miss the part where he lost his fortune?
I was wondering this myself.
How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
11–20 of 62 posts
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ditto. I also attempted to do this full-time but only managed to squeak out a moderate living, and eventually grew sour with those points of intense rage (going on tilt) that would crush weeks (and sometimes months) of work. It's strange how poker works but I imagine Buddhism and poker to be the most complimentary religion-to-profession complement on the planet. And I agree with the first point - poker is an empty jo…
I remember reading in a poker magazine where they had asked several professional players what it's like to be a poker player and they all agreed it's actually rather depressing. Your job becomes preying on people with gambling problems, and the whole idea of "emptiness" was brought up by everyone. I wish I could find that article again.
>Your job becomes preying on people with gambling problems
Or perhaps you have a gambling problem, but are successful enough to deny it.
FTA: > "Looking back, what I've figured out," he says, "is that no matter the amount of money poker players win, they still want more. You're never happy."
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#13[deleted]
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#14Did I miss the part where he lost his fortune?
I don't think Silverman (aka Zugwat) is broke -- the article's title is just a reference to the magnitude of the stakes that he played.
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#15Interesting article, although it kinda reinforces a false dichotomy - just because this player had an unhealthy lifestyle playing poker, doesn't mean you can't play poker professionally while living a perfectly healthy and otherwise normal life. In fact, the article keeps mentioning the "lavish" lifestyle of the poker players as a given, when that is also just a choice they make. I've always enjoyed playing poker. I'…
There actually are several aspects of being a poker player (online) that make it really hard, though surely not impossible, to live a normal life. You have very little interaction with other people, your working hours are partially out of your control, and it is incredibly stressful/tiring. I know a few people who managed to combine poker with a normal life, but I know way more who utterly failed. Sincerely, A guy wh…
There actually are several aspects of being a poker player (online) that make it really hard, though surely not impossible, to live a normal life. You have very little interaction with other people, your working hours are partially out of your control, and it is incredibly stressful/tiring.
I also used to play a ton of online poker and it was my ability to balance it all that ultimately convinced me I'd be better off trying to found a startup.
A lot of the skills overlap, which is why many of the successful high stakes players also have profitable side businesses.
If you're looking for an excellent discussion by a bunch of very successful online players on what they want to do with their lives, check out this thread, which is titled Poker vs Law School vs Trading:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19/high-stakes-pl-nl/nc-my...
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#16Can anyone point me towards some good online resources about getting started in online poker?
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#17Interesting article, although it kinda reinforces a false dichotomy - just because this player had an unhealthy lifestyle playing poker, doesn't mean you can't play poker professionally while living a perfectly healthy and otherwise normal life. In fact, the article keeps mentioning the "lavish" lifestyle of the poker players as a given, when that is also just a choice they make. I've always enjoyed playing poker. I'…
Poker is an education and entertainment product.
Entertainment, because professional players are allowing amateurs to pay to meet better players, and test their skills against them. There really aren't many other games where this is the case.
Education, because there are huge numbers of available lessons (in both hard and soft skills) for players who decide to think about the game deeply.
I don't see anything "empty" about it. But then again, I'm a winning poker player who ported lessons from poker into everything from business to my golf game. It's had such a positive impact on my life that I can't view it negatively.
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#18Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember reading in a poker magazine where they had asked several professional players what it's like to be a poker player and they all agreed it's actually rather depressing. Your job becomes preying on people with gambling problems, and the whole idea of "emptiness" was brought up by everyone. I wish I could find that article again.
>Your job becomes preying on people with gambling problems Or perhaps you have a gambling problem, but are successful enough to deny it. FTA: > "Looking back, what I've figured out," he says, "is that no matter the amount of money poker players win, they still want more. You're never happy."
I'm not sure you can really call this a "problem". That's like saying someone has an "entrepreneurship" problem because they keep wanting to create new companies from zero. If they're successful at it, why not?
Re: How teenage poker prodigy Steven Silverman won, and lost, millions
#20Interesting article, although it kinda reinforces a false dichotomy - just because this player had an unhealthy lifestyle playing poker, doesn't mean you can't play poker professionally while living a perfectly healthy and otherwise normal life. In fact, the article keeps mentioning the "lavish" lifestyle of the poker players as a given, when that is also just a choice they make. I've always enjoyed playing poker. I'…
I made good money playing online poker - that's what I did for money the last year of college and the first year after I graduated.
My group were some of the first people to adopt player databases to get stats on opponents. Some kids at my college made the first of these types of programs, and we knew them.
Any smart person can make money playing online poker. But there's more money in making software, by many orders of magnitude.