blonde poker forum

Know there's been quite a bit of discussion on "poker as a career" - and area I love talking about with my professional Hr head on. Poker Deck linked this article on Facebook - think its a really good read, especially for some of the guy whom play for a living; no answers as such but jst really well written and some interesting discussion areas

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Column:-The-Poker-Career-Gap_66337/

Yeah, tis a good read.  Always wonder about some of the young poker geniuses, and if they could be making a fortune and building a career elsewhere or not.

Barry Shoelace just owns with that column at the moment

Good read!! Thanks

Confirmed, Barry and his columns are incred. much love.

Excellent article.

Historically, there used to be a stigma in some countries over being called a Professional Chess Player. I recall being told that most of the USSR players would get permits to leave and play in other countries in the 50s-70s (the time of the great Russian teams) on the basis that they were Journalists. Tal's own book on his greatest games refers to him as a journalist.

If you wrote an article or a chess book, you could describe yourself as one, sort of, even if it wasn't your living, as at least it was internationally recognised as a profession.

I follow Barry on Facebook and everything he writes or posts links to is worth a read.

I once met him in real life. He's so dreamy.

He's so witty and charismatic too.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I must say some of the discussions recently on blonde have influenced a lot of the stuff I've written lately. My next column is on amatay's breakfast.

OMG!  Barry Carter ITT!!!!

oh pls make that happen. many pics. pls pls pls

Yea it's a good article.  I talk to a lot of players that went straight from school/uni to poker (some of them for a lot shorter than others..) and I agree a lot of them do have some very transferable skills... allbeit a hard sell on a CV trying to break in to a new field.

The biggest area of weakness in that group (yes this is a generalisation, there are some exceptional exceptions) is that they just can't take direction very well at all.  One of the first books I ever read on poker was John Fox.. 'Play poker, quit work and sleep until noon' and it all sounds a very nice existence when everything is going well, I'm sure a lot of players that haven't even heard of the book sign up readily to the sentiment.  

A reasonable stint in paid employment (kind of like a watered down National Service) does give some backbone to a lot of people.  Getting up to the sound of an alarm clock is manageable after all, mornings go from being non-existent to highly productive, spare time is more valuable and often better used because of that.

If I was 21 again (there's another thread for this...) and was doing well enough at Uni playing poker to want to do it full time, I'd definitely either do a part-time Masters in a topic of interest or at least learn a language fluently, which is pretty easy to do when you can play from a laptop anywhere) and start to build a skillset that is both useful in life and would open doors into the workplace at a later point.

Not really sure how sleeping until noon is a good thing ?

I'd much rather play 8-6 and have a better social life than having to grind 2-12.

The book was written long before you were born Ray.. no internet poker then, games started at 9pm.

Apart from that, I'm a firm advocate of early mornings.  6 a.m. (not so much in the winter admittedly) is without doubt my fav time of day.

have played irl with Barry Carter and can assure you he is a massive whale  6c 2h ftw

lol, thinly veiled 'remind everyone about the live donkament you won' methinks.

I once made Barry Shoelace move to my left in a cash game, true story  ;D

Great article though mate I can certainly empathise with the serious hobby section as for the ~9 months I considered myself a professional poker player I was always grateful I had the writing to pay the bills.

If I were to ever go down the same route again, at the very least I'd like to think I'd volunteer in some capacity. Be it help out a charity that I have some affiliation too, coach sport or something. a creative outlet outside of poker essentially. I think volunteering is a viable alternative to studying to get something on your C.V. as I imagine the hours etc would be more flexible due to it being unpaid. Means as a poker player you can just flit off to a live tournament for a week, with less worry.