Plenty of people play poker for a living, professionally gambling and reaping monetary reward from a turn of a card. Pro gamblers, like many pro athletes, are actually self-employed. But not everyone can create a career one full house at a time. And for some, playing poker is more a waste of money than wise career choice. How can professionals tell if they’ve got what it takes to turn card-playing into a rewarding career?
The Downside of Gambling
Here’s the main problem with playing poker or engaging in any gambling: it’s addictive as witnessed on online-betting.vn website. Even the professional poker players featured on TV or YouTube often have this problem. Many of them bet on everything they can find – from what cards will turn up at a nearby table to which players will win the pot. Even as they gamble their money playing poker, they find new ways to gamble on the games they play. Some pro gamblers will tell cameras they love online poker – losing several thousand dollars in a single sitting.
For many people, this sort of excess seems extreme. But for professional card players, it’s all just part of the game. Big stakes, big losses and major wins are all rolled into one. In other words, many players have to lose big to win big…but those big wins may not come as often as they’d like.
Play Poker for a Living
There are those who manage to create a career with the cards, however, and for some it might be the perfect career choice. It is possible to play poker for a living – after all, TV and YouTube viewers see the faces of those who use skill with cards to earn their daily bread all the time. But million-dollar pots aren’t the norm even in big money poker games. Those who play poker for a living with success know that it’s continual basic strategy and skill that creates a career, not a single big win in a single big game.
Create a Career with Cards
So, how can the average person know if they have what it takes to play poker for a living and create a career with nothing more than cards and a dream? Sit down and play. Read books, play for free freecell online, take a trip to a nearby casino and find out how the cards fall. With practice comes more skill and knowledge, and with skill and knowledge comes a better understanding of how to make money with the game.
Gambling addiction will always be a hard-fought battle, and can destroy even the best card players in the world. Don’t spend to excess and don’t chase dreams that don’t pan out. A few people can play poker for a living, but the vast majority of self employed professionals cannot. Remember, above all else, don’t spend money that isn’t really there or throw a bet on the table that can’t be backed up. Once it’s on the table, the money’s lost. Use that philosophy before trying to create a career with cards one full house at a time. Those who play poker for a living know that luck has very little do with winning – but keeping cool and playing it straight create cash they can take all the way to the bank.
Serious Games
How do you define game? Usually, a game is considered something fun, something that is not of importance but which one chooses to do for amusement. Therefore, if you wanted to stress the seriousness of something, you would exclaim: “This is not a game!”. A game is also something that is opposed to work, something you do as a pastime.
Games and Money
Enter money. If games develop a large numbers of followers, there is a profit to be made. We know this from sports, which attract a huge number of fans and therefore sponsors. This leads to professionalization, the game enters a new dimension and suddenly becomes much more than a game to a lot of people. It can now even become a valid career option, evidently opposing the above definition of a game.
Magic: The Gathering
But could this happen outside the world of sports? It can, and it does. Chess, for example, is considered to be a kind of sport by a lot of people, is a game that has professionals. And it was only the beginning. The card game Magic: The Gathering was not only voted one of the top five mind games by Mensa in 1994, it has been so successful that to promote it, a Pro Tour with several tournaments is held every year, each tournament paying $40,000 to the winner and the overall annual prize payout of the company being several million dollars. Other card games have since followed, for example the World of Warcraft adaption that paid its world champion $100,000. That is more than most working people make in a whole year and so top players use their hobby as a means to finance their studies instead of spending money on it.
Poker and Virtual Gaming
An even better known example is tournament poker. Players can make millions, and even on the lower levels it can support a comfortable living. Computer games, too, have attracted a huge following, not only creating a whole business branch for their design but also being played at tournaments that, especially in some Asian countries like Korea, are even broadcasted on TV and thus include the whole machinery of fans, sponsors and merchandising. In the new wave of mass online games, people pay real money to purchase virtual bonuses that other players have achieved. The high demand for virtual gold in the World of Warcraft online game has created a business called gold farming. Workers are paid to play and then the gained in-game currency is traded for hard dollars via the Internet. This industry is worth billions of dollars but is a serious health risk to the hired players, many of them underage Chinese who play for 12 hours or more every day.
Why Professional Gaming Is Good for Business
For gaming companies, it remains crucial to advertise their games and the best way to do that is by giving every player the hope of fame and fortune, to make them before everybody else believe that they are not just playing a game and wasting their time but in fact have the chance to turn their hobby into their occupation and to become a professional. To create stars and pay them to be just that means is the best promotion they can wish for.