I invested a lot of time to learn more and play better. Only to realize that it might take me nowhere. The likelihood of being a professional poker player is very slim. Besides enjoying to play poker, cash games are not a certitude for financial freedom. They are not profitable all the time. Everybody has losing sessions, including me. That means I stil need a main job to pay the bills. And as for tournaments, they take up a lot of your time, just to build a stack and get to point where you need to win a flip AK -versus JJ or something similar. And again, you are lucky if you min cash.
Indeed, I understand what you mean. I believe that is the point of view that many people miss when they watch poker, and that is the amount of time you can dedicate to this activity without any substantial results. You can learn and hone your skills, but you still need to work since poker is not a serious source of income. Besides, poker tournaments are not something you can enter regularly due to the massive amounts of time investment needed for them. Hours and hours of gameplay, and your whole run can be determined by AK against JJ. 😅 At least, in case you still like the game, it is a good thing you did not waste your time on it!GrannySmit77 said:
😂 In my opinion the most expensive "investment" that poker could give you is the loss of your inner peace. Money could be earned and reaccumulated, but the price of having the poker bug inside you could be way more expensive. 😅Poker Orifice said:
For me, the biggest cost of poker is probably time. Between playing tournaments and trying to improve, you can spend many hours on the game without realizing it. I think it's important to have a balance and make sure poker doesn't take time away from work, family, sleep, or other important things.
Poker has cost me time, sleep, and plenty of emotional ups and downs. Long sessions can be mentally exhausting, and dealing with bad beats or downswings tests your patience. But it has also taught me discipline, bankroll management, emotional control, and better decision-making under pressure. If played responsibly, the lessons gained can be just as valuable as the money won.
For me, the biggest cost of the poker grind has definitely been time and sleep. When you get into a deep tournament run or a long cash session, it completely destroys your sleep schedule, which leaves you exhausted the next day. It also requires a lot of mental energy, sometimes making it hard to fully focus on social life or other hobbies. However, I believe that if you practice good time management and strict bankroll discipline, poker gives back way more in terms of strategic thinking, patience, and emotional control than it takes away.
For me, the biggest cost has probably been time and mental energy. Poker can easily occupy your thoughts even when you’re not playing: reviewing hands, thinking about bad beats, planning the next session or trying to recover from a losing day. The danger is that you’re physically present with family or friends, but mentally still at the tables. Sleep and physical activity can also suffer if you keep extending sessions. I don’t think pursuing poker seriously is necessarily a bad thing, but it needs boundaries. Money can be won back, but lost time and missed moments are much harder to recover. I’d rather play fewer hours with a clear head than let poker become the centre of my entire life.
Like Poker Orifice above my sanity as well but then again that can go for all of us that play and enjoy MTT's. After all we all must be insane to like something that makes us suffer so badly most the time 🤣 . Joking aside obviously poker has cost me sleep and yeah early on in my poker journey maybe a couple of my relations who knows I was trying and succeeded in the end when it comes to changing my life back then. So I might have lost those relations anyways. Time I won't even count cause I was going to spend that doing something anyway least playing poker I did something I enjoy and has been a decent side hustle.
At the end of the day I got more back then I've lost of over the years because of poker. I've had a hobby i really enjoy, am pretty dam good at. that's help me mature/grow and that has been a decent side hustle.
Cheers!!!
At the end of the day I got more back then I've lost of over the years because of poker. I've had a hobby i really enjoy, am pretty dam good at. that's help me mature/grow and that has been a decent side hustle.
Cheers!!!
