Did Fedor Holz really have zero profit for four years?

[SillentHunterZ]

I read recently what Fedor Holz said on twitter, that he didn't have any profit for the first 4 years of his play. Did he mean no significant profit or no profit at all? You really need to be dedicated to play 4 years with "no profit".

 

[DS3]

Well, it seems like a tall tale.

Holz's story is he was bored with university which he began attending at 17, so he became interested in poker and started playing with friends. He was admittedly bad for a year, studied and then rapidly improved.

At that point his bio says he was making hundreds of dollars a month and then he began to win thousands in tournaments in his second year. In his third year playing he and friends moved to Vienna to play full time.

I think we can be fairly sure Fedor looks back on the early career as 'low-earning' compared to his crazy rise to success and earning millions. However, that was not 'no-earning' as historically he was earning thousands by his second year.

 

[Whaevoz]

Because "profit" is defined as the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something, it is quite conceivable that someone could be a winning player and still not show a "profit."

 

[Nathan Williams]

Yes, Fedor said this himself on Twitter earlier this year. You can split hairs over what he meant by "profit," but I would assume he meant he was somewhere around breakeven.

Bottom line is his story tells you that perseverance is a powerful thing in this game!