Gambling for a living is perhaps one of the toughest fields that there is. It doesn't matter if it is sports betting, casino games, live poker or Texas Holdem games online. There are enough problems with trying to learn how to gamble successfully but what compounds this even more is that the overwhelming number of people basically shoot themselves in the foot and never really give themselves a real chance of success. This is certainly prevalent in poker but the problems are endemic throughout all forms of gambling. So just what problems do you face?
Well firstly there are your own harmful personality traits, being compulsive, impulsive, angry, emotional, bored and all the rest of these negative emotions all impact on how you gamble. Some of the best books that I have ever read on poker were not strictly about poker but about financial markets and how financial traders and speculators operated. While it may seem strange to read financial books for poker advice, it isn’t when you begin to take on board that there are large numbers of similarities between the two fields.
Once you spot what these are then you can learn from professionals in other areas. Also the advice of others can be either your best friend or your worst enemy. It is all too easy to try to copy or emulate someone else’s system or style and this can be a short cut that many novices deem to be necessary but they are wrong. Each and every one of us has our own attitude to risk and that impacts on what should be the correct method of betting, gambling or playing poker. But you cannot eliminate everything that you have ever experienced in your life or for that matter everything that you have read. You cannot eliminate thoughts, existing opinions or misconceptions that you have that you don’t even know exist.
All of these are hurdles and obstacles that are laid out before you on the road to success. Is it any wonder why so few people actually make money in gambling and financial markets! Another issue which I have touched on is impulsive behaviour or in even worse cases….compulsive behaviour. If you know that something is wrong but yet you still feel a strong compulsion to do it anyway then you have a serious problem if this part of your personality reveals itself in any risk market. If this article seems all doom and gloom then that in itself is an illusion because it really isn’t.
What I hope comes across in this article is how many potential problems any gambler or speculator or budding poker player will face and many of them will be totally unaware to most people as potential problems. It is perceived that if you study and then learn a few valuable tactics and techniques that you can easily remember and then apply, that the path to making money will be a simple one.
If only life were that easy, but what complicates the process further for some people is when they hear of someone who they know who has managed to start making money very quickly. Sometimes this isn’t accurately related and on other instances, the people who have managed this feat have fortunately had the right personality set anyway and took to the particular risk environment like the proverbial duck to water. It was never like this for me, I had to tough it out and go the hard route.
So what I am saying is that if you can prepare for a much longer tougher battle than you originally expected, then you can make the path to success and riches a far more achievable one…..and that just has to be good news.
This article was produced by Carl “The Dean” Sampson Play poker online at bwin.com
Life as a Gambler
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