Sorel Mizzi’s new blog brings up an interesting concept, is poker good or bad? In the first entry of his poker blog, Sorel Mizzi wonders aloud if poker has been a “blessing or a curse” for most successful poker players. He outlines this into two categories the good, and the seemingly overwhelmingly bad. It’s a very interesting read and if you play even as a side income or professionally it’s certainly worth your time.
First, he outlines the good. Poker has afforded us a lot of luxury. A lot of freedom a lot of poker players most certainly would not have held in a 9-5 job, especially for the internet generation who could simply play whenever they wanted to. Lots of poker players have traveled the world on the circuit and seen things they would have been unlikely to see in their lifetimes. Poker players have lived in his words “a lavish lifestyle” that poker money has afforded us all that we certainly would not have without it. He also points out that certain poker players have invested their money intelligently and made lots of money outside of poker without poker, but this seems to be a rarity.
He then further outlines what he considers more common, the ‘curse’ that poker has brought a lot of people. Losing has a large psychological effect on people, the study he uses claims losing is 2.5x as bad as winning an equal amount is good. Losing has a large effect on our stress and anxiety to the point of causing depression among even the most seasoned pros. He furthers this with poker is a negative sum game which brings out the worst in people, in regards to scams and lying. This combined with various life leaks of poker leaves many poker players full of bad life experiences that have resulted directly from poker.
Poker has certainly been a blessing and a curse for most players. No one is immune to tilt or has plugged all their life leaks, we do the best we can plugging them and moderating them on what we can and it’s either good enough or it’s not. I can certainly say poker overall has been an overwhelmingly positive experience in my life and hopefully it has been so in yours as well. I certainly recommend reading the whole blog at http://sorelmizzi.info/blessingorcurse/.