I’ve been playing a lot of poker again lately. I was surprised to see that it’s been three years since I’ve played with any regularity.
Back in 2015 and and early 2016, before our first son was born, I was playing a fair bit of cards. In fact I logged 494 hours of play between 1/1/2015 and 1/31/2016.
After that I played only once when I was in northern Michigan visiting family.
Three years is a long time to not practice something, so I was unsure of how I’d play at first when starting up again. As you can see, I haven’t lost my poker playing skill.
I’ve played thousands of hours of poker. I started playing online in college and supported myself playing for a couple years post-college until I landed myself at a hedge fund in Chicago.
On top of the thousands of hours of play, I’ve probably spent just as much time talking over hands with a good friend, replaying them over and over, analyzing what could have been done better whether I’d won or lost.
This is how a skill is formed. And it’s hard to lose something that you’ve put so much time and effort into.
It’s no different than trading, but people don’t seem to grasp that. I see folks attracted to trading all the time, looking for a quick/easy way to make money or get rich.
It doesn’t happen like that, and the market will quickly churn through those folks.
Some people come to just take a shot, just like they do at the poker table. And it may work in the short-term. That’s the element of luck. But over the medium and long-term those are the folks paying me off.
Don’t be the sucker.