Spotting the Angle Shooters

I've recently been able to start playing poker on a more regular basis. Not much, just a SnG here and there and a MTT or two thrown into the mix, but it's nice to be playing cards again.

I'm at the point in my poker career where I can look at what I want to do with poker with a fairly objective eye. I know I don't want to go pro because I don't want poker to be a "job" and I know I'd get eaten alive. Anyone who writes a poker book wants to convince you otherwise ("Read this, learn how to play, and move up in levels! You can do it!"), but I'm done chasing the dangling carrot. I have more important things to do than grind my life away at a table trying to fleece money from other people. The usual end result of that sort of work is continually moving up in levels until someone else takes your money. Poker is a pyramid scheme and the only way to really earn money out of the economy is to remove the funds from it entirely. Which, according to most players, is nothing short of heresy. But, it's really the only way to "win" when playing poker. That's why most pros can't hang on to money. They win lots of dough and then they give it to someone else rather then saving it.

The other problem is that so many people are convinced that in order to "be a winning player" at poker they have to constantly "win" things.

Horseshit.

If that was the case, then tournament play either wouldn't exist or it would be dominated by pros. Which isn't the case.

In order to be a "winning player" the only thing a player has to do is make more money than they give away. Period. End of story. It's much easier to do that when we're winning tournaments or hitting final tables (just ask lucko, who's currently annihilating MTTs), but cashing on a consistent basis is what really matters. That's the brass ring that everyone reaches for when they play poker. Some of them just don't see it that way because they have a "win or go home" mentality. But, you don't see them rejecting the cash when they don't make a huge score, but finish in the money or slightly up from a cash game.

To put it bluntly: poker is what each person makes it. If a player wants to have fun, they can. If they want to stick with crushing low limit games, they can. If they want to work up to the higher levels in a quest to dominate them, they can. It's really up to us to decide.

So, tell me, what're you going to do with poker?