[scrawnybob]

hi

interesting post and planned article - but

just one question / point when it comes to the way non poker players / media portray poker

how do you define someone who is addicted to poker ?

is on time spent / money made / lost or what ?

if someone plays 10 hrs a day and makes $2000 per day, day in day out ...

are they addicted ? or just really well paid for a skill that they have developed ?

if someone only plays one hour a week but manages to loose $1000 are they addicted ?
or are they just too rich to care about an hour of letting off steam ?

would the media find it as interesting to write about people who were addicted to collecting stamps as they seem to be about "being addicted to poker" ?

One would hope that to some extent everyone has something in their life they enjoy and strive to become good at or find a rewarding challenge

for many poker is just that

for others it's skydiving, knitting, DIY or train spotting

everyones hobby / sport / pastime costs money

I just hope your article isnt going to be one of those narrow - nanny knows best pieces

or I'd assume your getting fair comparision by also finding out how the guy who collected $1000's of comics or star wars figures conquered his / her addiction to collecting

how about doing a study on the far larger community of weekly "addicted" lottery ticket buyers who have so close to zero chance of winning / and zero skill / enjoyment factor in buyin a wad of tickets for 2 mins of seeing their numbers not come up

grumble over ;-)

cheers scrawnybob

ps. just to add - my grumble it's nothing personal against you pokermatt - I appreciate that you want to write this article probably because you have an interest in poker -

so my grumble is not specifically aimed at you but I really hope you consider that the majority of people are not poker players - so they already have made up their mind that we are all to a man and a woman "degenrate gamblers with a problem addiction"

again nothing directed at you - but from personal experience I find it really irritating how "non poker players" look down their noses at poker players as if they themselves have no vices or "addictions" and then proceed after giving poker players a sermon about addiction to go off and buy 5 lottery tickets, invest in stocks and shares and will happily screw anyone they deal with in business down to extract the last bit of profit they can ... and yet think we poker players are evil for taking advantage of weaker players ;-)