I was riding the BTS to Siam station and when I got off the train I had a gaggle of Westerners in front of me. There were three girls and a guy and they sounded US to me. In fact, it’s funny because one was Asian so to hear an Asian with an American accent in Bangkok really stands out. From the tone of their conversation it seems like they are all based in BKK. My guess from some things they said is that they’re all English teachers.
Anyway, they’re talking and talking and my ears perk up when they start talking about online poker. They’re talking about a friend who quit their job and was playing poker for a living now. All of them were talking about how much more he was making playing poker rather than teaching. Some were even talking like they would like to get in on the action too because it was so easy to make money.
It reminds me of my days when I used to work in the stock brokerage industry. I have yet to meet someone who hasn’t made money in the stock market. Everybody makes money investing and everybody makes money playing online poker.
I think the average if you look at your PokerTracker stats is that about 90%+ people are net losers in online poker. I think that about 92% – 93% is the industry norm. Yet, I know so few people who have ever lost playing online poker.
I don’t think people set out to lie about how they’re doing in the stock market or in online poker but they do. Some because they don’t keep track of wins or losses and just keep circulating the money around in such a way as to make it impossible for them to tell (constant depositing and withdrawing). Some because they can’t stand the ego crush.
But one thing seems to always ring true; the person who knows exactly how much they’re up or down for a session, a week, or a year is far, far more likely to be an overall winning player. Losing players always have vague descriptions like "I had a pretty good run" or "I was crushing the table" while winning players normally comment "I ended up down 1 BB."