Aside from both being “very aggressive”
I started playing online cash poker during the pandemic. At this point I mostly have the hang of it as an above-average recreational player and can cash out $50/month fairly reliably at this point.
This year, I started writing in earnest on Medium and on my blogs.
Here are three ways that the two activities are similar.
They both can be grinds
There are poker players online that will play in the microstakes (blinds are around a dime) and play several tables at the same time for hours at a time to put a lot of hands in.
The object is to earn money with volume of hands played at easy stakes.
It involves putting in the time and doing the reps. A lot of them.
Hour after hour, day after day, month after month.
With a reasonable amount of skill — enough skill that wins more than loses, even slightly — this will make money.
Showing up every day or at least consistently a few times a week isn't the whole solution, but it's a big part of it.
Similarly with writing, doing the work and hitting Publish on a regular basis, even when we don't want to, is often a key ingredient in building audience, increasing reads, and making waves.
It's its own grind.
Neither is gambling
Unpopular opinion: Poker is not gambling. (Watch Rounders and you might appreciate this more.)
Poker gets lumped in with other casino games like roulette, craps, and blackjack, but they're just not the same. Poker is a game of skill.
Now, granted, it's a game of skill that has a huge amount of variance. The best hole cards (aces) will lose to the worst hole cards (seven-two offsuit, meaning different suits) heads-up about one time in eight. In other words, the five community cards will make a better hand with seven-two offsuit 12.4% of the time, and “crack the aces.”
But seven times out of eight, the aces will win that showdown. Someone who doesn't understand this will shove all of their chips in the middle and go broke in the long run.
Skilled poker players are able to do the math and read their opponents better, and will win money in the long run.
Similarly with writing, there will be articles that earn nothing, and there will be articles that earn a lot of money. Over time, the articles will get better, just like a poker player (hopefully) gets better over time.
And an article that you thought was a seven-two offsuit kind of article can end up striking a chord, going viral, or even getting boosted — effectively cracking aces that day. And the opposite is true as well.
Regardless, writing is a skill, and demonstrates itself and improves over time with appropriate study. Over time, the outcomes aren't pure chance.
They're both long games that you need to love
It's been said that poker is the hardest way to make an easy living.
Most of the well-known poker players have been playing for years. And they didn't start at the World Series of Poker. They started (probably) in home games and then at the low-stakes tables.
As they started mastering each level and going up, the competition gets harder, and so does the money.
Also, lots of players drop out or stay at the lower levels.
Successful poker is a career-long endeavor, with lots of learning, stamina, and consistency.
Because of the variance, there will be down weeks, or even down months. That's to be expected.
The superstars on Medium — I'm sure you've heard of them — showed up for years, honed their craft, played the game, provided lots of value. Some of them have begun to diversify from the writing game into their own products and programs. They've won that part of the game and have leveled up.
Just like Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu love poker, Ayo Awoskia, Tim Denning, and Eve Arnold love writing.
It's the love of the game that brings the perseverance through the down times, the slow times.
Here's a bonus similarity
So we see that both poker and writing online have the element of grinding. They're both skill-based games. And they're long games that you need to love to push through.
It's also necessary to be ready to go all-in.
Going all-in means risking all of the chips in front of you. It's a commitment of everything you have.
It gets the attention of the other players. It could be a bluff, but that's for them to figure out. They have to deal with you one way or another.
In a tournament, if you're short-stacked (don't have a lot of chips compared to the other players) then going all-in on a range of hands is the best strategy.
You're not going to win by folding.
With our writing, we need to commit to what we're doing and give everything we've got to reach who we're going to reach.
Are you all-in?
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Header photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash