Poker Pro

... That’s not a big number when you think about it. It amounts to one player per table and relegates the rest of the field to the position of lifelong loser. Some lose a little and others lose a lot, but approximately nine out of 10 poker players lose money in the end. A similar kind of fluctuation affects winners, too. Some win plenty of money, while others are only marginally successful — and it’s those subsistence winners who are far more prone to bankroll destruction than those who have the skill needed to beat the game steadily.

As is the case with tournament professionals, players with other sources of income, particularly those who are not rigorous about keeping records, might not even be aware of whether they are long-term winners or not.

There’s a big disconnect about this issue, and lots of poker players bury their heads in the sand rather than examine the facts at hand. If you took a poll of players in any cardroom and asked if they consider themselves below average, average, or above average, and inquired about whether they are long-term winning players, most of your subjects would report that they are better than average and are long-term winning players. They’re not necessarily lying to you, either; they actually believe it. However, the vast majority of any group can’t be above average, otherwise what’s “average” would actually be “below average,” and that just can’t be. Moreover, if only 10 percent of the poker-playing populace are long-term winners, there’s a lot of self-deception when the majority of players lump themselves into this elite 10 percent.

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