Professional poker is a career pursued by a small fraction of all poker players. For most, poker is a way to satisfy their intellectual curiosity through a rewarding and entertaining game. But are there corollary characteristics among people interested in poker that leads them towards certain fields? Let’s explore three sectors with high concentrations of poker enthusiasts and discover connections between traditional work and poker.
Finance
As the stereotypical industry for poker players’ day jobs, finance garners obvious and plentiful comparisons to poker. Vanessa Selbst is the most famous recent example of a world-class player transitioning between professional poker and finance, but traders and analysts flock to poker by the thousands.
Everything from a competitive spirit to a process-oriented mindset primes finance professionals with all the right qualities to enjoy success in poker. Zero-sum or high-variance opportunities, such as options trading or small-cap investing, can be especially appealing to poker players since rational introspection and comfort with uncertainty come naturally.
Actuarial science
First, what is the discipline of actuarial science? It’s essentially professional risk analysis. Careers in actuarial science are typically in the insurance industry where actuaries will use statistics and logic to estimate the expected cost of insuring an entity. This helps their company determine a competitive yet profitable price to charge for coverage.
Poker strategy, particularly in recent years, revolves around calculating equity against an unknown range of hands-on all possible runout of cards, which is basically extensive math and logic. If you love to geek out over pot odds and implied odds to work out close decisions, actuarial work might be perfect for you.
Research and development
The name of the game among poker’s upper echelon of talent is studying. Most elite players spend about three times as long studying poker as they spend playing during their journey to the top, and with so many powerful modern learning resources, it’s easy to see why. In the way that books, coaching, training sites, and Solvers have tremendously expanded the scope of poker literacy, research and development has transformed the global quality of life through innovation.
If you love to find truth in the power of poker and if you love following the evolution and nuance of the game, you should consider lending your inquisitive mind to a life of research and development. In addition to being one of the the fastest-growing sectors, research and development offers workers a chance to impact both the efficiency and equality of the world around them.
What do all of these careers have in common? They are all well-compensated with defined structures for career progression, and they all value an excellent educational framework among young hires. Among women in the top ten poker earnings list are alumni of Yale, Columbia, and Duke.
Poker players are often drawn by opportunity, and college remains one of the most pragmatic ways to gain an opportunity in nearly every industry. Join or start a Poker Power club to gain access to a free poker education from our accomplished staff of teachers and experience the power of poker for yourself.
