And he can not be both, right? Look, you didn't give a definition for degenerate gambler, but google did. Matasow blows up so frequently, that they even named a certain type of blow up after him. If that is not a degenerate gambler, I don't know what it is. In spite of his blow ups, he won at least 10 prizes over 200K and he has the big house with the expensive car what you asked for. Stu Ungar was another one... A poker pro STILL can be a degenerate gambler and they seldom are... So again, what did I win?
Don't confuse the +EV of a player versus that of a game. Poker, on the whole, is -EV, even if the argument can be made that a player has a +EV.
No I totally agree you can be both but a professional by definition is a person who makes their livelihood from their field of expertise. A garbageman is a professional by definition So is Matusow a professional celebrity or poker player? I don't have the time or inclination to check the facts but my guess is Celebrity
Both. He is a poker pro first who is using his celebrity status to make money in other ways than just by playing poker. As I said he had at least 10 wins between 200K-1 mill in a period of 12 or so years, that makes him a poker professional. And he is also a degenerate gambler, according to google. Nobody wins 1 million in poker twice by being lucky.... "As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,400,000."
The gambling part of trading is in each individaul trade - you put on trade, you risk a certain amount, you have no certainity that trade will go in your favour, you don't know you will make money or lose it. The wins or losses can be a random distribution. Those individual trade is like buying a lottery or rolling in a casino. No difference but thats where the similarities end. A profitable trader knows that the random wins and losses averaged over a series of trades produces consistent profitable results assuming ofcourse he has methodology that puts odds his favoure and he is disciplined to follow it. The amateur keeps on gambling with a new system each time the random results do not conform to his logic and thinks he is trading when in actuality he is gambling. Many of the systems out in the public dormain work very well but the problem is the amateurs who use them.
There is a very big difference between a gambler and a trader. Traders are sometimes referred to as gamblers. While, investors are those who succeed. Here's what I have found: **A gambler is in it for quick bucks. A Trader knows that profits often take time. **A gambler is caught up in the excitement. A Trader knows that the job is boring, repetitive and mundane. **A gambler has the odds against him. A Trader has a back tested edge that, over time, will consistently win. **A gambler focuses on the potential for winning, with no concept of risk. A Trader focuses on the risk before anything, knowing profit will come as an after thought.