Why do you play if you dont enjoy it?

Some days ago I was waiting at a table after a long six-hour session just had ended. Giorgio came down and asked me why I wouldn’t join another table where a game was going on. I replied that table wouldn’t be top value and therefore I would be glad not to have to play. He replied with an in fact very logical question:

“Why don’t you just go out if you don’t enjoy playing now?”

It is the perpetual inner conflict of a gambling pro. Do you enjoy your life or do you go for maximum profits by working as much as possible?
Someone outside the gambling world will probably only see the moment: “This guy just won 3000 Euro. That’s as much as I earn in a month!! Why the heck doesn’t he just enjoy his life, soooo much money!”
I don’t want to start arguing being a gambling pro would be a hard life. That would be a lie. In a way it is living the dream. But one still has to care about the future (“ohhhh how uncool” I hear all the teens shouting now). Earning a lot of money now gives no clue at all about the future. In two years it all might be over. Many poker players and betting pros who won a lot six years ago cant compete at all today. They just don’t have the skills to beats todays much improved market anymore. The same will happen with many of the current pros. The poker games become so much tougher every year. More and more new pros join the cake and old-time fishes even improve to solid players themselves. I also always fear that sooner or later the lower limit ring games will be completely flooded by bots. In theory it is not hard to code a solid playing poker bot.

So guys, where will you be in two years? Having half a million in the bank sounds awesome but if you on the other hand cant win in poker/betting anymore and have no education – that’s no the dream life, I bet. After some years the money is spent and you basically sit on the streets with nothing.

Okay this is probably getting a bit too pessimistic but I like to outline that someone who goes gambling fulltime really needs to have a plan for the after-gambling life. Only a very tiny percentage of the pros really earned that much money that they are prepared for their living.
This is btw also the answer to the question Giorgio asked. Yes I sometimes don’t enjoy poker but it is my job. If there is a chance for a profitable game I have to take it. Just like I didn’t miss one single weekend with German soccer running since eight years or something. Holidays can wait for the time of soccer being in summer or winter break!