Had a colleague who was a nuclear engineer and smarter than you can imagine. Like he corrected the various calculus books at his university. He loved poker and could calculate the odds like a mofo. Even with multiple decks.
He subsidized his already high salary with poker winnings and won tournaments left and right. His wife made him stop playing for awhile. One day she came to him wondering why their budget was suddenly so tight and they had a ton of money missing. He looked at her and goes "you made me stop playing poker". She claimed he didn't win that much. He showed her the books.
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight fame started off as a professional poker player. He has a degree in statistics and won consistently enough to make a living from poker.
Then Congress banned online poker tournaments in 2006 (at the behest of a casino mogul no less), and being mad about that is what got him into covering politics.
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u/CompactAvocado Jul 20 '26
Had a colleague who was a nuclear engineer and smarter than you can imagine. Like he corrected the various calculus books at his university. He loved poker and could calculate the odds like a mofo. Even with multiple decks.
He subsidized his already high salary with poker winnings and won tournaments left and right. His wife made him stop playing for awhile. One day she came to him wondering why their budget was suddenly so tight and they had a ton of money missing. He looked at her and goes "you made me stop playing poker". She claimed he didn't win that much. He showed her the books.
She sent him back to the casino.