Nowadays most people look at Johnny Chan, Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negraneu (sp?), and all the suprsrtaes and think that poker is a glamorous, easy life that lets you make millions for a day or two of work. Turn on your TV and you'll see three or four different shows, all featuring clean cut guys who don't seem to care if they win or lose, having a great time at their job . They're earning more than I'll make in 5 years while wearing a Hawaiian shirt and playing outside in the Caribbean! I can think of dozens of people who all claim they wish they could be professional gamblers. They're all fools.What they don't show you is the 80% of people who try to make a living playing poker and fail. They also don't really acknowledge the fact that a poker player lies for a living, and most are pragmatic to an almost Machiavellian degree. I'm friends with a couple of professional gamblers, and once accompanied one of them to an underground game in Phoenix. I wasn't playing all that great, but that's probably due to the fact that I was playing in a small, smoke filled, dingy, poorly lit room surrounded by people who desperately needed a shower, several of whom were openly carrying firearms. I left after 3 hours, down about $150, and asked my buddy why he played there. He told me they took half the rake of an Indian casino, and then went back to play for the next 18 hours. Even if you're in a casino though poker is a tough, tough way to make a living. Grinding out the rent money on a limit table is, to put it bluntly, boring. The funny thing is that it's exactly like work. What's fun and exciting when you do it for you becomes boring and tedious when it's your job. And that's all that it is to most professional players: a job.The poker explosion in the last decade has really cleaned up the game. But there's simply no getting around the fact that for every Doyle Brunson or Erick Lindgren there are a thousand penniless bums who thought they were better than they were. And for every final table on the WPT there are a thousand dingy games in second rate casinos and run down apartments. I love poker. I love playing it with friends, sometimes in casinos, and online. But it's just a hobby. To do it as a job is a hard, hard life. I'm not wary of professional poker players, same as I'm not wary of cops or truckers or anyone else who does a hard job. They're at least giving their dream a shot.For a great reference read Poker Nation: A High-Stakes, Low-Life Adventure into the Heart of a Gambling Country by Andy Bellin. He chronicles some of his experiences trying to become a professional poker player in New York and the experiences of some of his friends. A truly great read.