My subheading of unemployment porn -- or reporting on unrealistic career paths as a solution to our unemployment problem - doesn't get much of a workout. When I launched it I was expecting more entries. Every now and then, I do spot one and that was the case yesterday when Nathan Vardi of Forbes reporting on a dropout poker champion.
For Jonathan Duhamel, the road to riches meant dropping out of a finance degree program at the University of Quebec in Montreal to concentrate on playing poker. The move paid off recently when, at the age of 23, Duhamel won the World Series of Poker’s main event and the $8.9 million prize that went with it.
Ok, dropping out of business school isn't the same thing as dropping out of high school, and Forbes was using his story as an excuse to write about finance and poker, not giving unemployment advice but it still glamorizes professional gambling. Which, come to think of it, also makes this a Signature Story for Forbes.
I have a friend who is a competitive poker player who told me that since the hold-em craze of the 1990s "the dead money isn't dead any more" -- that the folks the pros used to take down with ease have gotten so sharp from online practice that they are actually competitive, which has upended the traditionally small field of champions.
The article also indulges in what I might call private equity porn - his parents made $90,000 by staking him part of the tournaments $10,000 entrance fee.
Duhamel’s parents have now accepted his decision. So have his friends. One of them, who is studying to become a high school teacher, pulled off a great trade by contributing $100 to Duhamel’s $10,000 entrance fee for the World Series of Poker. Duhamel recently paid his buddy his cut of the winnings: $90,000. PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker site, also made a good bet by sponsoring Duhamel on the eve of the World Series of Poker.
It's a fun story with multiple messages, perfect for Forbes.com's high class link troll model.
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