I can make $1,600 playing conservative poker in 6 months and have much more fun doing it.

It's like a poker game -- sometimes you'd rather play lower stakes against tougher competition than higher stakes against weaker competition (okay, that's not true for me, but I imagine for many people it is :-).So, I'm not averse to emerging market bets, but only because they tend to be smaller bets and the worst-case scenario isn't as financially devastating as the worst case scenario in a market like San Francisco, NYC or Boston.Hopefully I explained that in a way that makes sense. 

Probably I am going to be consider a video gamer too.

I'm 26 now, and currently travelling the world playing online poker for a living, looking to start investing in real estate more actively in the upcoming months.I've been investing in real estate on a very small scale since I was 19.  

Make a low enough offer and odds are you come out OK, just play the odds like poker.

I am a professional poker player in LA and had some connections through Hollywood Park Casino (The site of the new LA Rams and the large development) that gave me inclination to invest there.

poker tournaments.

You must have had some very good years to still average out to 50%.It's kind of like how poker players remember their bad beats, but not the hands where they got lucky.

@Anthony Dooley, I agree but at the height of this market, expecting an appreciation is like playing a poker with a blind fold.

As a professional programmer, I just can't place any trust in ANY online auction system, just like I would rather sit a a poker table than in front a poker slot machine.I was going to cite some examples, but having raised the question of manipulation should be sufficient to cause a moment of reflection before you dive into the deep end of the pool.Your experiences?