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To become a professional and make a living out of competition in business or in sport, it usually means investing high stakes to challenge those at the top of their game.

West Ham United may have won the World Cup in 1966, but in recent years they have been way short of becoming a formidable force in English football’s top flight. The point is that the club has not been able to make anywhere close to the investments such as teams like Chelsea and Man City to become real title contenders or even league survivors.

A similar story is true in the world of poker. To become a real professional at the game, players need to grind their way from the low stakes games up to the higher stakes in order to make a profit that will allow them to live a decent life.

On top of this, there is the risk element. When you are talking about becoming the best football club in the world or even the best poker player, then you need to be prepared to part with your cash, and a lot of it.

Daniel Negreanu showed that to win some you need to invest some when he played in the recent Aussie Millions poker tournament. He bought in for over $1 million in tournament fees and came out with a profit. It was as if Negreanu was playing a game of free poker not fazed by the fact that he could lose it all chasing success.

What really made Negreanu a winner at this year’s Aussie Millions high stakes events, was his belief in himself, sometimes we often see missing from the Hammers. Considering the amount of chips Negreanu was buying by the time he fired yet another bullet at the Aussie Millions high roller event, you have to admire the fact that he is a risk taker. He could have walked away with nothing in that event, but his high stakes investment due to his persistency led to a huge ROI.

West Ham’s chairmen have not been as forthcoming as Negreanu in their investments on the football scene. The risk is high, but if they were willing to take the risk, they would not be taking the alternative gamble of losing their Premier League status. The financial costs of this happening to West Ham again are huge. The question fans are asking is that are the owners willing to allow this to happen to save money.

The end result would be a devalued club. The owners need to investment now to save the value of the club, which would be a lot wiser than if they allowed West Ham to drop to the Championship.

With more cash, the owners can bring back belief, but they need to put their confidence and belief in the club and fans before this will happen. At the end of the day, if they are not prepared to invest higher stakes into the club, they could see themselves out of the English top flight for an extended period of time, which is a shame for a club with such a long and positive history behind it.

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