Click here to view Original post from 2+2 forum
Many people have perception that gambling is bad for you. Well, I agree in a sense. Image gambling 1/10 of your bankroll with a dice. If you roll 1-4 you double your money, if you roll 5-6, you lose your money. You are getting 2/3 (~67%) odd on your money. Now, imagine gambling your whole bankroll with a dice. If you roll 1-3 you double your money, if you roll 4-6, you lose your money. Would you call both cases a gamble?
Wikipedia defines gambling as
"wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods"
Based on the definition, both of the activities described above are gambling. It is true that you are betting your money on uncertain outcome. However, what if you have a better chance of winning even slightly? Imagine having a favor over 1,000,000 dice rolls. Can you imagine how many times you can double your backroll?
Poker is a game of intellectual guessing - You can never see what the other players are holding. However, there are certain factors to be observed - Odd, amount to bet, tendency of player, betting pattern, the amount of time an opponent take on certain hand, facial expression, shoulder level, eyes movement, the way they talk, and much more! Skilled players make these critical observations and use it on their favor in order to generate the maximum amount of profits. Can you understand the advantages you gain from perceiving these factors? I take these factors as an additional add to win my games. Just like the dice example above, if you have an extra winning number, your profit will enhance significantly in long-term. It is also true that you can lose the money even with these perfect observation skills. However, in a long term, professional players will generate tremendous income from these edge.
This is exactly why I call Poker a skill game and can be a profession. I really get disgusted from people saying Poker is gamble so you should quit. How can one really lecture others without knowing what they are talking about. We see people working on Mcdonald's drive through and make $5 hr vs people working on a law firm making over $200/hr. What do you think is their difference?
Education is my prior investment in my life at this moment. It is just not the schools but becoming an sophiscated and intellecture individual takes a lot of dedication and work. This is exactly why I still go to the school and work as a software enginner although I can afford to live my way just by playing Poker 3-4 hours a day.
Some people just don't say it and just look Poker players with their sunglasses on. This is exactly why I don't share my poker stories with an unintellectual inmates in real life. For the people who heard my deep Poker story in person, you deserve to be an intellectual individual, at least on my own perspective!
If anyone ever visits my blog and have thoughts about this, please comment on this post and it will be greatly appreciated.
7 comments:
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2007/7/poker-game-skill-denmark.htm
You probably read that article but I think it's cool. :)
In response to you:
Every good poker play knows it's a game of skill! Unfortunately, novice players (and the rest of the world) treat it like gambling. In fact, the novice PLAY poker as if he were gambling.
He takes stupid risks then wishes for good luck, he plays in habitual patterns. Etc. And then he loses lots of $$ to people like LuxuryMaster. :)
You quoted that gambling is "Wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome."
I think we can agree that poker has elements of both skill AND uncertainty. Because of this portion of uncertainty, should it be considered gambling?
No. In *every competition ever devised* by the human mind (poker, formula one racing, olympics, pc gaming, arena fighting, etc), there is a huge amount of uncertainty. The success of the best competitors is due to their ability to minimize this uncertainty.
Two tennis players are not actually playing against each other. They are playing against Chance. The better player will make more precise and efficient movements... and will make fewer mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable - but the novice player makes many more mistakes than the professional because he has not refined his skill. The novice is dominated by Chance.
How is poker any different than this?
-Ersan
Ersan,
Thanks for the comment. I just read the pokernews site you showed me. It seems like it is publicly known in Denmark. The point I was trying to get to in my article is that I don't how gambling is defined and how people have misperception about poker. I hope my post convinced some of the people out there not to look poker players with their sunglasses on.
I think people who think that poker is just gambling are in the minority...why else would poker be so popular? people know that it takes skill and find it fun to watch.
Also, professional poker players are proof of poker being something that's not similiar to gambling. Because if that were the case...how is it possible for somebody to have that much luck and win over and over again...?
I believe the reason why Poker is popular is because anyone can play and beat professional, any 2 cards can beat the best 2 cards. This is exactly why there are so many people playing WSOP every year because anyone who has $10,000 and balls can play to win whereas other sports event require you to requires you to be certain proficiency even to participate in the event. I also believe there is no ever ending winner but there can be a consistent winner over long period of time which what makes Poker a skill game.
I agree for the most part, but you are talking about why poker is popular in therms of how many people want to play the game (professionally). I was talking about poker being so popular on TV. Milions of people watch it and are not participating, but they still enjoy it. For me that's fun because you can see that some players are really outplaying their opponents and I think this goes for a lot op people.
Agreed, its kinda funny and ironic how differently people look at playing Poker. Most people think it is a skill game and at the same time it is gambling. For a majority of people - Yes. For a professional - No.
ed miller says poker is gambling but also skill. kinda agree with him its both, but it is gambling as well because u cant control the cards and there is luck. theres also skill so i think it's a mix of both
Post a Comment