Poker is harder?

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
maybe its a stupid point. But to those saying that poker is all about "adjusting" and that it will never become -ev. We know from math that there are strategies that cannot be beaten. Thus it is possible (and from a logical standpoint probable) that the vast majority of players are getting closer and closer to finding optimal strategies (humans are really good at this pattern finding stuff).

The counter argument would be that nobody is ever going to find an optimal strategy of playing poker (its just too complex a game). However, this isn't even necessary since the rake is ENORMOUS in these games (especially medium stakes-low stakes). Thus everybody could play pretty good sub-optimal poker and it would still be impossible to make any money long term at poker.

This is a silly point because in my opinion (and this is something that can be proved) poker is still very beatable and will remain so for a long time. Fortunately, the big companies are on our side. If poker can remain profitable they want it to be profitable so that more players will play.

Guess I just have beef with the opinion that no matter what you can always just adjust to the games and make money. The truth is that there is a static unchanging strategy out there that cannot be beaten and that people are playing more in line with this strategy every day (unless there are more new players coming in...but that wasn't really the point of this post).

[/ QUOTE ]Very good post,i agree with alot of it just not so much this static unchanging strategy out there that cannot be beaten theory.I think there are just to many variations in this game for this to be true.Who is at this level??? I think most good and even great players are still learning and making adjustments in their play even after years and years of playing.This is a game of skill.I do agree with you that as the games get harder there is a certain leveling effect that occurs.But even if you got the top 1000 players in the world there will be players that dominate relative to the field.The gap will be smaller but not as small as to be negated by rake especially online.