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Old 11-18-2007, 08:07 AM
wazz wazz is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London
Posts: 2,560
Default Re: Taking a break from Poker - LONG & Low Content

Agreed with almost everything you said, dave, apart from

'Compared to something like chess or backgammon, the level of intellectual ability, experience and study to become proficient is tiny.'

The key skills for chess, backgammon and poker can and are all taught, in books, coaching etc, but it's the psychological element that separates poker from chess and backgammon. There is a large but finite number of card-specific situations in poker, multiplied by an infinite range of variables specific to the psychology of every person who was dealt in to that hand, plus past history, etc. The skills needed to incorporate all the available information and then use that to come up with the best action are not something you'd find in chess or backgammon.

'And yet the vast majority of people are probably lifetime losers.'

It would be a crazy world where this is not true. I'd suggest you don't need the 'probably'!

Janelle - some people find it easier than others to blank out emotion from their game, and this is certainly a desirable skill, but if you're vaguely in control of your own psychology it's not a huge mistake to allow yourself to be emotionally affected by results, as long as you can dissociate your play from your emotions.
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