The Life Cycle of a Poker Player (and my thoughts on live vs online)

[Deewhizzle]

Wow!! check out the writing skillz on BA...in all seriousness though, awsome,awsome post sir, Much respect. this fourm needs more thoughout provoking post as such.
again thank you.

[Nick Rivers]

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The level of skill that Gary Kasparov in his prime exhibited on a chess table has never been matched by anyone on the green felt. This is open to argument, but I believe it to be obviously true and I think there is a deep reason for it. Poker wears people down.
Forget for a moment the degeneracy that surrounds poker. The poker world is rife with addiction, drug and alcohol use, depression, and sleep deprivation, but we will ignore for a moment the effect of these things on one’s abilities over time.

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The chess world is rife with addiction, drug and alcohol use, depression, and sleep deprivation as well. Professional chess players are every bit the degenerates that professional poker players are so, in that sense, this aspect of the contrast between chess and poker is invalid.

[Dire]

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[ QUOTE ]
The level of skill that Gary Kasparov in his prime exhibited on a chess table has never been matched by anyone on the green felt. This is open to argument, but I believe it to be obviously true and I think there is a deep reason for it. Poker wears people down.
Forget for a moment the degeneracy that surrounds poker. The poker world is rife with addiction, drug and alcohol use, depression, and sleep deprivation, but we will ignore for a moment the effect of these things on one’s abilities over time.

[/ QUOTE ]

The chess world is rife with addiction, drug and alcohol use, depression, and sleep deprivation as well. Professional chess players are every bit the degenerates that professional poker players are so, in that sense, this aspect of the contrast between chess and poker is invalid.

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Was just about to say the exact same thing. It is extremely naive to say the chess world is significantly more 'pure' than poker. Many, and perhaps the majority of, world class chess players are just complete degenerates. Chess is another game that can just really take over your life. Players ending their lives alone, mentally deranged, impovershed, and with substance abuse problems is far from uncommon. Not a good comparison at all.

[jogsxyz]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The chess world is rife with addiction, drug and alcohol use, depression, and sleep deprivation as well. Professional chess players are every bit the degenerates that professional poker players are so, in that sense, this aspect of the contrast between chess and poker is invalid.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was just about to say the exact same thing. It is extremely naive to say the chess world is significantly more 'pure' than poker. Many, and perhaps the majority of, world class chess players are just complete degenerates. Chess is another game that can just really take over your life. Players ending their lives alone, mentally deranged, impovershed, and with substance abuse problems is far from uncommon. Not a good comparison at all.

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Walter Browne managed two final tables in this year's WSOP.

[Dire]

Another issue I have with this article is correlation vs causation. You see lots of youthful players dominating the online poker scene, so you imply youthful players must have some natural learning advantage over older players. While you mention that brain function tends to decline with age, you offer no further elaboration.

Have you considered the issues of time, motivation, etc? Online poker is a game that requires thousands of hours of work and effort to reach the top in, not to mention the motivation to begin playing online in the first place. Who is more likely to be able to put in the thousands of hours it takes to master this game - teenagers or 25+ adults? Who is more likely to have the motivation and trust to deposit onto some online poker site in the first place?

There is a direct analog for this in chess as well. Is Victor Kortchnoj a freak somehow able to bypass 'brain decay', or does he simply maintain the motivation that many players lose as they age?