Is Chess helping or hurting my poker game?

[bob2007]

I've been playing 2/4 no limit lately. Played poker for 4 years. Lately, I've been playing a lot more chess. Also, studying through videos. I'm just wondering if all the time that I put into it helps, or hurts my poker game.

It hurts my poker game because of all the time that I could be putting into poker rather than chess. But on the other hand, I wonder if chess makes me a better strategist in poker, reading players and thinking of moves ahead.

[sillyarms]

it helps me in thinking ahead and predicting how my opponets react.

[WhiteKnight]

Is it safe to assume they both rely on a similar set of cognitive faculties? If so, then chess may be beneficial to your game, by exercising/toning the same mental muscles.

I'm sort of in the same boat as OP, if only because I've rather be playing chess than poker at most times. Too much folding for my short attention span [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[PLOlover]

I think the branching tree analyzing helps i don't think normal people think like that normally. (I'll bet and if he folds if he calls if he minraises if he raises big ...)

[tomtemor]

Chess will probably help your logical thinking and your ability to guess what your opponent will do later in the game/hand. It would probably be more helpful to put that time into poker however. On the other hand you're most likely minimizing the risk of burning out by dedicating time into chess as well.

[Big Bend]

Learn backgammon instead. Its a lot more like poker than chess. My BG turney and cash game experience definitely helped when I took up poker. Fun stuff..

BB

[Reef]

I dunno if it helps any ... but I highly doubt it would hurt your poker game

[AlienBoy]

Poker hurt my chess game... lol - my chess rating has dropped 200 points since I started to play poker.

AB

I don`t think it will hurt your game, unless you start concentrating more on chess then on poker.

[pfapfap]

I'm in a similar situation with Go, which I played seriously before I started up with poker. I think they help train similar parts of the brain, such as was said about the branching tree. I'm frustrated because by studying and playing one, I'm neglecting the other.