Learn Poker Or Chess
A friend of mine lost his job at [put in super high-powered internet company]. He had already been “warned” and whatever else they do when a bureaucracy wants to slowly fire you. They tied him up to a chair and poured whip cream on him and let a rabid dog lick it off. That sort of thing.
A chess player needs to be concentrated and logical during a long game (sometimes it takes tens of hours in time), and a poker player needs a time interval between dealing cards and withdrawing the pot, so it might be seen as a bit less mentally taxing. This chess learning game is ideal for training young or inexperienced players and getting them hooked to the #1 board game of all time. EASY TO PLAY: Designed for a truly user-friendly experience, this chess set for kids features includes the name and the directions for each piece it is allowed to move. Best Free Poker Training Options in 2020. Why spend any money if you are just starting out with many free poker training classes and other material available for free on YouTube and online poker. Chess is mostly played as a one on onegame while poker can start with multiple players playing against you on a table. This creates a certain level of complexity for the poker player since he would have to keep a watch on 4-5 other playersrather than just the one who would have played against him in chess.
He had to turn in his “badge” and they changed his passwords. I felt bad for him but we both knew he was miserable at the job.
He IMed me the next day: “How can I learn poker?”
He wrote, “Since I have a lot of time to spare I figured I should learn poker. Do you have any tips on this?”
The answer is yes: I once spent 365 straight nights playing poker. I barely slept. During the day I would study the game. Videos and books. The day my first daughter was born I left the hospital to play poker. In the summer I got myself a place in Atlantic City and I would take a helicopter down each weekend. I would play for 36 straight hours and come back. I went to Las Vegas whenever I could. I played in all the underground clubs in the city.
“Do you want to learn poker to have fun or to make a living?”
He said, “to make a living”.
Me: Are you a game player?
Him: Yeah
Me: I mean, are you in the top 99.9% of either scrabble, chess, backgammon, Go, or Bridge?
Him: I play scrabble.
Me: Does that mean you are a tournament player of scrabble?
Him: I beat my friends and family all the time at scrabble.
Me: Do you know what “stems” are?
Him: It sounds familiar but I don’t think so.
Me: Then you don’t know how to play scrabble. Stems are six letter combinations of the most popular letters that if you add a seventh letter you will most likely have a legal 7 letter word.
For instance, “SATINE” is the best stem. Example: add “E” to “SATINE” and you get ETESIAN. Add “X” to SATINE and you get SEXTAIN. And so on. SATINE, SATIRE, RETINA are the three most popular stems. But you need to know the top 15 or so popular stems.
Do you know the Q without U words? Like QAT QOPF QI QANAT?
Do you know all the 3 and 4 letter J words?
Him: No. I’ve never studied a game per se. I just play games.
Me: Ok, you can’t learn poker yet.
Him: Can I learn scrabble and poker simultaneously?
Me: No, you will lose all your money at poker AND you won’t have fun doing it.
Scrabble, or chess, or backgammon, or POKER takes thousands of hours of intensive study. With scrabble, for instance, you need to learn all of the tricks above, plus rack skill, the endgame, the psychology of it. The statistics, etc.
And then you need to play other hard-core players and beat them.
Then you can learn poker.
The reason I am saying this is that to learn poker there’s actually four things to learn.
1) you need to learn how to learn games
2) then you learn poker
3) you need to learn how to be a stone-cold killer. The psychology of the game. i.e. you need to learn what it feels like to lose a lot. A LOT.
4) for poker: you need to learn about money. When you lose money it’s a different psychology than just losing a game.
Him: Ok, I’ll learn scrabble but are you sure I can’t learn poker at the same time? I know how to play already and I play a lot.
Me: In Texas Hold-em after the flop if you are four cards to a flush, what are your exact odds of getting a flush by the river?
Him: [no response. ]
Me: Don’t look it up online. What’s the answer.
Him: [no response]
Me: That’s one statistic you have to learn. You have to learn 1000 of those statistics at least. And that’s before you even start playing and learning the psychology.
Him: Where can I learn those statistics?
Me: By learning scrabble first.
Him: Ok, I’ll learn scrabble first.
Me: It takes 1000s of hours to learn Scrabble. Every great poker player I know is a stone-cold killer. You have to kill or be killed. Most great poker players I know are great at all other games and have been since they were kids. A friend of mine spent 20 years becoming a chess master, another 5 becoming a great backgammon player, and it took him 10 years before he made a dime from poker. Now he’s made about $5 million from poker.
Everyone thinks he’s a nice guy but when you meet him you also say to yourself, “this guy is a hard core criminal.” That’s what it takes.
Him: I want to learn
Me:
you dont want to learn how to be a killer while you are losing money
because thats a different skill you have to learn – how to lose money
better to first learn games. then learn about money
this is a long way of saying: i dont think you should learn poker
Him: [no response]
Learn Poker Or Chess Quiz
—
One thing I didn’t say: poker is not fun. It seems like it’s a game but it isn’t. You sit around a table of disgusting guys and everyone is laughing and trying to be friends but all you do is lie to each other and try to take each other’s money.
It’s also boring. You have to play for 12 hours straight every day. And if you are good, maybe you get to play in 2 or 3 hands per hour if it’s a full table. BORING.
Another thing I didn’t mention: time doesn’t have to convert into just money. Figure out why you were miserable at your last job. The same things will cause you to be miserable at anything you do.
There are exercises to be more calm and happy with life situations. Learning a game with the hope of making money while sitting around seldom works.
Better to hug people. Better to make friends. Better to take a drawing class. To kiss someone. To eat well and sleep well and use your free time to get in shape. From this foundation will blossom new opportunities. This foundation will sit below the house you eventually live in. Don’t waste it sitting around a smoky table with a bunch of people who will lie and steal from you. Be around people who love you. Love is the best way to flourish.
—
Reading List:
“Everything Scrabble” by Joe Edley – has all the stems, the Q without U words, 3 letter words, puzzles, psychology.
“Chess” by Laszlo Polgar. Polgar is an interesting story. He had a theory about raising kids. Indoctrinate them at the age of 3 and home school them to be focused on one topic. His three daughters are the best female chess players ever. He also had a theory of chess learning. Many, many easy problems instead of few difficult problems. So his book is 5000 problems of varying skill. Anyone who gets through that book will be a chess master.
“Backgammon” by Paul Magriel – the bible of Backgammon. But then I recommend Bill Roberts books starting with “Backgammon for WInners”.
Learn Poker Or Chess Online
“Hold-em Poker for Advanced Players” by Sklansky. This is only the starting point with the basic stats. Then I would get books that go through hand-by-hand decision making.
[Note: all of these books are just BOOK #1 to read to even get your foot in the door. Then there are manymore after that to actually get good.]
Better reading list:
“10 Things to Do if You Were Fired Yesterday”
Chess and poker are two games which include a lot of calculations by the players in a game.
There is some degree of similarity between the styles and complexity in the games which have seen a lot of players switch between games, especially chess players who have switched over to play poker to earn a few bucks.
There has been a raging debate for quite some time regarding which game is more difficult or complex.
Poker players would side with their game and chess players would side with theirs but to answer this debate we would have to look at both sides of the equation.
Also read: Are you bored of online poker?
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One on one and one on many
A complex equation.
The first point of difference which brings in the complexity equation is the number of players you play with on a regular basis.
Chess is mostly played as a one on one game while poker can start with multiple players playing against you on a table.
This creates a certain level of complexity for the poker player since he would have to keep a watch on 4-5 other players rather than just the one who would have played against him in chess.
As we all know, every poker player is different and keeping a track of the styles throughout the game would not be easy for a poker player. With practice this can change, chess players though have to worry about just their one opponent and no one else, so poker wins this round in the sense of complexity.
The analytical aspect of the game
Chess and poker players both need to be analytical while playing their games; chess players spend hours training and learn about a multitude of defenses and strategies to counter those by the opponent.
Chess players have an added advantage of playing against just one opponent and can learn about each move of the opponent in detail, while poker players dealing with so many opponents can feel a little overwhelmed when it comes to that.
Of course, the analysis done in real time about just what each player can do is much greater in the poker game as there are so many factors (players) to look out for, the same might not apply to chess but the sheer number of strategies running around in the head to counter one move should not be taken lightly.
Humans play a big role as well
Some similarity to poker cards.
This is where certain things play out in poker, every poker player knows about the ‘tells’ each player has and the fact that a lot of poker players bluff while playing the game.
This aspect makes poker a little difficult and complex to deal with.
You might say one thing but do something else at the table in a poker game. There is also the fact that players spend hours learning how they can use the ‘tells’ of their opponents to their advantage, there are many books which deal with just the ‘tells’ and how to deal with them.
Chess does have an element of the human opponent having a tell but the bluffing does not apply because the only moves you can pull off is what you actually do on the chess board.
The bluff is something which can turn a game around and has to be kept in mind while playing poker, not true when playing a game of chess though.
Luck or skill?
This is one factor which has been debated for a long time regarding poker.
The game does have an element of luck; you do need some luck to win a lot of poker games.
Skill is something that is required to do well in almost every game but luck is a huge element while playing poker. Chess players have a lot of skill to deal with the plethora of strategies going on around in their head and on the board.
This is not to say that poker players are not skillful or don’t require skill to win games but the luck factor does make poker a game which can throw a few surprises and can do make a little bit more complex compared to chess.
Man and machine
Machines are taking over.
Everyone knows about the computer that actually defeated Gary Kasparov, the chess world champion. In 1997 Deep Blue defeated Kasparov and the whole gaming community went crazy as to how a computer was able to take down a world champion (something that had never happened before).
This loss has provided fuel to the fire for this question and analysts have said that poker players cannot be defeated by computers because of the telling factor and also the fact that luck is involved hugely in poker games.
What many would not know is that a new computer program has been made which claims that it will not lose to any poker player.
Cepheus, developed by a Finnish software company has cracked the code to play Texas hold’em poker, although this is only for the two player game, this is a huge step in ensuring that the ‘machine’ factor is not brought into the complexity debate.
Two great games but no real winner
To be honest both games are complex and tough to master in their own respective ways.
While you do not play with many opponents in chess, you know almost every defense and strategy that your opponent can use and vice versa. Knowing what someone else might do and then recalculate to counter that move is tough in itself.
Poker has the element of bluffs, tells and lucks, which can be a fickle mistress. Sure you can be on a crazy winning run and see it come to a halt all of a sudden and the opposite can happen in the game of poker as well.
The one thing which makes this game complex is the players you play against and of course, that is also one of the most appealing facets of the game of poker.