Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I also used to be a "professional" poker player back in my college days. I made a lot more money doing it so I passed on internship opportunities. My resume was pretty barren like yours is because of it. I put it on my resume and was able to get a job because of it. I am now working in a great job in a risk department.
Most people are going to see poker on your resume and toss it in the trash but there will be a few employers that it will actually make you stand out against the other candidates. I think it's better to stand out to a minority than to be just average to all. I think that's true with all things you put on your resume.
and for the is poker skill / luck conversation:
I don't like people saying either. Poker players make money by having very small edges over the opponents but putting in so much volume that they can expect a positive outcome. The small edge could simply getting a dollar or two more out of your winning hands or simply cutting your losses by a dollar or two on a losing hand (compared to the average player). The variance involved in online poker now is huge so examining how you do in one day is pretty much meaningless. But over the long haul you expect to be close to your expected win rate, which for serious online players can happen pretty quickly.
edit: The amount of rake a casino takes from pots below the nosebleed stakes is significant. It will be enough to account of over 50% of even the best players win rates. I never played much live poker but in actual casinos I'm skeptical if ANYONE can beat a casino that has a 10+% rake. It's foolish to think they take a negligible amount from each pot.
and for the is poker skill / luck conversation:
I don't like people saying either. Poker players make money by having very small edges over the opponents but putting in so much volume that they can expect a positive outcome. The small edge could simply getting a dollar or two more out of your winning hands or simply cutting your losses by a dollar or two on a losing hand (compared to the average player). The variance involved in online poker now is huge so examining how you do in one day is pretty much meaningless. But over the long haul you expect to be close to your expected win rate, which for serious online players can happen pretty quickly.
Poker is luck, period. Even if you were a monster at "knowing when to hold and fold", you still are not assured even a win rate of an average player.
True, if drawn out over a long enough period, with enough games, all players averages should converge closer to the mean, BUT, there are always statistical outliers.
There are casino card games that actually would reward skill, like blackjack.
Poker is luck, period. Even if you were a monster at "knowing when to hold and fold", you still are not assured even a win rate of an average player.
True, if drawn out over a long enough period, with enough games, all players averages should converge closer to the mean, BUT, there are always statistical outliers.
There are casino card games that actually would reward skill, like blackjack.
ugh...
If you are not assured a win rate of a long period of time then you are clearly worse than the average player.
I don't know how anyone that has ever played a poker game could think that someone can't be better than someone else. And if they can then obviously they will win over a long number of hands (similar to blackjack)
If you look at the graph the OP posted a page back you can observe a great player over a big sample size. The standard deviation appears to be very small in that sample. The probability that the player was just experiencing good luck over that sample is impossibly low.
Last edited by Raiden777; 04-06-2012 at 04:11 PM..
If it were all luck there would be no professional players and there have been for decades. If someone has the money and takes the time to learn, they can make a living on some level but they will have to spend way more time and effort than with a regular job.
It's interesting to note that a lot of the time when the higher level pros do have money problems, it's often for gambling in something other than poker, like weird prop bets or sports betting. I know one of them was proud that he put a lot of his money in real estate and various businesses, and he got clobbered by the recession.
If it were all luck there would be no professional players and there have been for decades. If someone has the money and takes the time to learn, they can make a living on some level but they will have to spend way more time and effort than with a regular job.
It's interesting to note that a lot of the time when the higher level pros do have money problems, it's often for gambling in something other than poker, like weird prop bets or sports betting. I know one of them was proud that he put a lot of his money in real estate and various businesses, and he got clobbered by the recession.
Agreed and just because it's hard to make a living doing playing poker doesn't mean it's not a skill based game. There are not a lot of people making a living off playing chess, but surely we can agree that is skill based.
Agreed and just because it's hard to make a living doing playing poker doesn't mean it's not a skill based game. There are not a lot of people making a living off playing chess, but surely we can agree that is skill based.
Please don`t tell us you are comparing chess to poker. lol..I don`t think they have chess games in vegas. Why? Because that is a game of 100% skill. An awesome pro chess player could break the casino. So this is a totally irrelevant comparison. Chess is 100% skill. You see all the pieces in a chess game as does your opponent. You see the pieces your oppenet has and vice versa. There is no random drawing of pieces that noone has control over. There is no random movement that noone has control over.
In contrast, you don`t see all the cards in poker. You can only speculate or guess on what your opponent has, and the cards that are yet to be dealt are anybody`s guess.
It's an educated guess if you know the math. Poker is mostly about math.
The key word being "guess". As stated several times on this thread, an experienced player will have an advantage, no question. I`m not denying that. But he will never know for certain what cards are going to come up and he will never know what cards his opponent has. He can only guess, educated or not. Sometimes you guess wrong, sometimes you guess right. But when you can`t see cards, all you can do is play the odds. But sometimes,people lose when the odds are in their favor. In fact, many times. That`s why people don`t bet everything they own playing poker. Because you don`t have control over it and so much of it is just luck. You can be sitting on a flush, Ace high and still lose. I`ve lost with k`s over Aces before. In chess, there is no luck. Everyone sees what everyone has and everyone sees every move. There are no hidden pieces. There is no intangible beyond your control. It`s all right there in front of you. It`s up to you to make the right move knowing there is nothing hidden.
Please don`t tell us you are comparing chess to poker. lol..I don`t think they have chess games in vegas. Why? Because that is a game of 100% skill. An awesome pro chess player could break the casino. So this is a totally irrelevant comparison. Chess is 100% skill. You see all the pieces in a chess game as does your opponent. You see the pieces your oppenet has and vice versa. There is no random drawing of pieces that noone has control over. There is no random movement that noone has control over.
In contrast, you don`t see all the cards in poker. You can only speculate or guess on what your opponent has, and the cards that are yet to be dealt are anybody`s guess.
My point is that just because you can't make a living at it doesn't mean it's not a skill, as various people have said.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
lol..I don`t think they have chess games in vegas. Why? Because that is a game of 100% skill. An awesome pro chess player could break the casino. So this is a totally irrelevant comparison. Chess is 100% skill. You see all the pieces in a chess game as does your opponent. You see the pieces your oppenet has and vice versa. There is no random drawing of pieces that noone has control over. There is no random movement that noone has control over.
