PDA

View Full Version : luck v skill


01-04-2002, 06:06 PM
I think heads up has more to do with luck than skill - discuss

01-05-2002, 02:44 AM
No. Variance is higher, but so is win rate for a good player. It is much more difficult to play a good heads up game than a good ring game becuase every aspect of your play is immediately important. If player A notices that player B folds on the flop too much in a ring game, he will be lucky to have an oppurtunity to exploit it once in a 5 hours session, but 1-1, this can be player B's downfall. Ring games require more patience and discipline, but 1-1 requires more skill, IMO. The "right way" to play any hand can only be determined at the exact time it occurs...nothing is clear-cut.

01-05-2002, 05:12 AM
On UB there are two players who, almost daily, are the first to start up new tables (at different levels). As their respective tables fill up they get tougher to beat, but if you know anything about heads up play you've got a window of no more than 30 minutes against them (before more players join the party) to very often make a relatively large sum of money. They are that bad at heads up.


Due to bank roll considerations the max limit I play at on UB is $3/$6. I'm always happy to make an exception and go higher when I see either of the aforementioned opponents though, because nine times out of ten I'll win against them. And I know I'm really not very skilled at heads up. It's just that they are so much worse than I.


Luck has very little to do with heads up play when you are against an inferior opponent.

01-05-2002, 05:30 AM
But versus an opponent whose skills are somewhere around the same as you, there is practically no edge. It is totally gambling.


natedogg

01-05-2002, 09:20 AM
But versus an opponent whose skills are somewhere around the same as you, there is practically no edge. It is totally gambling.


Agreed. But even worse when equals play each other, at the lower limits the house rake will kill them both. You see it quite often online. Two studs agree to play for $200 each heads-up on $3/$6. Forty minutes later you pop in for a look and one guy has $180 and the other has $155. Paul

01-05-2002, 05:26 PM
"But versus an opponent whose skills are somewhere around the same as you, there is practically no edge."


This is redundant. By definition, you will have little or no edge against someone of the same skill level. However, if you were 5% better than another player, I propose that you would have a higher win rate 1-1 than vs. 9 of him at a full table. I don't know if this holds true with PP's big rake 1-1, but I am almost posivtive this is true with no rake in either game. It may seem like gambling because variance is so high, but from my statisics, variance is higher mostly because of more hands per hour, not the game itself. The per hand variance is higher 1-1 but not by as much as you'd think (or at least as I'd thought).

01-07-2002, 04:08 PM
what is the minimum level at which one should play 1 v 1 to best offset the rake? and on which online service?