Re: Is poker gambling?
The other day a poker expert was quoted on TV as saying something to the effect that he expected, in 90% of long terms, to be a net winner. This was his way of answering the same question. Presumably by long term he meant a month, or a quarter of a year, or something.
Stock brokers will say a monkey shooting darts at the Wall Street Journal would have been profitable in any 10 year period selected, since the Great Depression (1929). If poker is a gamble for the expert above, then the stock market must be a one wild crazy bet, by comparison with poker!
In life, in a sense everything is a gamble. Poker for an expert is one of the smaller ones, JMHO.
Can you and I become expert enough? Yes. With a bit above average intelligence and years of hard work, most people can. Would one have to be a mathematician? No. Could one hate math and prosper with poker? Not in my opinion. Will it be easy to become an expert? Definitely not. Are the books adequate? Probably. Can one do it with thousands of different styles? Yes, though they will work with varying success rates. Have I arrived at expert status? Definitely not. Will I in a year? Yes, JMHO. Is it fun, even while bucking against the brickwall? Yes. These are just some random thoughts contributed to encourage discussion within this thread.
Dave
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