Pool Player vs. Golfer vs. Chess Player

[Shaman]

The pool player is good enough to routinely run 6 balls in an open table 9-ball game and has had a couple of local pool club titles under his belt. The golfer has a handicap of +2 and has had a few amateur titles in his golf club. The chess player is rated 1,700. All three are reasonably balanced emotionally.

Assume that all three had a grade of B+ in Algebra and Geometry, and average IQ. None of them has played poker in his entire life.

You gave all three a copy of Gambling Theory and Other Topics, Getting the Best of It, Theory of Poker, and Small Stakes Holdem. Who would become a winning online 3-6 holdem player sooner? And how soon is soon?

And who is most likely to become a 1BB/hour per table player? How soon?

[MonkeeMan]

A champion pool player not playing poker before is about as likely as a champion jockey having never played pool. No way San Jose.

[jojobinks]

chess player, and it's not close.

it's the only of the three choices that isn't almost completely about muscle memory.

pool is about 80% hand/eye coordination and muscle memory and 20% simple geometry

golf: 90% physical

chess is the only of the three that has anything to do with reading and manipulation of your opponent, and it's the only one even vaguely similar to poker.

i'd say the pool player can do relatively well too. golf? a good golfer isn't any more likely to be a good poker player than your random joe off the street, imo. i'm not trying to bash golfers; i just don't see the connection.

[Warior]

Being all of the above, thats an easy one. The chess player, more so due to the fact that he is the only one to train himself to think long term and more analytical than the other two. BTW you would be very hard pressed to find a 1700 ranked player with just and average IQ.

[goldseraph]

This is a silly question. Why would you expect anyone to say golfer or pool player??

[dagheti]

Bankroll management maybe? A chess player doesn't have to deal with it, while a pool player may.

[jah0550]

Tiger Woods would be amazing at poker...oh wait a minute, there already is a Tiger Woods of poker. Who could that be?

[touchfaith]

Which one of them smokes and drinks coffee?? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[r2p]

A good pool player would have a lot of skills from hustling, such as laying down and then picking it up, as well as bankroll management. A top level player has spent the majority of their time hustling to earn the bankroll to play at higher levels (ring a bell ?).

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
Bankroll management maybe? A chess player doesn't have to deal with it, while a pool player may.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not the pool player described above. If you become sufficient enough at chess to make a living at it, you'll also have bankroll management issues.