Poker ballers aren’t chessmasters

Good narrative in the NY Times magazine this week written from the perspective of a mother about her son reaching the baller-dom of online poker.  While I’d be the first to admit that poker can deplete your social life, I think my social life was depleted far more by writing corporate software for a living.  I’m no shrink, but it sounds like her son is a total recluse with a lot of deep-seated social problems.

But, maybe I shouldn’t talk.  My own little bankroll just broke $4500, so I’m I’m planning on spending the whole weekend not talking to anyone to see if I can break $5k.

Thus went my rationalizing: If poker is a game in which skill predominates — like chess or Scrabble — then it isn’t “just gambling.” Perhaps it really does sharpen the mind, as Charles R. Nesson, a Harvard law professor, has argued in promoting the game as “an environment for experiencing the dynamics of strategy.” My son is not being sucked into a zero-sum addictive game of luck that gives nothing back to society; he is benefiting from a challenging form of entertainment for which other rational adults are willing to pay.

My Son’s Gamble – NYTimes.com

Sigh… well, no… skill in poker doesn’t predominate like in chess.  Skill in poker predominates over the long run.  However, Keynes’ maxim that “in the long run we are all dead,” is untrue in online poker, where you can play 60 hands an hour per table, x 6 tables = 360 hands = the number of hands you’d see in an entire day at a casino.  So, I’ll put “the long run” at about week for a 6-tabling online player.

Anyway, for the most part, very good article, nice job Ms. Ferriss.

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