My mistake: I keep forgetting that they’re not smart enough or crafty enough to play bridge.
I’ve taught my daughter - chess for the strategy, poker for the psychology (and as a girl, if you act dumb enough, you can probably take a lot of the guys’ money). My younger sister was the poster child for cognitive dissonance - captain of her HS cheerleading squad and valedictorian. She went on to get a 3.97 GPA in math/actuarial science. And she won a LOT of money in poker games in college.
There’s a saying in Asian countries that goes like this : “success in your job is not as good as marrying into the right family”.
I must ask, how old is your daughter?
interesting line
Never understood the point of gambling. I get that in poker skill matters a lot, but only over the long term. I don’t have the patience to sit there and play tons of hands. I’d rather bet on things I have some control over.
Bridge is fun, but my grandparents always played Pinochle with us. Good game.
Poker isn’t gambling unless you consider the stock market gambling. I consider gambling to be blind betting to get a return. You can do that in either of these systems but you’ll lose more likely than not. To me, poker is like playing a strategy computer game vs other humans. I like outwitting, but I also really like the acting aspect which is why I only play in person.
I love cards though. My family played a lot together growing up (spades, 500, hearts, poker and some bridge). Learned Pinoccole and Durak but never knew anyone that regularly played them. And in HS played lots of Asshole (President) while drinking.
You must be really old. Like bchad old.
I agree that poker is very much skill based, but I would not compare it to investing. With investing different people can have valid different views about the value of a stock. In poker, a full house is worth more than a flush. It is only through deception that you can win the pot with a lesser hand. F that. I’ll pick my own hand.
Maybe poker is more like trading, which is not something I’m really a fan of either.
In California, contract bridge is legally a game of skill, not a game of chance. (There was a court case on this years ago.) Thus, if you’re playing bridge for money, it’s legally not gambling.
I worked with an engineer, Bill, years ago who told an interesting story:
He used to work in Chicago, and took the train into the city every day; he would play bridge on the train. One day he missed his regular train, so he took the next one. A man asked him if he would like to fill in as a fourth for bridge, as their usual fourth wasn’t on the train that day; they played for “a quarter a point”. (Note: common bridge scores are 100 for a game, 300 or 500 for a rubber (2 games out of 3), and 1,000 – 2,000 for a slam. A quarter of a cent per point (a common stake) would be, at worst, about $10 for a one-hour commute.) He agreed, and joined the game. He and his partner had a field day, and as the train arrived in Chicago, they were up by about 3,600 points, or about $9.00. One of his opponents said that he had no cash, and asked Bill if he would accept a cheque. Bill agreed, and was handed a cheque for $900! They had meant a quarter (25¢) a point, not a quarter-of-a-cent per point.
She turns 14 in October. She’s currently in a one-week summer camp learning intermediate HTML, Javascript, CSS, and PHP with her friend. She’s a great kid (I call her the Master race) - she’s got my quant skills (could divide any 3-digit number by 2 in her hear by fall of 1st grade) and her mom’s people skills. She WILL rule the world some day.
I’m probably old enough to be bchad’s father. Who knows - I might be. On that note, Chad - where’s your mom from? 
You forgot patience 
This isn’t an accurate assessment though. It is very rare that a good player will let you go to the river. Rather than deception it is the person who is in control of the hand that tends to win. His cards don’t play much of a role if he is in the driving seat.
This is over a sustained period of course.
Hmm. I agree that the value of a full house is greater than a flush, but you can have different valid views on the value of a starting hand or your style of play. Some people are very formal “investors” and only play the investment grade hands (AK/Sets 10+/Suited Face Connectors) that have long term implications. Others are more “trader” types always looking to get mid-tier/low-tier hands into cheap flops where they see a high upside and easy exit strategy.
^You sound german haha. Jokes aside, you seem like great parents.
I play poker for secondary income at foxwoods quite often. Although there is some variance, and degrees of variance, that at times makes it seem like gambling, the majority of the time you can pick apart unseasoned players. Pro v pro, that statement may not apply, but any 2/5 or 5/10 game you’ll find 4-5 players new to the casino environment or beyond their comfort zone in which it is easy to exploit. Underground games are even easier because, aside from the pros and intelligent finance / business guys, you often play with drug dealers or thugs. They have (believe) a never ending supply of cash and thus are willing to throw away money when the odds are against them.
Walk me through this. How can 4, 8 unsuited be viewed as more valuable than paired Qs? I am genuinely interested. Just just seems that no matter the style, the probabilities are in favor of one hand over the other. Or, give your own example.
I want to play higher stakes, but I’m so nervous of the stakes and I know it would effect my style. When I’m in AC I stick to 1/2 mostly. I may go to 2/5 if I’m feeling rich but I really just can’t bring myself to put at least $1000 on a table. I think I’m risk averse because I consider myself a good player to sit at probably another tier higher table. WYG do you ever get nervous playing at the higher stakes? How did you transition from where I am to 5/10?
Clearly, different hands of poker have fixed values. However, you do not know the hands of other players; you must infer this from imperfect information that you derive from the other players’ actions, and incomplete information from your own hand.
Similarly, when you invest in companies, you are trying to determine a measurable value - the amount of cash a company will produce, or perhaps just the amount of cash that other investors will think the company will produce, as this is reflected in the stock price. Like in poker, you derive this valuation from imperfect and incomplete market information.
Poker and investing are definitely not 100% the same, but they have some similarities.
4, 8 can never be more valuable than paired Q’s. There are other factors that come into play here though. If a player figures out what your range is i.e you tend to play premium hands before the flop appears then it becomes easy for a skilled player to ‘chase’ you.
Say you raise with QQ’s and he has position on you. He will flat call you and if the flop has an A or a K on it you are stuck. Normally a semi skilled player will raise here making the permetuations even more complex.
A unskilled player will check and the skilled player will bet the pot ending the hand.
If both players are skilled then it becomes way more dynamic.
Edit : Ohai pretty much nailed it. Poker is a game of incomplete information. It is why so many players have different systems how to play it and why players with immense contrasting styles like Doyle and Durrr have both been succesfull.
Well it’s not that it’s a better hand, but a “trader” might try to still buy into a pot with 4/8 offsuit if it was low cost, high amount of people and a good position on the table (especially if he’s sees other people entering as weak or has identified that the majority entering are “investing” types and therefore that most of the high cards are already in people’s hands). I would say this is very rare opportunity though. It would be silly to argue for low non-connecting offsuit over face pair, but every hand has its moment given the right circumstances to some people. Other people would throw away that hand in the above scenario even if they were far and away chip leader. Who can say which is correct value (buy or not buy in)?
What I meant by different valid views on hands would be valuing more similar hands. A pair vs suited connectors. A middle pair vs two overs? Depending who you ask I think they’d give you different answers on which they’d rather play given the chance to choose. Different people have valid opinions on the value of hands based on their style.