How to Play Poker Videos
Poker Players & Gamblers?
Why is it that if your winning your a "Professional" Poker Player or Gambler but when your losing your a an "Addict"?Isn't all gambling the same?
Public Comments
- I think it depends on the degree of the gambling. If it's interfering with your life, then you are an addict.
- I win the lottery alot but sometimes I spend 20$ a day.I will be very lucky if I break even when its all over.
- No all gambling is not the same. some types of gambling do take some skill.
- Yeah... It's weird how someone is consider a "pro" at gambling. I guess it just means they've been losing and winning money since we were in diapers.
- I can speak only for professional poker players. I know a little bit about professional sports betting and blackjack card counting, but in this response I will confine myself to what I know about professional poker playing. Basically, poker is a game of skill in which good players have an edge over poor players. Some of the skills which a good poker player has are: 1) Hand Reading - This involves looking at the actions which an opponent has taken during the hand, comparing those actions to the way has played in the past, and trying to figure out what hand he has now. 2) Calculation of outs and odds - If the hand which the player has is likely to not be the best hand at the moment, how many cards are there which will improve the hand? The cards which will improve the hand are called outs. What are the chances that one of those cards will be dealt? This aspect of poker is easily reduced to basic math. 3) Bluffing - After using Hand Reading skills to determine that the opponent is likely to hold a weak hand, a skilled poker player may try to bluff him off his hand. However, if the oppoenet is a skillfull player, he may just be pretending to have a weak hand, in order to entice a bluff, which he will then call. There are other skills like bankroll management, table selection, tilt-avoidance, and using "tells". Anyway, a player who uses these skills to his advantage better than his opponents do, has a definate edge against those players. He will make money from them in the long run, just as the roulette wheel makes money for the casino in the long run. It does not matter if he wins or loses a specific pot or is a winner on a specific day. Anybody who plays poker as their primary source of income is a professional poker player. Whether he wins or loses a specific amount on a certain day is irrelevent. Just like a trader at a Wall Street firm is a trader whether his stocks go up or down. As long as somebody can make money doing a thing, they can be a professional at doing that thing.
