Having played neither with any fervor, I wonder if the skills are transferable. Stats, probabilities, tells, etc. Surely poker has a dumb luck factor not present in chess, but are there enough similarities to notice?
Having played neither with any fervor, I wonder if the skills are transferable. Stats, probabilities, tells, etc. Surely poker has a dumb luck factor not present in chess, but are there enough similarities to notice?
Well for starters, poker has a dumb luck factor not present in chess.
Interesting question. I was a highly-rated chess expert, but never played poker, although I knew some international-caliber players who did. (Ken Smith, an international chess master, finished third one year and fourth another year in the World Series of Poker, and Walter Browne, a U.S. chess champion, made a good amount of money playing poker.) My general observation is that poker involves probabilities and psychological assessments of opponents (including "tells") somewhat more than chess does. Conversely, chess puts a premium on geometric or spatial intelligence, heuristic assessments, and sequential calculations. I do think, however, that there is probably considerable overlap in the skills required to do well in both games.
I was nationally ranked in Scrabble in the 1990s (believe it or not). Like poker, it has the appropriate combination of luck and skill. Unlike poker, you can't win really big $$$ at Scrabble. The national champ gets less than $100,000 for winning, the WSOP champ gets $12,000,000. But probabilities are huge in both games.
I used to play chess in high school. I've always admired those that could play at your level. The only luck is when your opponent would make an error. I don't understand Celebrity Poker on tv. Where is the pressure if they don't use their own money?
Apparently Edward II was red hot at poker.
I used to be an avid chess player and played a little bit of poker. I think there is very little over lap of cognitive abilities required of the two activities. Chess requires spatial, sequential and logical reasoning. The concentration demands are very high.
Poker seems to require high levels of social knowledge and understanding of probabilities and a certain level of emotional control.
Put it this way:
When was the last time you heard a guy picking up chess, then 6 months later winning the world championships (or even the U.S. championships)?
Of all the sports I have done, as far as competitiveness and determination I find chess, tennis and running to be the most similar.
In these three sports you are in battles that are all consuming, require constant effort and refusal to quit.
Not easy sports.
A. Kaufman wrote:
Of all the sports I have done, as far as competitiveness and determination I find chess, tennis and running to be the most similar.
In these three sports you are in battles that are all consuming, require constant effort and refusal to quit.
Not easy sports.
I like playing chess. It is a lot of fun and is quite challenging to play at a high level. However, it is not a sport.
Mr. Obvious - you missed the main point of the post.