I really think that one of the areas that really held me back during the early part of my online career was that I never “gambled” enough playing poker. I have been watching the games at 888 recently at the lower middle NLHE ring game levels and I see a lot of weak-tight play from most areas. Poker is deemed to be totally gambling by the people that are on the outside looking on…….in other words the non-poker players. Any poker player that has ever made money from the game consistently over very large sample sizes knows that this view is nonsense.
However strong players often take this view to the other extreme and view poker as not gambling at all. This is also wrong because poker is a gambling game. The short term swings are very severe and more severe than many people think. All strong poker players know that poker is gambling in the short term or at the very least, just on the right side of gambling. This in principle is the same as the house edge at roulette that comes from zero being in the wheel. Were it not for the presence of that one number then even the casino would be totally gambling.
What allows the casino to make money is huge sample stemming from a very large number of people and not just a few. However as a single poker player then it will take you a long time to get into the long term and so violent swings will happen even for very good players. Even long term profits are not guaranteed either because any change in game dynamic can wipe out any +EV situation. The players with the best earn rates are the ones that can accept that poker is essentially gambling. Good players are just on the right side of gambling but you are still always 95% gambling at the end of the day.
Carl Sampson is an 888poker pro and 888 ambassador
