I only got started playing this game from reading this thread. Out of sheer boredom on sunday I tried playing this game (with fake money) from the link that phantom gave.
I've spent the last 6 days doing practically nothing else but playing this game. And I have to say it's so much easier than playing the market! I think rather than poker being good training for the beginning trader, that it's the other way around completely. The market is the toughest training that makes this poker game seem as easy as picking your nose (and almost as much fun!).
The stock market isn't gambling? Compared to this Hold-em Poker game (which I had never even consciously heard of before sunday), it is the stock market that is the real gamble. When I have a hand of cards, sure I don't know exactly which cards the other players have, but I know exactly what cards I am holding, and what they are worth. And the other 45 cards that are not shown to you are always the same set of cards, you can easily calculate which cards are potentially available at any moment besides your own.
Stocks? You never know what they're going to do. "But there's news reports out! It should be so simple." Except that you never really know how the market is going to react to the reports.
The poker cards aren't affected by Alan Greenspan, or an explosion somewhere, or a trade embargo. There's no intraday vs. overnight margin maintenance. No PDT rules or uptick rules or unbundling rules or floor specialists. There's no longterm vs. short term strategy, each hand dealt is a brand new hand. You get a brand new hand every 1-10 minutes, at the longest. With the stock market you get about 3 or 4 hands each day, 5 days a week. You have to try to synch yourself to the 6½ hours a day that it does its main business, and trading off-hours is less reliable, less liquid. The online casinos are running 168 hours a week, 7 days. Whenever you're ready for them, they're available.
All you really need to become profitable with the poker, is the patience to fold each hand until you are dealt the cards you want. Most players lose because they don't have that patience.
After staring at the stock market 6½ hours a day 5 days a week, for the last two years, and never being able to know for certain what it's going to do in the next month, week, day, hour, or even 5 minutes, waiting a whole 30 minutes to get my pair of Aces or Ace and King is so incredibly simple! That 30 minutes seems like forever to most card players. Trying to trade the markets is excellent conditioning to make this poker seem like child's play.
If you don't get the cards you want, just fold, and wait for the next round. Once you get the cards you want, play them full steam. It really really works.
It also makes some difference whether you're at a 10 player table or a 5 player table. Your strategy has to be adjusted. You can win with bluffs on a smaller table much more often. At a 10 player table, the odds are that someone there has the winning cards in their hand, so you'd be better off folding if your hand turns out valueless.
I've spent the last 6 days doing practically nothing else but playing this game. And I have to say it's so much easier than playing the market! I think rather than poker being good training for the beginning trader, that it's the other way around completely. The market is the toughest training that makes this poker game seem as easy as picking your nose (and almost as much fun!).
The stock market isn't gambling? Compared to this Hold-em Poker game (which I had never even consciously heard of before sunday), it is the stock market that is the real gamble. When I have a hand of cards, sure I don't know exactly which cards the other players have, but I know exactly what cards I am holding, and what they are worth. And the other 45 cards that are not shown to you are always the same set of cards, you can easily calculate which cards are potentially available at any moment besides your own.
Stocks? You never know what they're going to do. "But there's news reports out! It should be so simple." Except that you never really know how the market is going to react to the reports.
The poker cards aren't affected by Alan Greenspan, or an explosion somewhere, or a trade embargo. There's no intraday vs. overnight margin maintenance. No PDT rules or uptick rules or unbundling rules or floor specialists. There's no longterm vs. short term strategy, each hand dealt is a brand new hand. You get a brand new hand every 1-10 minutes, at the longest. With the stock market you get about 3 or 4 hands each day, 5 days a week. You have to try to synch yourself to the 6½ hours a day that it does its main business, and trading off-hours is less reliable, less liquid. The online casinos are running 168 hours a week, 7 days. Whenever you're ready for them, they're available.
All you really need to become profitable with the poker, is the patience to fold each hand until you are dealt the cards you want. Most players lose because they don't have that patience.
After staring at the stock market 6½ hours a day 5 days a week, for the last two years, and never being able to know for certain what it's going to do in the next month, week, day, hour, or even 5 minutes, waiting a whole 30 minutes to get my pair of Aces or Ace and King is so incredibly simple! That 30 minutes seems like forever to most card players. Trying to trade the markets is excellent conditioning to make this poker seem like child's play.
If you don't get the cards you want, just fold, and wait for the next round. Once you get the cards you want, play them full steam. It really really works.
It also makes some difference whether you're at a 10 player table or a 5 player table. Your strategy has to be adjusted. You can win with bluffs on a smaller table much more often. At a 10 player table, the odds are that someone there has the winning cards in their hand, so you'd be better off folding if your hand turns out valueless.
