Is Poker Gambling Or Investing? A Different Outlook on Poker

Well I have put a lot of thought into this question and have asked a lot of people what they thought. I was very surprised that many people seen it as straight up gambling that poker was the same as blackjack or even worse slot machines. When I said I see it as an investment and here is why a very large percentage of people said I was totally crazy. Poker was gambling and the casinos made big money off the game. WOW there it is people for the most part see POKER as a GAME. How you see poker for a big part determines how you play. Do you see poker as an investment or a risk of your cash?

Let’s take a minute and look at the two words RISK and INVESTMENT. For most people RISK means foolishly parting with your money HOPING that you will get a big return on it but not expecting anything back. Your friend comes and says hey I got an idea for a new type of fuel for heating houses I need you to “invest” 10,000 dollars. You on the other hand see it as a huge “RISK” because you don’t fully understand it all and feel you will never get your money back. On the other hand when you invest you feel secure in knowing you will get all your money back plus a profit over the long run. You think of the stock market as investing especially if it were a company like “Google” or Microsoft. But if you follow stocks both were bad investments not long ago because of the economy and everything going on in it. If you did buy Google or Microsoft over the long run you will be OK. But you still were “risking” money weren’t you?

Now go back and interchange the words risk and investing it can be done, BUT it changes the feeling of the sentence… risk is negative and investing is a positive. Now how do I apply this to poker you may ask? First POKER is not a game to me. Poker is a SPORT. By viewing it as a sport I have taking it from a game of chance in my mind where I need luck to win all the time to a positive view where over time with practice I can win much more often then I lose. I may not win every hand or every time I sit down but with practice I will win much more then I lose and I will be investing (see how you can interchange use risk now) my money in something I know will have a nice profit margin at over the long run. Look at a young “PRO” sport team, they have a lot of new players they are redesigning their whole team, young fresh faces, but very talented.

They practice more than any other team, they show they have a wide range of talent, they work together, and this year they are 50/50 for a win lose ratio except for injuries. What do you think their record will be next year? They practice the same every thing is the same next year I am sure you didn’t say 75/25 losing more then they win. Poker with practice and studying of the mathematics you can improve your game to a point where you feel that you made an investment when you sit down and buy the chips where you may feel am willing to risk 200 bucks in a game of poker today… Stop before you buy chips the next time and turn everything positive and see what happens with your playing style. Say I am going to invest this money in a poker match where I know over long term with practice I will get a nice return on my investment. See if it helps keep you more inline when choosing what hands to play, how much to invest in a hand and how you think about poker over all.