Quote:
Originally Posted by thaskalos
I used to think that too. And then I met more than a few quite successful poker players, who managed to handle the psychological aspect of poker quite nicely, even though the losing streaks were just as prevalent there too. I just can't understand why there are so many more professional poker players than professional horseplayers...and this leads me to believe that the biggest hurdle in horse-betting is the complexity of the game, and the "economics" that govern it.
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I think poker has fundamental rules. Pot odds vs real odds. Position. Etc. If you understand statistics and can do some fairly simple math on the fly, poker tends to resort to the statistical mean. Thus, a patient and reasonably intelligent observer can ultimately achieve routine success. Horse playing however involves both the left and right side of the brain. Creativity, insight, and boldness must be complemented by a strong analytics based opinion, or visa-versa. Both involve ups and downs but losing streaks for the horseplayer may not be undone by resorting to fundamental principals nearly as linearly as for the poker player. Thus a more resilient psychological fortitude must be employed by the horse player.
