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Geeks Playing Poker?

Posted by timothy on from the and-blackjack dept.

Ben Collins writes "I recently won a satellite tournament at Full Tilt Poker for entry into the World Poker Tour Final at Foxwoods Casino. I picked up poker as a hobby about 4 months ago, and consider myself a decent player, maybe due to programming experience (analytical thinking). Any other programmers/computer people find that they can play poker better than the average person because of their computer experience?"

4 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. Many pros have a history in computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Many of the top pros had previous careers in computers:

    Chris "Jesus" Ferguson - PhD in Computer Science from UCLA

    Andy Bloch - Two degrees from MIT, once designed computer chips

    Phil Gordon - degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech

  2. rounders quote by greystreets · · Score: 4, Informative

    Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker at your table in half an hour, you are the sucker.

  3. Wil Wheaton is an example by devphil · · Score: 3, Informative


    Given that the man taught himself Linux for the purposes of running his own website, most of us would qualify him as intelligent.

    I skim over his blogs about every other month, and recently he's taken up poker as a hobby. He's studied, practiced, etc, and blogs the stores of his experiences playing (LA, Vegas, and so on).

    What have I learned by reading them? No, being smarter than the average person does not automatically make you a better poker player. Other things do.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion