ST Forum Nov 24, 2006
Play poker as a career? Fat chance
THE media attention given to the recent poker tournament held here and glamorising of poker playing as a profession are total unnecessary.
It gave many, especially the young, the false impression and hope that they could make money by playing poker well.
To say that playing poker is a skill and not a gamble is definitely not the whole truth. As the players have no control over what cards they get, it is still a game of chance. Skill, if any, comes with practice and, not surprisingly, at a heavy price.
Let it be said that for every 'successful' poker player, there are thousands of unsuccessful ones, adding to our social burden of broken families and bankruptcies. The media should have pointed out the fallacy of poker playing as a career - for most people.
Angela Lee Soon Lee (Mdm)
+++++++++
Technorati: Singapore.
13 comments:
kills 3 birds with one stone.
1)Keeping up the interest in poker, we help ensure a large pool of young Singaporeans who will be attracted to try their luck at the casinoes, and each pays a tax to get in.
2)Raise the GST to help the poor as they get bankrupted by the casino.
3)And now, we have a bigger pool of the poor to ensure that every cent of the 2 percent GST is used / absorbed. Just make sure they apply for the help instead of staining the MRT tracks hor!
And that is the way of the digital age. Keep the economy humming along.
Angela fails to realise that there has been a huge paradigm shift in the government way of thinking.
Welcome to the NEW SINGAPORE!
If you're not happy with it, then move somewhere else. Or else join politics and shift it back to the old paradigm. Or else shut up! LOL!
Cheers!
This Angela is probably not aware of how Texas Hold 'Em Poker works.
You can win, but it is an eroding zero sum game. You have to win from others faster than what the house takes from you through the rake.
As for the entry fee, I suspect the casino would allow us to offset the buy-in fee for Texas Hold Em so we are back to normal hehe.
Well Angela does have a point.
For most people, Poker will be a losing game for them.
There are a small percentage of winners who are able to beat the game on a consistent basis, but their winnings depend on the much larger number of small losers.
Its hard- gambling is pervasive throughout society - including the West. Chinese people have been gambling for centuries. The share market is a form of gambling too- don't tell me you can't lose millions there. Even if we didn't have it here in this country, the young would still be influenced to play- due to its widespread popularity overseas- Vegas etc.. Best thing to do is to educate kids to be smarter and manage risks and to avoid making stupid mistakes. You might as well ban cigarette smoking in this country.
Inspired, you can treat poker like entertainment. After all, going to a club and drinking will set you back almost $100 or more.
With a $100 buy-in, you might be able to participate in small scale limit poker games where the small and big blinds are only $1/$2.
You can thus have hours of solid entertainment with just $100. Even if you lose the entire buy-in, surely that is a good price to pay for all that entertainment.
Treat winning money as a bonus.
Actually, I believe with consumer organisation we could boycott tobacco to death.
Consumers must show no tolerance for shops that conduct trade in narcotics like tobacco: but such an effort must be organised well.
Part of the reason why some of the drugs which are far less lethal than tobacco are banned while tobacco remains legal is because of the lobbying attempts of the tobacco plutocracy: it's all about money. In order to combat this, consumers should refuse to cooperate.
I's a sad state of affairs when one only has drinking and gambling for entertainment.
Mr Soong -
Watch a movie
Spend a day at the beach
cycle at the beach
window shop at vivo city
spend 3 hours on the blogs
eat at food court and watch people walking past
No, it is not just drinking and pubbing for entertainment :)
Well yeah, but that was in response to the "well gambling is worth your buck for entertainment" idea. I don't think so at all.
I mean, you can go to Sentosa and rent a kayak for much lower than that, so I really thought it was a ludicrous idea.
Let's just say that the IR opens up more choices for people to entertain themselves.
It is up to the individual to decide how he wants to spend his money.
If you think playing poker is not for you, that is fine. Stay away from the poker table.
Don't stop others from seeing it as a half full glass.
poker is not based solely on luck - it's a game that combines luck and skills, just like Scrabble. what is more disturbing is the prejudice shown here.
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