Category Archives: Poker in General

Howard Lederer, on poker as a sport 0

I don’t think poker is a sport. It’s the greatest game in the world, but it’s not a sport. The Olympics is the place for sports without leagues. Poker has its own place.
Howard Lederer – 02/2010 – in ESPN Poker

Brian Townsend, on variance 0

I think games with variance built into them are so much better than games with no variance modifier. In chess there is always an optimum move. In the same way poker has an optimum move or decision as well, but its often much much harder to see that or even think about that [...]

Garry Kasparov, on chess players coming to poker 0

Perhaps the current trend of many chess professionals taking up the more lucrative pastime of poker is not a wholly negative one. It may not be too late for humans to relearn how to take risks in order to innovate and thereby maintain the advanced lifestyles we enjoy. And if it takes a poker-playing supercomputer [...]

Nolan Dalla, on the reasons why people play the Main Event 0

The average poker player plays the game because it’s usually enjoyable, interesting, and highly social. The vast majority of players, even those who attend the WSOP, are not professionals. They know upon arrival, they’re the underdogs. That said, I believe what makes playing in the WSOP special is the fierce competition, the potential for fame [...]

Rasmus Nielsen, on losing money 0

The worst thing about being a professional poker player is definitely that, if I win, say, $10,000, then the feeling doesn’t nearly compare to losing $10,000. Sometimes I feel you get way more deflation than happiness playing poker.
Rasmus Nielsen – 11/2009 – in Bluff Europe

Lou Krieger, on the evolution of poker 0

Poker, like life itself, is flexible, supple, elastic, constantly in a state of change, and nearly organic. It’s always shifting, however slight and imperceptive that shift may be, until it morphs into something you would probably not recognize if you stayed away from it for a while.
Lou Krieger

John Lukacs, on poker 0

Poker is closest to the Western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents, and where — at least in the short run — the important thing is not what happens but what people [...]

Annette Obrestad, on living for poker 0

Deep down inside, poker is what I do, and it’s what I live for, so if I knew I wouldn’t be able to win another poker tournament again, I would quit and my life would have no meaning anymore.
Annette Obrestad – 11/2009 – In PokerNews

John Vorhaus, on having other goals in life 0

Does poker rule your life? Or does it exist in the context of a conscious, well-balanced, self-aware existence? It may surprise you to learn that the less obsessive you are about poker, the better your game will be. Why? Because if poker is all you have going on in your life — if getting that [...]

David Mamet, on courage 0

In poker, one must have courage: the courage to bet, to back one’s convictions, one’s intuitions, one’s understanding. There can be no victory without courage. The successful player must be willing to wager on likelihoods. Should he wait for absolutely risk-free certainty, he will win nothing, regardless of the cards he is dealt.
David Mamet – [...]