By the way...

Just in case there is concern out there (mainly my big brother :) my interest (reading/thinking/watching/analyzing/talking about) poker is WAY disproportional to the amount I actually play. So please don't worry (unless things drastically change) about me in that regard.

Just so it's abundantly clear, here is my unabridged gambling history from the basically the past YEAR (more or less):
4 or 5 poker nights with friends (Diana and I combined: +$77)
2 x indian casio poker tournaments (-$25 total (this was purely an "edutainment" cost))
1 x impromptu poker night at Iwan's ($+26? I think + something...)
1 x workboy poker night (+$10)
1 x Vegas trip (-~$250 (Mostly blackjack and various expenses))
Countless hours of free online poker (free :)

The Vegas trip unfortunately skews the numbers, but that's really anamalous (we hadn't been in a couple years before that). It should really be thrown out as bad data, but I include it for honest completeness.

For the sake of argument, turn all those +'s to -'s, and the dollars still compare pretty favorably to golfing or movie watching or other hobbies. But also note that those are indeed +'s and not -'s. And also please know that Diana and both keep track of our winnings and losings, and aren't about to let things get out of control.

And as Norm recently touched on (in a comment that no longer exists), I don't think poker can be compared with roulette, blackjack, slots and many other forms of gambling. Those games are simply mathematically stacked against you. With practice, poker can be a (long run) winnable game of skill, rather than a mathmematically unwinnable (long run) game of chance. You are playing against other players, and can be "better" or "worse" than they are.

A brief example taken from "Winning Low Limit Hold'Em": Let's say the chances of rain for the next 10 days is 70% on each day. A friend gives me 7:3 odds that it's going to rain, and we do this bet for 10 days.

Each day, he bets $7. I bet $3. 30% of the time, I win $7. %70 he wins $3. After 10 days, I should have won 3 days, or $21. He's won 7 times ($3 each) so $21. We're even.

Now suppose it still rains 70%, but he offers me 8:3 odds. After 10 days, I'll still win 3 times, but he pays me $8 each time, for a total of $24. I still lose 7 times, but only lose $21. I'm up $3!

Now moving to poker: I have an inside straight draw (10, J, Q, K, for instance). I've seen a total of 5 cards (my hole cards and three on the flop), so there are 47 unknown cards left. There are 8 cards that can complete my straight (4 aces and 4 nines). The odds are 39:8, or about 5:1 against making my straight. If the pot is at least 5 (or is it 6?) times bigger than what I'm putting into it, that's a profitable bet in the long run.

(I wish I could say that I was good enough to keep track of all these things during a game! But I'm working on it...)

There are other factors at play, of course (if I make the straight, will it even win?, position, player types, bluffing, tells, etc), but the general point is that, with enough skill and practice, the odds of the game CAN be in your favor. Compare that math to roulette and blackjack and see how you fare. I'll give you 8:3 odds (ha!) you can't find a way to beat the game without cheating.

Anyways, this is all a way overblown defense against a problem that really doesn't exist, but just some comments and thoughts.

[edit: Diana found a bug in my odds on a straight. I had 47:8, but it's actually 39:8 (which adds up to 47)]