|
||
|
||
|
Server Time: 12/1/2008 6:41:15 PM PACIFIC |
 Good investments, Paul Stine, 24. Aug 2003 20:25 | ||
| View ( Message | Thread ) | Return to Thread List | |
| A friend of mine is a investment broker and he has remarked to me, on more than one occasion, "People sell stocks for lots of reasons; to make a profit, to avoid a loss, maybe they need the money for a better investment, maybe college for their kids, maybe a house or car. However, people *buy* stock for only *one* reason: they have concluded that it will return more than they invest. Period. In other words, because it is a good investment. If they didn't think it would make money, why would they invest?" Would you, knowingly, make a bad investment? Of course, not! In "Serious Poker" (ConJelCo, 2002, p99), Dan Kimberg describes each call, bet or raise you make as an investment in winning the pot. Consequently, on each betting round, each opportunity to act, you should plainly ask yourself, "Is the action I am about to make a good investment? Yes or no?" Suppose you fade four bets preflop and your hand misses wildly; you are standing in right field and the board is in left, way back in the corner, nearly jammed underneath the padding on the outfield wall. Say, you have a middle pair and the board is high connectors of one suit (and not one of yours, naturally.) Now, there is a bet and a raise and it is your turn to act. What action correlates with the best investment of your chips? Your chips, the ones in your stack, not the ones you put in the pot preflop, those aren't your chips anymore, they belong to the pot until they belong to the winner of the pot. What is your analysis of the investment you would have to make to continue? Is continuing is this hand a good investment? Hey, you have insider information! Insider information is defined as 'material information ... not generally available to the public that a reasonable investor could consider important to deciding to buy, hold or sell...' Your cards are your inside information. Even better, it is legal to use your inside knowledge. (So, you don't have to worry about sharing a cell with anyone named Martha.) Consider as many factors as you wish in making your decision: your inside information, the board, pot odds, implied odds, reverse implied odds, player characteristics, stack size, whatever you think is important. Then act according to your most sound investment choice. Invest in good opportunities, avoid investing in bad ones. Don't decide that 'this is a bad investment' and then invest anyway. That would be dumb, right? This analysis/investment saw cuts both ways. If your analysis says 'invest' and you don't invest (i.e. you fold) you are making a decision contrary to your analysis, and hence, a bad investment decision. Remember you get paid to make correct (investment) decisions. Every time, before you toss in those chips or click that button, take a moment to evaluate the investment your are about to make with your hard earned chips. Now, go and be a wise investor. Paul Stine College Station, TX | ||
| Return to Thread List | ||
| Re: Good investments, Laredo, 24. Aug 2003 21:37 | ||
| View ( Message | Thread ) | Return to Thread List | |
| Paul, About a year ago, I wrote down and saved my thoughts about poker and investing after a session with a friend of mine. It is good to know that my thoughts were correct. Robert. Poker Parallels Investing. Steve, a friend of mine, is a very good middle limit Hold Em and Omaha 8 or Better player. One evening we were playing Omaha 8 or Better and once, when the action was to him, he verbalized his thought and quietly said, “I don’t have anything invested in this hand”, and folded. This quiet utterance stayed in my mind and each time the action was on me, I thought about Steve’s words and it helped me objectively look at my hand and decide if the hand was good enough to put money into the pot given its strength and other factors existing at the table at that instant. Over time, I realized that this tactic was similar to sound investing. Given market conditions, one invests in stocks, bonds, precious metals, futures, commodities, etc. Studying, analyzing, evaluating, and acting on market conditions is sound investment strategy. As investing goes, so goes poker. What are market conditions in poker. More specifically, what are the market conditions at a poker table that influence your actions ? Position, Number of players, Types of players, Game Structure, Buy-In, Rake, Location of Game, Time at Table, Climate of Game, Mental State, Hand Odds, Pot Odds Every time you sit at a poker table, you are investing. You are evaluating conditions that will either prompt you to soundly make a bet or call, risk a bet, or not bet or call. Your decision and action should be based on the result of filtering the poker market conditions existing at that time. | ||
| Return to Thread List | ||
| Re: Good investments - Yikes!!!, Paul Stine, 25. Aug 2003 05:47 | ||
| View ( Message | Thread ) | Return to Thread List | |
| Laredo, Your friend was incorrect in considering what he did, or did not, already have in the pot. A correct statement would be, "This hand is not worth investing in any further (or at all) based on the chance of winning the pot." This is an important point. While there definitely are similarities between a market investment and a poker investment, one major difference is that once you put money into the pot you have no further equity in that money, except as dictated by the chances of winning that pot. You can't decide that your don't like your investment and get some diluted portion of it back. If a stock heads south you can, hopefully, salvage some value from it. You can't do that with money you put in the pot. Your investment is in your chances of winning the pot, not in the pot itself. It sounds like you understand my arguement. I just want to make that one point very clear. Money in the pot belongs to the pot. All you can invest in is your chances of winning that pot. Paul Stine College Station, TX | ||
| Return to Thread List | ||
| Re: Good investments, donrhem, 25. Aug 2003 05:32 | ||
| View ( Message | Thread ) | Return to Thread List | |
| Paul, Great post! I am going to print this out and post it on my wall. Maybe my stocks will do better also:-) Thanks, Don | ||
| Return to Thread List | ||
| Re: Good investments, Snorbolus, 25. Aug 2003 11:32 | ||
| View ( Message | Thread ) | Return to Thread List | |
| This post reminds me a little of one of David Sklansky's Card Player articles where he wrote something along the lines of: "whenever you consider accepting a deal you should ask yourself why the others involved are prepared to accept the other side of it? ..... if IBM stock is a good buy at $x then why is somebody prepared to sell it to you at that price?...... if you have a +EV opportunity to put money into a poker pot then why are the other players also willing to put money in? What cards might they be looking at that make them want to play?" Not exactly the same idea but it was a good article and sufficiently related to mention in this thread I think. Snorbolus | ||
| Return to Thread List | ||
| POKER FORUM HOME | POKER FORUM | LINK TO US | ARCHIVE | ONLINE POKER | Copyright 2002, United Poker Forum |
|
Getting Started |
UPF Tournaments |
Poker News, Views, Rules |
Poker Strategy & Psychology |
Money and Bankroll Poker Bonuses & Promotions | World Series of Poker (WSOP) | Play Online Poker | Poker Odds & Statistics | Tournament Poker | Poker Books, Videos & Learning Tools Looking for a Poker Game | Poker Bad Beats | Not Quite Poker | Quizzes and Polls | Forum Suggestions & Bugs |
|
|
|
|
Interesting Links: Online Poker | Free Poker Games | United Poker Network |
|