What I Learned Both From Poker And Chess

Do not get me wrong. I equally love playing chess and poker and here it is not about which one is better or worse :) Both have their merits.

But if we are to compare our everyday journey in life with one of these two great games, I would say that our lives are more like a poker game than a chess game.

To better understand this statement, I will analyze the two of them shortly.

Chess

In chess, we have no real hidden information. We can see all the pieces laid in front of us at any point, and we have a finite number of possible moves and outcomes. You will not see fortuity like a new Queen arise out of nowhere, a Bishop falling from skies directly on the board or a dice involved which can change the nature of the game.

Here, a game’s outcome is easily predictable from a specific point onwards or if a player is better than the other. There are few occasions when a lower-skilled player manages to overtake a better one and this can be done only if a mistake was made by the higher skilled player generally, analyzing the game we can specifically pinpoint the moment when the mistake happened, and the game was thrown away.

In chess, decision-making is very little about chance and everything about skill.