I'm not a native French speaker, just taking French in school so the translation won't be super good but I believe all the main points are there. If you noticed any mistakes, let me know and I'll edit my translation.
My name is Bertrand Grospellier, I'm 29 years old and I'm probably better known by my nickname, Elky. From 2001 to 2006, I had a career as a professional gamer of Starcraft in South Korea and I was the runner-up at WCG 2001. Since 2006, I've been signed with Poker Stars to represent them as a poker player. These days I play in a few tournaments all over the world and so far, I've made 6 million dollars of winnings.
I find Starcraft 2 to be very well made and I really like the interface in particular. It allows the gamers to concentrate better and those with lower APM to be more competitive. There is less of a need to be fast to issue a lot of commands. The design is intelligent and the units are full of varied possibilities. Viable strategies are also very diverse with hard counters available. (T/N Not sure about the last sentence.)
It quite a shame that Battle.net servers are not linked together. It's impossible to play against Koreans or Americans if you're in Europe. Personally, it's extremely annoying because I travel a lot, and if I log on using my European account while I'm in Korea, it lags a lot. I'm forced to use my buddy's account instead. It's a little frustrating but I really do like the game itself.
What I really like about the gameplay, just like the first masterpiece, is that the races are very different. There is one thing I really like about Starcraft, there is room for progress in every level of play. (T/N Not sure about this last sentence). It's full of elements where one can do better each time. The timing is also very important. All those things make the game very versatile/varied.
In addition, there are lots of units at your disposal that are all quite usable. Whereas in Starcraft 1, there were units that we very rarely see. There is a now an enormous number of different possiblities and this is important in a strategy game. The races are quite well balanced but I believe Terrans are are little strong for now. Well, it's my best race and so I don't really know.
I'm very happy that video games are becoming more and more recognized because it's true when I was a pro-gamer about 10 years ago, it was difficult to be recognized in France or Europe. At that time, I moved to Korea, something I do not regret at all, I'm so glad I did it, it's an awesome experience but I have to say I was very impatient for it to be more accessible back home. I've plenty of friends who is back playing the game who told me it's getting better in Europe and now with the release of Starcraft 2, that's very important for pro-gaming. With a bit of luck, I hope to be able to play in a some tournaments since I'm really busy with my work.
Some advice for gamers? To learn you need to keep trying to get better : while playing with different strategies. There are so many possibilities, that's one of the beauty of the game. But I do see a lot of players practice the same strategy all the time in the same way and even if it works well for you, it's important to vary your technique to see what works best. And enjoy yourself, that's the goal of the game!!
Elky the official pimp of gaming. He is so fucking awesome that customs airport once stopped him because they thought he was a badass gangster since he was carrying an insane amount of money with him.
On October 10 2010 10:39 Obscure wrote: People throw the term "baller" around a lot, but Elky is a true baller. Would love to see him play SC again seriously.
Elky is the very definition of baller and the word did not exist before him. Elky is today used as a measurement when applying the word baller onto others.
On October 10 2010 10:59 inza wrote: I'm probably the only persson in here who first got to know about him as a poker player and then discovered that he used to be a kickass SC player.
BTW the person with the most winings in poker (Phil Ivey) has won about the double! Sick!
Sorry to kill your specialness, but same for me. He's a complete tournament beast. Actually, a thread on 2+2 (poker forum to those who don't play) about Elky playing SC before poker was what turned me on to competitive SC.
Would be pretty cool to see Elky compete, but I don't think it's going to happen. Any reasonably big poker tournament makes the GSL payouts look like nothing.
On October 10 2010 10:59 inza wrote: I'm probably the only persson in here who first got to know about him as a poker player and then discovered that he used to be a kickass SC player.
BTW the person with the most winings in poker (Phil Ivey) has won about the double! Sick!
Sorry to kill your specialness, but same for me. He's a complete tournament beast. Actually, a thread on 2+2 (poker forum to those who don't play) about Elky playing SC before poker was what turned me on to competitive SC.
Would be pretty cool to see Elky compete, but I don't think it's going to happen. Any reasonably big poker tournament makes the GSL payouts look like nothing.
becuase of elkys success in poker i have heard on multiple occasions the poker commentators say: "he was a former startcraft pro". not in just regards to elky but other poker players as well. pretty cool
I heard about Elky from a friend too, while discussing Poker. It's nice to turn on the television to poker and sometimes see Elky, then scream in my head, "Hey! He plays Starcraft too!"
On October 10 2010 11:45 netherDrake wrote: He probably plays in his free time, but I don't think he'll go pro, there's just much more money in professional poker than pro sc2
the cool thing about poker is how mobile it is... he is mostly an online player. he just needs to be in vegas for a few months for the world series then he can go back to korea for sc2. and it not like his poker game needs much more practice.
Elky is one of the most great players in my memory. He was at the Boxer era and if I remember correctly, he and boxer played an amazing game at WCG 2002 final.
Elky plays in tournies with millions of dollars in the prize pool. I really doubt he'd ever be interested in playing SC2 as a job for current prize pools.
Fun fact about elky though -- Thanks to his SC2 apm he held (holds?) the world record for most single table poker tournaments played at the same time while still showing profit.
What is funny is Im French and I sometime need to check out what he says under the video because he speaks so badly (too fast, some low tones).
For the translation :
"Viable strategies are also very diverse with hard counters available. (T/N Not sure about the last sentence.)"
You got the meaning of it : Viable strategies are very diverse with strong hard-counters (or just counters).
"There is also a few other things I really like about Starcraft, there is room for progress in every level of play. (T/N Not sure about this last sentence)."
That's it just a singular : There is one thing I really like...
"Well, it's my worst race and I don't really know it very well."
No it's the opposite : "It's my best race so I'm not sure" (maybe he means his best match up is against terran)
"I'm very happy that video games are becoming more and more recognized because it's true that it has only been about ten years when I was a pro gamer, it was difficult to be recognized in France or Europe. "
... beacuse it's true that when I was a progamer ten years ago ...
You forgot to translate that even if it is not important : "Juste pour le fun, ça pourrait être sympa oui" Yes, just for fun, that would be cool
Good work on the translation though I know French is very hard for foreigners.
I met him on the ladder a couple of days ago Think he was number 1 in his diamond division actually, dont remember exactly, and that division might have been pretty new. I probably have the replay autosaved if some elky fans really wants to see how hes doing. Dont remember the game at all tho, think he was playing random
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
What exactly do you mean when RTS aspects can be applied with poker?
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
Surprisingly enough, a lot of skills developed in these games can directly translate into poker. However being good at SC2 does not make you necessarily good at poker (nor does it the other way around). But a lot of the same concepts are thrown around in both at the highlevels.
And to the person who said Phil Ivey has won double what ElkY has, Phil Ivey has double the tournament earnings, yes.. But Phil Ivey is also the best cash game player alive, and it is rumoured that the 12 million hes made in tournaments is nothing compaired to his cash game play. Online, hes up around 20 million dollars.. and thats just online poker..
On October 10 2010 13:14 rezoacken wrote: What is funny is Im French and I sometime need to check out what he says under the video because he speaks so badly (too fast, some low tones).
"There is also a few other things I really like about Starcraft, there is room for progress in every level of play. (T/N Not sure about this last sentence)."
That's it just a singular : There is one thing I really like...
"I'm very happy that video games are becoming more and more recognized because it's true that it has only been about ten years when I was a pro gamer, it was difficult to be recognized in France or Europe. "
... beacuse it's true that when I was a progamer ten years ago ...
You forgot to translate that even if it is not important : "Juste pour le fun, ça pourrait être sympa oui" Yes, just for fun, that would be cool
Good work on the translation though I know French is very hard for foreigners.
On October 10 2010 10:59 inza wrote: I'm probably the only persson in here who first got to know about him as a poker player and then discovered that he used to be a kickass SC player.
BTW the person with the most winings in poker (Phil Ivey) has won about the double! Sick!
Umm, no. Phil Ivey has made probably 20x than Elky in all the card games he's played. He made like $8M just playing online alone last year (Ivey).
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
What exactly do you mean when RTS aspects can be applied with poker?
if you look closely poker is a strategy game too, to a degree. But you have to be also lucky about your hand in addition to that. But anyway, this is not enough, as you can see not all old-bw-pros can do like elky, he is gifted as he is...
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
What exactly do you mean when RTS aspects can be applied with poker?
Off the top of my head, without going too indepth about it, concentration for long periods of time, the ability to soak up as much random information going on at once as you can, ability to remain calm under pressure.
That is a few of the basics, at a high level of play, using information to whittle down certain scenarios which allow you to have an edge. Take scouting in the very early game, you see certain things going on, but you only really have a barebones idea of what his long term plan is for the match. But based off his opening, you can narrow down certain possibilities from what you see, as the match goes on, you gain more and more information about what hes intending to do, and therefore you can continuously absorb this information to get a clear picture.
A hand in poker can play out similarly, you start preflop, based on his action to Fold, Call, or Raise, you have a bare-bones idea of what his hand strength is (and the more you play with said person, the more you can narrow down what two cards he is holding (although can never be 100% certain). As the Flop, Turn and River action proceed, based on how hes playing, you can further deduce what "Range" of hands he could possibly have, and using your logic, you can start to figure out what makes "sense" based on how he has played.
Ive played poker for many years now, with success (albeit peanuts compaired to elky), and my purchase of starcraft literally had nothing to do with ElkY or any others, however, once I started to watch Day9 and read some theory, it was wierd how many of the concepts he was explaining were concepts I had learned and studied while playing cards.
I love how he kept his SC nickname when playing poker, if you watch "High stakes poker" (a poker game on tv - up yo $500.000 / player on the table ), the commentators use "ElkY" to talk about Bertrand.
If you think about it, he his the only Pro Gamer who made huge money after E-sports. Even HeatoN after CS 1.6 didn't make such a carrier.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
pretty sweet that elky is thinking about taking up SC2. but i have my doubts he will do it at any professional level. He might do it on his own just to destroy the nerds and show them that they can play all they want and he will still have more money and be better at all aspects of life PLUS beat them at SC2. Just to induce suicide. If thats the case then GJ elky at pursing what makes u happy =]
Hah we were talking about him yesterday, since it's the Belgian Poker championship today and a friend of mine sat at the table with Elky last year I believe, or the year before. When I looked him up his offline winnings said 7 mil though, now he says 6, did he lose a mil online then? Heh. Would love to see some games from him.
EDIT: What's next? Tillerman coming to SC2? Maybe.. agent911?
On October 10 2010 18:21 Piou wrote: I love how he kept his SC nickname when playing poker, if you watch "High stakes poker" (a poker game on tv - up yo $500.000 / player on the table ), the commentators use "ElkY" to talk about Bertrand.
If you think about it, he his the only Pro Gamer who made huge money after E-sports. Even HeatoN after CS 1.6 didn't make such a carrier.
SK.Soul (old-school WC3 player) was runner-up in the WSOP Main Event in 2008 cashing in $6.5 mil
There are a couple of ex gamers doing reasonably well, but don't know if you can call them progamer.
hehe, i knew i saw that name somewhere before, he's the #1 of my division (i'm 27th or so). Good to see more of the old pro's coming back to SC2, even if they're not competing on the pro level anymore, their replays can still provide quite some entertainment value and possible new strats.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
Don't kid yourself, even the best pros and theorists admit that you're crazy if you can believe that poker is not gambling.
That being said, IF you're a winning player, it is considered "positive expected value" gambling.
Anything where you put money down, when you don't know what your opponent has, you don't know what cards are coming up, and you don't know what anyone else is going to do.. Its gambling.. The best players in the world on any given night could lose fortunes to the worst players in the world. You can sure as hell believe that Tiger Woods wouldnt lose a round of golf to someone whos played once or twice in their life.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
Don't kid yourself, even the best pros and theorists admit that you're crazy if you can believe that poker is not gambling.
For random people, yes, it's at the very basis, gambling.
At pro level, I dont think you realize how much skill goes into it. Gambling implies that it's all luck that goes into it; further implying that randoms should always be winning tournaments and not the same people over and over. I may not be a pro, but I think I can safely say that Poker is more about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions, figuring out potential chance of flops, managing money, than it is getting good hands and hoping to win.
I'm learning some basic poker math right now, that gives me probability. Let's say I got a Queen and a King of diamonds, and on the flop there is Jack of diamonds. I am learning to accurately figure out what my chances are, taking into the account of X for my opponents hands, for me getting a flush or a straight (or any mix of the two) on the next two cards. It may be something fun that I'm learning, it may be something at least at the very minimum that pros do. Poker is not gambling. Slots are gambling.
He recently play an exhib match in Paris, where he clearly stated (after his win) that he would not be part of the SC2 pro-scene. Though, he admit to be eager to play SC2 more, for fun, cos it's so good ya know It's on youtube (french interview).
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
I know what Poker is thanks.
When I was using the word gambling I was just simply trying to categorize it. I didn't know someone would use that word in bold and would get all correcting...
I don't want to derail the thread to a "Poker, is it gambling?" discussion but to an average person, if there is money in it, if luck is in it, if it's played with cards, if it's also played in casinos like many other places, it's gambling.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
Don't kid yourself, even the best pros and theorists admit that you're crazy if you can believe that poker is not gambling.
For random people, yes, it's at the very basis, gambling.
At pro level, I dont think you realize how much skill goes into it. Gambling implies that it's all luck that goes into it; further implying that randoms should always be winning tournaments and not the same people over and over. I may not be a pro, but I think I can safely say that Poker is more about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions, figuring out potential chance of flops, managing money, than it is getting good hands and hoping to win.
I'm learning some basic poker math right now, that gives me probability. Let's say I got a Queen and a King of diamonds, and on the flop there is Jack of diamonds. I am learning to accurately figure out what my chances are, taking into the account of X for my opponents hands, for me getting a flush or a straight (or any mix of the two) on the next two cards. It may be something fun that I'm learning, it may be something at least at the very minimum that pros do. Poker is not gambling. Slots are gambling.
lol, this post is very wrong and made me chuckle. even at the 'pro level', poker is widely accepted as a form of gambling. 'reading opponents faces' is certainly an aspect of the game but realistically affects <5% of decisions.
While I would love to see a fellow frenchman and such a legendary BW player come back, he never said in that interview nor anywhere else that he was interested in playing competitively again. More like the opposite. He has a contract with pokerstars and is making a lot of money. If he quit starcraft in the first place it was to be able to focus on poker more.
On October 10 2010 20:27 Natt wrote: He recently play an exhib match in Paris, where he clearly stated (after his win) that he would not be part of the SC2 pro-scene. Though, he admit to be eager to play SC2 more, for fun, cos it's so good ya know It's on youtube (french interview).
That's too bad i know
wait...what?? Where/when did that showmatch happen? Is there a newsletter about this kind of events in Paris ? :D
On October 10 2010 20:41 wantPopRocks wrote: wait...what?? Where/when did that showmatch happen? Is there a newsletter about this kind of events in Paris ? :D
lol, it was for the "Salon du Jeuxvidéo" if i remember correctly, it was live commented by Pomf&Thud, 2 famous french caster.
Well, you can subscribe to the millenium, aaalive, esportfrance RSS to be aware
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
Don't kid yourself, even the best pros and theorists admit that you're crazy if you can believe that poker is not gambling.
For random people, yes, it's at the very basis, gambling.
At pro level, I dont think you realize how much skill goes into it. Gambling implies that it's all luck that goes into it; further implying that randoms should always be winning tournaments and not the same people over and over. I may not be a pro, but I think I can safely say that Poker is more about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions, figuring out potential chance of flops, managing money, than it is getting good hands and hoping to win.
I'm learning some basic poker math right now, that gives me probability. Let's say I got a Queen and a King of diamonds, and on the flop there is Jack of diamonds. I am learning to accurately figure out what my chances are, taking into the account of X for my opponents hands, for me getting a flush or a straight (or any mix of the two) on the next two cards. It may be something fun that I'm learning, it may be something at least at the very minimum that pros do. Poker is not gambling. Slots are gambling.
I know odds, i know equities, expected value, hand ranges, pot odds, etc. etc. etc. I know how to play winning poker and yes I know how much dedication, skill, and discipline goes into it. That being said, yes you obviously can win in the long run, I know this. It doesnt change the fact that its gambling, but as I said, there are two types of gambling, Postive and negative expected value. Pit games, such as blackjack, have a long term negative expected value, therefore unbeatable. Poker if you play properlty has a positive expected value, therefore if you consistantly make the correct decisions, you can win.
If you were to ask Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, hell, even ElkY, you would probably here them say that poker is still gambling.
Ill give you a tip though, you say Poker is about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions? Don't even bother. The only thing you need is discipline, and bankroll management. Poker comes down to making the right decisions the majority of the time, not some "tell" you think you picked up.
Anyways thats the last im going to say about it because this thread isn't about that.
I love getting my ass kicked by smarter people on here. Perhaps I have a different definition of gambling (where I perceive gambling all luck and just hoping for the best) and I consider anything else a form of skill; in shape or another.
Elky has nothing to lose if he plays SC2 competitively, unlike other progamers, thinking about the prize money wouldn't faze him at all. Hell I wish I was in his position. It'll be like the old days except he can live in a nice place (if he wants to) in Korea while training.
With his endorsement with Poker Stars I don't see how he'll be able to find the time to practice to really get far in major tournaments. You cannot have the best of both worlds. Poker is very time consuming to stay on top of your game and the same can be said about Starcraft.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
I know what Poker is thanks.
When I was using the word gambling I was just simply trying to categorize it. I didn't know someone would use that word in bold and would get all correcting...
I don't want to derail the thread to a "Poker, is it gambling?" discussion but to an average person, if there is money in it, if luck is in it, if it's played with cards, if it's also played in casinos like many other places, it's gambling.
Anyway, ElkY is the man.
No, you don't and the fact that you think you do actually stops you from learning. It is a very common mistake and not just about poker.
In any case someone made the point that poker is as risky as gambling. You can't defend that statement by saying that average person think it's gambling. There's no connection between the two.
There are a ton of silly and many outright wrong assumptions about poker in this thread.
I used to think that people criticizing the poker-RTS connection were being overly critical, but people have gone way too far in trying to draw connections between the 2. There are a lot more people who have failed in the other realm than have succeeded. At this point, it's seems appropriate to say that there is a light amount of correlation in success between the two, but that anyone who tells you that there is causation is being ridiculous.
Poker is a form of gambling, and you're kidding yourself thinking any differently. The definition of gambling is "betting on an uncertain outcome", which is exactly what poker is. The fact that you can win long-term (or not for blackjack, craps, etc) is completely irrelevant to the definition. I think that's where the most common misconception is. The term "gambling" generally has a negative connotation due to being associated to games like roulette, blackjack, and other games that have a negative expectation. Because of that, people want to put poker in a different basket because it (can) have positive expectation, but that's wrong.
I love Elky, he is such a great and friendly gamer, all his life is mainly about game.
Now he plays for fun (because being among the top is kinda too hard, and he is already making enough money with poker)
I think he is overrated, not nearly enough from the SlayerS_Boxer level but he still has a really decent level =) Hope to see him at the french tournaments =)
On October 10 2010 10:37 Integra wrote: Elky the official pimp of gaming. He is so fucking awesome that customs airport once stopped him because they thought he was a badass gangster since he was carrying an insane amount of money with him.
This is funny because it's actually true lol. I don't really care if Elky joins the scene, but at the moment I'm done with SC2. I wish him luck if he does decide to conform though haha
about the poker: It's still gambling but it has a skill element large enough to make it a +EV gambling game if you play good enough. It's a skill game with luck involved / its a luck game with skill involved is a fruitless discussion because neither side will budge.
Think elky has his hands full raking in the money in poker and living the baller life, so i don't expect him to go pro in SC2 ever again and he confirms that in this interview. Its nice to see old school players reappear (kinda) though.
Oh yeah! Elky! I had so many of his reps saved on my computer for bw. I remember watching Elky play Smuft (I think thats his name) a bunch of times. Maybe Grrr will get his ass onto SC2 and revolutionize PvZ again.
On October 10 2010 13:43 loving it wrote: Can someone explain why alot of former progamers turn to poker?
cause you forfeit your education (for most progamers) so you don't have any special field. you either work your life from rock bottom or you go in a risky business like gambling.
and as a professional RTS player, you have counters, early-mid-late games, cheese, hidden tech, "mindgames", etc. strategies those can be applied to poker.
Poker is not gambling
Don't kid yourself, even the best pros and theorists admit that you're crazy if you can believe that poker is not gambling.
For random people, yes, it's at the very basis, gambling.
At pro level, I dont think you realize how much skill goes into it. Gambling implies that it's all luck that goes into it; further implying that randoms should always be winning tournaments and not the same people over and over. I may not be a pro, but I think I can safely say that Poker is more about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions, figuring out potential chance of flops, managing money, than it is getting good hands and hoping to win.
I'm learning some basic poker math right now, that gives me probability. Let's say I got a Queen and a King of diamonds, and on the flop there is Jack of diamonds. I am learning to accurately figure out what my chances are, taking into the account of X for my opponents hands, for me getting a flush or a straight (or any mix of the two) on the next two cards. It may be something fun that I'm learning, it may be something at least at the very minimum that pros do. Poker is not gambling. Slots are gambling.
I know odds, i know equities, expected value, hand ranges, pot odds, etc. etc. etc. I know how to play winning poker and yes I know how much dedication, skill, and discipline goes into it. That being said, yes you obviously can win in the long run, I know this. It doesnt change the fact that its gambling, but as I said, there are two types of gambling, Postive and negative expected value. Pit games, such as blackjack, have a long term negative expected value, therefore unbeatable. Poker if you play properlty has a positive expected value, therefore if you consistantly make the correct decisions, you can win.
If you were to ask Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, hell, even ElkY, you would probably here them say that poker is still gambling.
Ill give you a tip though, you say Poker is about reading your opponents emotions and facial expressions? Don't even bother. The only thing you need is discipline, and bankroll management. Poker comes down to making the right decisions the majority of the time, not some "tell" you think you picked up.
Anyways thats the last im going to say about it because this thread isn't about that.
I agree with what you're saying, other than the blackjack part. Blackjack can be beaten, granted it depends a little bit on the rules of the house but with just basic strategy you can get it to about 50 percent. That says nothing for other "abilities" that could be useful.
LOL shit man Elky in GSL3 would be unfucking imaginable, love the guy for what he did in the past and even what he did in poker, would be soooo cool to see him come into SC2 as a pro
I love him both as sc and poker player He actually was WPT (world poker tour) player of the year! his performance in finals was mind blowing! Pure aggression... I wonder what's his sc2 play style : )
On October 20 2010 06:14 Hunch wrote: LOL shit man Elky in GSL3 would be unfucking imaginable, love the guy for what he did in the past and even what he did in poker, would be soooo cool to see him come into SC2 as a pro
this will bring so many viewer if elky and giyom pass the prelim( i mean if elky and grrrr.. try)
On October 20 2010 06:11 ArnaudF wrote: The eOSL (french league with the best players in the country) just announced that Elky will play in the upcoming season. Amazing.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.canardpc.com/img/news/35431/ijg_6125_48669_3004_347x500.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.blogholdempoker.fr/blog/Image/elky.png)
