Similar advantage can be also achieved in poker. To the position advantage in poker we can refer the factors of your position with relation to your opponents, the availability of varied membership and the number of opponents continuing the tournament, your aggression, the size of opponents’ stacks and so on. From all of the arts of poker the most important is the creation and realization of position advantage. Here it is as important as in chess.
The conclusion is that an intellectual analytic effort is present both in chess and in poker but they are not alike as the position advantage differs in quality.
The third type of an intellectual effort is connected with the analysis of the part of a game situation which is not connected with the game process itself. This type includes taking into account the psychological peculiarities of the duel.
Strictly speaking, this psychological element is not as widely used in chess, mainly because of the game information which is fully open to both opponents.
In poker the psychological element is very important indeed. It provides almost the half of success of the player. The restricted type of information in poker makes the players only deducing it and it can be done only by observing your opponent. And here you meet a great chance to misinform or manipulate him or create the psychological pressure upon him, and etc. We can name at least three aspects of a psychological element that are often used by experienced players.
Firstly, it is watching for the “signs” of an opponent and the “sings” that you send him. Secondly, one uses the continuous assessment of the psychological state of opponent. Thirdly, one may cause the psychological pressure upon the opponent in order to impose one’s will on him.
To summarize the aforesaid we can say that both games are intellectual fights but their profiles differ. From the three component of an intellectual effort – logical, analytical and psychological, the most important ones in chess are the first two while in poker the last two. But the analytical component dominates in both the games, which is quite understandable because these two games are intellectual.
And finally there is the last comparative observation. In chess, the role played by psychology, is far less important than the role of logic and analytics. Chess in this sense appears as the game of spirit. Irrespective of the state of mind the player must and can find the way to victory, with this way not depending on human feelings and emotions. Chess is the philosophy, the game of aristocrats of a soul.
In poker the role of psychology is more important especially in comparison with logic. The moral state of the opponent, their feelings and emotions not only influence the course of game but change the way to victory. In this sense poker is a game of plebeians, the battle of human passions.
Both, philosophers and plebeians, we are all human. Moreover, in our life in turns we become these and those. Both the games are beautiful, both are worth your attention under condition that your intellect needs a check in a battle with equal ones, in other words, under condition that you are a human being.
In America active poker is not older than 100 years. In this regard if we make analogy between chess and poker we need to compare modern poker with the 19th century chess. Those were difficult times for chess players. Outstanding chess talents, which have received the universal recognition in our times, had to spend sometimes all their energy to find supporters who would agree to pay for such expensive and not perspective event as the world chess match for the champion title! But the reality was sad, any seeker for the title had a possibility to call for the world champion after fulfillment of one obligatory condition: he had to pay prize money by himself, loosing the great part of it in case of a failure. If the pretender would loose such match, the poverty was almost guaranteed for him. Many years had passed before chess became the honorable and respected thing and the tragic fates of losers became history.
The situation has changed greatly today. There are poker clubs, poker community and poker life goes on.
