It was recently brought to my attention that people know nothing about stocks. They own a share of something and believe it means that they are basically betting on the success of that business, which is true, but they are ignorant of the dependencies their stock has to do with other variables. Market sways, supply/demand, wars, politicians, republican/democratic congress, wall street, etc. The people who play the market are usually not the ones creating and managing their portfolios, so they basically just look at an outcome. To me, this is kind of like getting a flush draw in poker and always going all in, no matter what the circumstances. You’re not paying attention to how you got there, who else is there, how they’ve been playing, or what they could possibly have. These are the factors that go into your decision making process, not just what your two cards are and what are the three cards on the flop. You’re missing a lot of information if you play this way. The savvy investor is probably a good tournament poker player though. They have to take account of the blinds, the players, and all of the variables to help them make the best decsion at the moment.

Conversely, I believe that sports betters are decent cash game poker players because they usually have to make their own decisions, independent of a lot of other nonsense. They have to look at the spreads, figure out who’s hurt, who’s got what advantage, pick a side, and then pick an amount of money they feel suitable to wager.

Firstly, sports betting is a direct bet. There is a line, and though there are variables in the outcome arrives, your bet stands alone. Betting on the Knicks vs the Celtics has virtually nothing to do with the Pistons game. Betting on Randy Couture in a UFC fight has nothing to do with the lightweight undercard, but it has everything to do with his opponent and how they match up.

In my opinion, many people feel investing in the stock market is a direct bet, when in fact, there are less variables to account for in sports betting. Depending on how you do in each of these arenas, you might be better suited to play either cash games or tournament poker.