Adel Awwad asked:


One of the ways to suggest an answer to the question of skill or luck is to watch the TV tournaments and notice how often some professional players seem to make the final table. Another clue to this question is taking stock of a local poker room and who seems to win more often than not. Some players are luckier than others, but it seems that skill over time wins out over luck. This is particularly true in cash games. Luck in tournaments does play a bigger part since one bad bet can end the tournament for a solid player. In tournaments you can often see a river card out of nowhere beat a very good starting hand of a professional and the amateur that lucked out continues in the game.

Many state legislatures have decided in favor of skill when letting poker rooms legally run in the state. The skill quality of the game overcame the prohibition against gambling. Watch the fate of any new player learning the game during the early stages of their learning curve and you can easily see that their skill level is suspect and they only seem to win with lucky draws or very powerful starting hands. They are lost when it comes to knowing when to bluff or play a marginal hand. Solid players who have a knack for doing the right move at the right time are the personification of poker skill. They rarely make a playing mistake and are only beat by an unexpected draw of luck or four running suited cards in the flop to give the Ace holding player a flush. You see many hands like this in online tournaments. Watching pairs of Aces get cracked online is an ugly display of how fickle the game can be at times.

Knowledge and experience are usually rewarded in a cash game and to a lesser degree in tournaments. The big reason for the difference is the player can rebuy in the cash game and when they lose their starting stack in a tournament they are knocked out of the tournament. Tournament play does seem to have a greater element of luck in its play. This is especially true when these Internet players are willing to go all in at the start of a hand. They play power poker and do not wait to see if they make their hand or not. In cases like this you may as well be playing showdown and not Holdem. Big pairs are likely to be over bet before the flop in tournaments and under bet in cash games. Patience also seems to be a bigger factor in cash games and less of an element in tournament play. Tournaments reward very aggressive play far more than cash games. As a group of players, cash game professionals are often more skillful players.

The betting level of the game also seems to bring more skill into play. The higher the betting level the more skill you will see in the play. Low-level games are hard to win with just skill, as there are too many players who will call even when the odds are very much out of favor toward them. No limit games will be filled with skillful players who know how to play. This is true in spades if the blinds are also very high. Players who are learning would be advised to stick with the lower level games until they have a better understanding of how the game should be played.

Making set up bets and bluffing are not the new player’s best play. Skilled players do it all of the time. They also seem to know exactly the amount they should wager to get their opponent to call. Getting the maximum amount of money for a winning hand is a learned skill and not a play that should be left to luck.

The other part of luck versus skill is luck cannot be counted on from day to day, but skill can be maintained from one session to the next. This alone may be the reason that familiar faces are seen at tournament after tournament. It is hard to beat a player who plays well and makes few mistakes. As the song goes, they know when to Holdem and when to Foldem. Mistake free play is hard to win against when a player is counting on lucky draws to bail them out of bad calls. Players sitting at a poker table make miracle draws every day. The difference from a skill standpoint is the odds are taken into account before the draw and the player knows that the play will depend on the odds. The player who depends on luck to win will be disappointed many times and does not even consider the odds of the play they are making. A blind eye to the odds of the play can be very costly over time and over many poker sessions.

Conclusions

Most solid players would come down on the side of skill in this debate. They saw it happen in their own play, as they got better at the game of poker. Early on they had games where they got very lucky, but over time they began to realize that they could not depend on luck to win. As they learned more about the inner workings of the game, they began to play with greater skill and their wins and losses were reversed to the win side of the ledger. Many of these same players have had two other significant advantages over the older players. They could read any of the really good books on poker that are now available. They could also play thousands of hands on the Internet at online poker rooms. The old time poker players had to spend a long time playing poker to log the same number of games and the experience that real time play gives to a player. This accounts to some degree for the young players doing so well in tournaments. Skill in the long run is the bread and butter to a winning poker player.

Jonathan Senior asked:

Being a new manager In the UK at least, people tend to be promoted on the basis of technical knowledge rather than management skill.

Quite often you hear from ex soccer players who have gone from playing to managing say that it is a big change going from “one of the lads” to telling someone they aren’t in the team for the cup final.

So how can a new manager get started with a management career without alienating previous colleagues and friends?

1. Remember the relationship has changed forever and there is no going back. People will look to YOU to bail them out of problems.

2. Don’t go mad celebrating. Some colleagues may have failed miserably at the interview or even worse, may not have been given an interview.

3. Think about how you talk to these people and how they reply. Depending on the nature of your workplace, shouting over the office may no longer be acceptable. You might have a desk or even move offices completely. Never under estimate the power a desk or office move!

4.Think about how and where you socialise with people who still do your old job. Getting drunk every Saturday night is probably not all that clever if you want respect on Monday morning (but that depends on the jo you do…)

5. Try to sport when they are testing you. Like it or not, people you used to sit alongside will try to test you out. Will you let everyone go home early the day before the holidays start? Who will cover the office if you do?

6. Work out a plan to deal with being “tested”. Your new staff will “test” you – work out (even subconsciously) how far they can push you. You must work out how to cope with this or they will take control from day 1. You could pick several issues which you will not move on. These could include, office cover after 5pm or maximum number of tea breaks. Don’t tell anyone what these are though and they won’t work you out as quick.

7. Make sure your subject matter knowledge is up to date. “If you don’t know something, know where to look” You will get tested on this also.

8. Praise in public, criticise in private. This is basic and you will need to be on your guard not to be drawn into a public debate or discussion on a controversial subject or one you are not confident discussing.

9. Don’t take everything on yourself This is easier said that done (especially if the ). Pause a while- (if the vacancy HAS been there some time, another couple of days won’t make much difference. If you work out what needs to be done BEFORE jumping in, YOU are likely to remain sane and healthy rather than buckling under the pressure with a few weeks.

Being a new manager is exciting, daunting but very rewarding. To summarise,the key thing is managing the changing relationship between yourself and your former colleagues.

Jeffrey Wyrick asked:

Before you start up your email or fax machine to send resumes, have you done a self analysis of your career skills. Gaining a prospective employers confidence early in the job interview could go a long way.

While applying for a job, it’s idealistic that you discover your strengths and weaknesses and be ready to address these. By knowing your advantage, the chances of finding & getting the job that you wish will certainly get smoother. But you shouldn’t become too confident because this is among the more common mistakes that plague job applicants. Appearing too surefooted or as somewhat of a know it all individual will merely get you tagged by your interviewer as unfit for the job.

IDENTIFYING YOUR SKILLS

1st thing’s 1st. You had better identify your accomplishments and skill sets. This is your ticket to get that job and you ought to be able to articulate your abilities and expertness as best as possible. A lot folk’s experience a difficult time narrating their accomplishments and abilities as this could appear to be boasting. But you shouldn’t be timid or afraid to talk about your skills. As a matter of fact, it’s crucial that you express to your possible employer what your gifts and talents are. You ought to be able to sell your abilities to your employer. That’s how you’ll acquire the job that you wish. It’s crucial that you don’t come out arrogant or condescending but you should as well avoid selling yourself short. Whenever the interviewer inquires you about your very strong points or what assorts you from the remaining applicants, you ought to be able to promptly apply an effective answer, but before you even go to the interview part, your resume had better spotlight your acquirements and talents for your likely employer to view.

TYPE OF SKILLS

There’s 2 primary classes of skills, hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are tangible in the good sense that these are matters

that you do like: knowing how to control diverse types of machinery, knowledge of a specialized computer program, ability to type quick, skills about applying many types of tools, credentials concerning particular crafts, etc. Soft skills are skills that are kind of abstract in nature as if personal qualities. This may include the following: being a good team player, holding the power to work on your own, being enthusiastic or organized and decisive.

THE STEPS TO FOLLOW

Constructing a list of your former jobs and experience acquired 1st matter to do is to make a list of all the businesses that you had been employed at for and the skill-sets that you acquired by these employers. There will be numerous things to name and you had better be heedful enough not to forget even the most minor things or activities that you were part of or organized. It is also a good idea to list the volunteer activities that you participated in.

INCLUDE A LIST OF YOUR HOBBIES

Though it could deem trivial at first, it’s likewise really helpful to list altogether your hobbies. There are a lot of abilities that your likely employer may acquire from your hobby list. These will as well as give an approximation of your personality. For instance,

whenever you were part of the school’s debating squad, then your employer may derive that you have good analytical skills. If you were a whiz chess player, then your employer will hold the impression that you are good at arriving at critical decisions. Think of your day by day routine and the matters that you do and frequently take for granted. Are you an organized individual who always maintains your things in decent order? Are you an extrovert that could easily form friendships in a matter of minutes? These may appear ordinary to normal matters to you, but your next boss may believe differently.

CHOOSE WHAT CAREER YOU DESIRE

After listing all your skills and all the things that you do good, you may now resolve what area or career you would like to take a

crack at. Choose the accomplishments contained from your list and partner it with the career type you are seeking. Always acquire time to think if your skills are applicable to the job that you are shooting for. Do not be annoyed if you have to cut down a few of the skills from your list. It’s also crucial to include in the list your skills that the prospective employer will probably value.

ADHERE WHAT YOU WRITE

You had better be realistic about your skills and the degree of expertness that you have with it. For instance, if you suggest that

you are a really organized person, then you should be able to demonstrate this to the interviewer by being able to organize your

thoughts and effectively use the time that was afforded for your job interview.

It’s significant to recognize your skills every time you are job hunting. Always put your best foot forward and good luck!