Most people think that poker is a one-track profession – you either make it in poker or you don’t. There is no parlaying your poker skills onto the operating table or into some lofty management position. But this might not be the case anymore according to a recent Los Angeles Times article.
The article talked about how professional poker players are starting to be looked at by investment and trading companies as valuable commodities. Chris Fargis is one of the players the article talked about, and he was hired as a stock option trader with no Wall Street experience. His main qualification was that he was used to routinely making decisions where thousands of dollars were exchanged every hand.
Former vice president of Legg Mason management funds probably made the most interesting observation when he said, “There are a number of similarities between poker and investing. You have to be patient to do both well. Both are games of incomplete information. The tough thing about investing is the amount of information that you don’t know and don’t control.”
He finished by saying, “You don’t know what’s going to happen a lot of the time, but you do enough analysis so that the probabilities are in your favor when you make a particular investment. In poker, you weigh the odds in your favor by only playing those hands where you either have the best hand or have the best draw.”
When you stop to think about it, there are a lot of similarities between poker and investing. Both activities involve understanding human nature in addition to how you can use the tendency of others to freak out when money is on the line. No wonder investment firms are looking at poker players as legitimate job candidates.
