Pool Tourn. Vs. Poker Tourn.

A

AceHigh

Banned
We all know that poker tournaments pay out much better than pool tournaments, but which is truly more difficult to win?

In a pool tournament your typical number of entrants is around 64, where as in a poker tournament, you tend to have around 300+. I usually play in $30 buy-in tournaments online with 300 or more players, and first prize is around $3,000. Now I know for a pool tournament to have such a high payout, the entry fee must be over $200.

Luck also plays a huge factor, more so in poker, but it's also in pool.

So which is harder to win, and why?
 
Non-issue

AceHigh said:
We all know that poker tournaments pay out much better than pool tournaments, but which is truly more difficult to win?

In a pool tournament your typical number of entrants is around 64, where as in a poker tournament, you tend to have around 300+. I usually play in $30 buy-in tournaments online with 300 or more players, and first prize is around $3,000. Now I know for a pool tournament to have such a high payout, the entry fee must be over $200.

Luck also plays a huge factor, more so in poker, but it's also in pool.

So which is harder to win, and why?
Click to expand...


I suck at both, but I have 0 chance of winning at pool and some small chance of winning at poker.

Pool is 98% skill. Poker is 50/50, or so.
 
poker vs pool

ive recently started "investing" quite a lot of money in poker on line and im starting to think pool will end up a quite cheaper alternative.

I also believe you can watch yourself get beat face to face with your opponent in pool, with poker im starting to think there is more collusion occuring that what people will say is happening. Pool vs Poker, i think ill loose my money to a guy i know.
 
What I have found

In a large poker group, it is harder to win because so
much of Poker is luck. If you get the best hand, you
will win. How you play it, will determine how much you
win. I have found that usually only about 25% of the
players are 'good' players though, and really know what
the game is about, the other 75% are usually lower level
type players.

The only way to compare Poker to Pool is to compare
a 10 ball Ring game on a big table to Poker. You odds
to winning the ring game would be comparable to winning
at a full table of Holdem.
 
If you are by far the best pool player in a tournament then you are a huge favorite to win it depending on the structure. If its a long race, no handicap etc then the best player will win a high % of the time. If you are by far the best player in a poker tournament, you will win more often then others but not win at as high of a % as the best player in a pool tournament.

Pool has much more skill involved in the outcome of games. In poker there are many decisions that are made where the better players will in the long run create huge advantages but there are also times where the better player can go broke even while making the correct decisions. In the long run this makes for a big edge for the better players but on any given hand they can go broke so this makes it more difficult to win a tournament.

Now if you want to talk cash games vs gambling in pool I think its pretty similar. The better player will win at a very high % in each especially playing poker 1 on 1. If you play long sets or long ahead sets in pool and 2 poker players play heads up in a long session, the better player will win in each a high % of the time. In pool the better player will have enough time that his advantage will get him a win and in poker playing heads up, the better 1 on 1 player will win in the long run because there are so many decisions to make that will allow him to exploit the mistakes of the weaker player more often.

In cash games its about even, in tournaments its just too easy to go broke making the right plays in poker so its tougher there.
 
Its really too difficult to compare Poker to Pool. But, in pool, if you are phsically tired and mentally tired your chances of winning are very little, unless the opponent(s) you are playing play really bad.

In Poker, you can just sit back and play only premium starting hands in a cash ring game (doesn't mean you will win with those hands, it just an advantage). In a poker tournament, its more mental fatigue than physical when the bigger tournaments are 10+ hours long and you have to bluff at alot of pots as well as play good cards.


But in Poker, you are consistantly playing as with pool tournaments, you have to sit around for long periods of time doing nothing in between matches, for the most part, which I think really wears down a player both physically and mentally.
 
Last edited:
I'd like to thank everyone for their responses. When I used to play the 45+ person tournaments at my local pool hall, I would cash every once in awhile, and I've placed first 3 times. Now I have played many more online poker tournaments, and for me, it's much tougher becausse there are so many decisions to be made. Do I play this hand? How do I play this hand? Should I bluff if I don't hit the flop, or should I conserve my chips?

I actually had my best tournament finish the other day, 3rd out of 350 players. I was a huge chip leader for most of the tournament, and I just got a little too aggressive when it got down to three players, oh well.

thanks again for the comments.
 
It's apples and oranges. Pool is a sport which requires physical training. Poker is a game which requires learning strategy. I play both and know that as a competitor, the two really have no common ground to compare.
 
The best poker tournament players cash in a fraction of their tournaments. They win a small percentage of the time. Their expectation is approximately the buy-in over time, i.e. in a 1500 tournament they expect a profit of 1500, but this is acieved with a bunch of losses and a few big wins. (This general guideline was told to me by a guy a year or two before he won the WSOP BTW.) The long run is so long that it isn't always clear how good a given poker tournament player is. As others have posted, it is both easier and harder to win a poker tournament. A great pool player would have an easier time winning a given tournament because of the skill factor. A mediocre poker player will find it easier to win a poker tournament than a mediocre pool player etc...
 
JPB said:
The best poker tournament players cash in a fraction of their tournaments. They win a small percentage of the time. Their expectation is approximately the buy-in over time, i.e. in a 1500 tournament they expect a profit of 1500, but this is acieved with a bunch of losses and a few big wins. (This general guideline was told to me by a guy a year or two before he won the WSOP BTW.) The long run is so long that it isn't always clear how good a given poker tournament player is. As others have posted, it is both easier and harder to win a poker tournament. A great pool player would have an easier time winning a given tournament because of the skill factor. A mediocre poker player will find it easier to win a poker tournament than a mediocre pool player etc...
Click to expand...


very true, and I believe the actual statistic is 30%. That means in order to show a profit as a tournament player, you must cash in at least 30% of the tournaments you enter.
 
Several Former Pretty good pool players, now Play Poker Professionally. This was mentioned one night when I was watching Pro Poker. Reason MORE $$ to be made playing poker....
 
AceHigh said:
We all know that poker tournaments pay out much better than pool tournaments, but which is truly more difficult to win?

In a pool tournament your typical number of entrants is around 64, where as in a poker tournament, you tend to have around 300+. I usually play in $30 buy-in tournaments online with 300 or more players, and first prize is around $3,000. Now I know for a pool tournament to have such a high payout, the entry fee must be over $200.
Luck also plays a huge factor, more so in poker, but it's also in pool.
So which is harder to win, and why?
Click to expand...

A poker tournament is *generally* much harder to win due to 2 factors: luck and the much bigger number of entrants.

The outcome of a pool tournament is much more predictable than a poker tournament. In pool, it requires *much more* skills to win. If you are in the top 1% talent-wise in a pool tournament, then you have a very high chance to win it. For example, we can predict with high probability that either Efren, Earl, Johnny, or Corey, etc would win a tournament whenever they are in it. But in poker, the probability is very, very low when predicting that someone like Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Eric Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Howard Leaderer, etc would win when they are in it.
 
Michael-Hoang said:
A poker tournament is *generally* much harder to win due to 2 factors: luck and the much bigger number of entrants.

The outcome of a pool tournament is much more predictable than a poker tournament. In pool, it requires *much more* skills to win. If you are in the top 1% talent-wise in a pool tournament, then you have a very high chance to win it. For example, we can predict with high probability that either Efren, Earl, Johnny, or Corey, etc would win a tournament whenever they are in it. But in poker, the probability is very, very low when predicting that someone like Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Eric Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Howard Leaderer, etc would win when they are in it.
Click to expand...

The underlying difference between pool and poker is that the best poker player isn't much better than the worst. I've been playing poker for less than a year AND I KNOW I can beat Phil Ivey on any given day. In fact, if he's a 5:3 favorite, that's huge. However, the best player in pool is usually worlds ahead of the worst in the field. I've been playing pool for over a decade and I can honestly say, I'm a 20:1 (at least) underdog against Efren Reyes.

With that said, poker is a bit unpredictable in terms of how the chips will fall but make no mistake of it, the cream still rises to the top. Which is tougher to win? Well, where are you in the field? If you're the very best of each, pool would be easier. If you're mid to low field, you'll like your chances in poker.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
The underlying difference between pool and poker is that the best poker player isn't much better than the worst. I've been playing poker for less than a year AND I KNOW I can beat Phil Ivey on any given day. In fact, if he's a 5:3 favorite, that's huge. However, the best player in pool is usually worlds ahead of the worst in the field. I've been playing pool for over a decade and I can honestly say, I'm a 20:1 (at least) underdog against Efren Reyes.

With that said, poker is a bit unpredictable in terms of how the chips will fall but make no mistake of it, the cream still rises to the top. Which is tougher to win? Well, where are you in the field? If you're the very best of each, pool would be easier. If you're mid to low field, you'll like your chances in poker.
Click to expand...

Nice post Jude, I think you summed it up very nicely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top