Which is the EASIEST one to make a profit : Sports Betting or Poker

Sam Odom · 01-30-2007, 11:46 PM

Sports = showing a winning 53% ATS - NOT middles and/or scalps

Poker = LIVE in person No limit or limit HOLD'EM Poker

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Wheell · 01-30-2007, 11:50 PM

Sports. No limit poker is where even good poker players go to die. I'm not suggesting 53% is easy, but no limit poker is quite a bit harder than it looks on TV. Limit poker is a different story.

Sam Odom · 01-30-2007, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wheell

Limit poker is a different story.

I agree, a bad decision can cost one his table stake in no-limit whereas in Limit a few (2-5) bets

VegasDave · 01-31-2007, 12:10 AM

All depends on your strengths, doesnt it?

To win at either requires great patience, skill, and some (and often times more than just some) luck.

Which are you more skilled at; picking winners or playing cards?

Wheell · 01-31-2007, 12:16 AM

Let me reiterate: No limit poker is where good poker players go to die. On an absolute level no limit is harder than going 53-47 over a season.

trustbutverify · 01-31-2007, 12:34 AM

Sports can be beaten badly with a few diciplined strategies and conservative level money mngmnt. I don't know much about poker but the way the experts talk it seems tough to make real money at.

Arilou · 01-31-2007, 01:33 PM

It depends on what you mean by "profits." If such profits are small, especially per hour, poker is far easier: You can sit down at a low limit table and beat chumps all day. It isn't hard, and you can do it even if you're pretty bad at poker. However, beating high stakes poker, especially no-limit, requires a lot of skill.

Sports, on the other hand, is a constant difficulty if all you're doing is picking ATS. You can get down whatever you like at -110 on just about anything high level, and then all you have to do is win. If you just keep access to Pinnacle, you don't even need 53%, despite not line shopping. So I'd say big profits are easier in sports, small ones in poker.

rolemand · 01-31-2007, 03:27 PM

Money management is NOT possible in No Limit poker. Too many variables. Makes it very difficult to compare the 2

Arilou · 01-31-2007, 06:46 PM

Money management is still possible, you just have more variation to deal with. In fact, it's more necessary - you need to not bring too much to the table at a time, no matter what your plans.

operaman · 01-31-2007, 07:08 PM

The OP question is kind of like comparing apples and oranges, but here are some facts (general pro opinion ) about poker.

nl poker has a lower variance than fixed limit.
ring games are more profitable than tournies.
between 3-5% of poker players are long term winners.
online is more profitable than b&m in general.

nl has a different skill set than fixed, some say its harder than fixed limit some say fixed is harder. nl has a few hard choices that make a big difference, fixed has many hard choices that make a small difference. pl is the most skilled form of poker.

the games that offer the lowest andvantage between the sharks and fish are the games that have the most fish in them.

Which presents a quandry for the shark.

i.e. worst players are in sit and goes, because it is very hard for the shark to make a living on this structure. few fish in
PLO8, but the fish that wander in have no chance.

I would think all forms of poker have a lower variance than capping sports. Assuming you have a substantial advantage over the game you play. Money management is much easier.
If you follow kelly for both options (nl poker, cap sb) and are very good at both, your bankroll for poker would be much less for the same hourly earnings. Sb has more potential hourly earnings with a mega bankroll I would speculate. Very Very Very few poker pros make more than a ev/hr of $150.

Anyone thinking of doing the poker thing take this advice.
Start off with $50 and start playing microstakes poker. (lowest you can find.) Let your bankroll set the stakes you play. If you lack the patience to play at these stakes, maybe poker is not for you.

just my 2cents.

GL
p.s. I am somthing like a dolphin in sb so take anything i say about sb with a grain of salt.

rolemand · 01-31-2007, 07:57 PM

I guess what I meant is on a particular sports wager you can limit yourself to a certain unit #. In poker you can enter a table with a certain amount but there's not a good way to limit yourself on a per hand basis. You could triple up or lose it all in one hand.

On a side note I did what Operaman has suggested when I started out in Oct 2004. I put $100 in Pacific Poker and turned it into $12k when I took my final cashout in Dec-06.

Sam Odom · 01-31-2007, 08:00 PM

one can control the (or his) tempo of play in poker unlike sports.

onlòóker · 01-31-2007, 09:03 PM

I voted Sports.

I dont play Poker, so it has to be Sports.

trustbutverify · 01-31-2007, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onlòóker

I voted Sports.

I dont play Poker, so it has to be Sports.

Same here.

Razz · 01-31-2007, 10:46 PM

Poker, no contest.

BuddyBear · 01-31-2007, 11:23 PM

Don't kind yourselves....poker is by far much easier. Sports betting is tremendously difficult and it's only getting harder with the recent developments.

degenerate#1 · 02-01-2007, 02:08 AM

I like sports alot better than poker. I find poker a tremendous grind, and alot of your results are going to depend on luck. No matter how good you are, if your not in the hot seat you ain't making money. You can be waiting 17-20 hours for pocket aces. Whereas in sports, you can pick your spots, you find a team that's coming out of Denver, stopped in Houston, then flies to the east coast, all in the span of 4-5 days, that to me is like pocket aces. You've chosen your hand to go in with, you don't need to wait for those lucky cards to come.