Solid article on variance...
 

Good read:

excellent article. Thanks. :thumbsup:

Interesting post
 

Question – If you continue to chart the graphs over a greater number of hands, at what point does the distance between the green and blue lines start to decrease again? Because with enough time, the results should even out, correct?

Also …

Playing poker well (especially limit hold’em) requires a significant amount of skill.

As a limit grinder, I think the game is underrated, but is he is saying limit takes more skill than NL? Well, you could argue that it takes more skill to be a consistent winner at limit, as it harder to overcome the rake and your edge against your opponents isn’t as great as in NL. But I don’t think that’s the same thing as saying that limit is a more of a skill game than NL.

I remember seeing something written that compared the different skill sin poker that went something like this:

If you think the most important factor in poker is a) the significance of the important decisions, then NL Holdem is the game requiring the most skill, b) the complexity of the important decisions, then LHE is the game requiring the most skill, or c) the frequency of the important decisions, then HiLo declare is the game requiring the most skill.

In limit and no limit, you make your profit differently, so different skills are required. The one thing that is clear, is that for good players, NL has less variance than limit, and HiLo declare games only exist in home games these days.

pretty good. It's also pretty safe to conclude when we are losing we think we are playing worse than we really are, and when winning we think we are playing much better than we really are, since our minds are trained to measure and deduce things very quickly from short term variables.

I feel like I have done this a ton lately

skeptical
 

If you think the most important factor in poker is a) the significance of the important decisions, then NL Holdem is the game requiring the most skill, b) the complexity of the important decisions, then LHE is the game requiring the most skill, or c) the frequency of the important decisions, then HiLo declare is the game requiring the most skill.

Again, I'm a big advocate of limit poker. But to say that limit has a greater complexity in making decision than NL seems clearly backwards. Frequency of decisions, sure. But not complexity.

Thoughts on my other question? If the chart is extended, do the two lines get closer together again?

In theory, yes, but they could also grow infinitely apart. Isn't variance grand?