Okay, I've been biting my tongue (ouch), but I have to say something because it's pretty obvious, and I don't think anyone else mentioned it.

While I haven't played a lot of hold'em, I played an awful lot of high-low. The big difference between poker and betting races is the question of leverage. In most poker situations, the relationship between what you can win and lose on one bet is limited in scope-- especially in hold'em, where most situations are heads-up plus some negligible antes (sp?). In horse racing, this is not true at all-- winning a photo can get you 5, 10, 30 times your money, and in the case of a pick six, who knows what.

This means there is an awful lot of randomness in our game, way more than in poker, where risk/reward is both limited and pretty quantifiable. When there is a carryover, it's random just which races will be part of the bet-- it might be that included is the race with the only winner you could not possibly have, or it might not. A couple of things like that can turn your whole year around, one way or the other.

Likewise, let's say you are involved in 10 coin flip situations in the course of a month-- photos, or calls which are 50/50 for the stewards, or for you in deciding whether to use a horse in exotics or not, or whether to play just tris or supers (#*^% BC Classic). Or to play at all. If in one month it goes your way 6 times, lose 4, the plus two might translate into 30 betting units. The same thing in poker will mean 2-3 units, either way.

Note-- the poker comments here apply only to regular games, not tournaments. There the leverage can be extreme.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2005 04:00PM by TGJB.