Gaming can help poker skills

2007-10-10 10:35:22

Skills developed by playing computer games can be helpful to online poker players, it has been argued.

In an article on PSP World, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is given as an example of a gamer who found his skills "readily transferable to the poker world".

Grospellier became a professional computer game player in 2001 and came second in the World Cyber Games championship that year.

According to online biographies, he was asked by a friend to put his gaming skills to the test in the world of poker and has not looked back since.

Grospellier has qualified via the web for the World Series of Poker championship in each of the last two years.

Using his "phenomenal" gaming abilities, he is able to play up to 14 tables at a time and do so successfully.

PSP World explains: "The key skills for gamers are to be able to predict what an opponent is going to do, to outsmart their opponents, think ahead and set traps, be able to think quickly and to have quick mouse reaction times. Anybody with these types of skills already developed will have an advantage in learning online poker."