Poker is like Chess, but with Hidden Pieces

[babyrosejr]

I’ve always thought about how similar poker is to chess — but with one huge difference: in chess, all the pieces are visible, while in poker, most of the game is hidden in the unknown.

Both games demand strategy, patience, and the ability to think a few moves ahead. But in poker, you don’t just battle with the cards — you battle with incomplete information, emotions, and human psychology. That’s what makes it even more fascinating.

Every bet is like moving a piece across the board, sometimes sacrificing something small for a greater plan. Every bluff is like creating an illusion, forcing your opponent to see what isn’t there.

To me, poker is a mind sport where logic meets uncertainty, and that constant mix of skill and chance makes it far more thrilling than any “perfect information” game.

What do you guys think — is poker closer to chess, or maybe even to something else entirely?

 

[primrose]

As someone who's played both games quite a bit, my main hot take is that chess is way, way harder. It takes so much more skill to be a pro in chess vs. poker, like a factor of 20x at least. Strategy does exist in both games, but the amount is not comparable at all. If you do it well, you can become pretty solid in poker in a few months, definitely enough to play for a small profit, if not for a living. In chess, you can study hard for two years and you'll probably still get crushed by a decent club level player, who would themselves get crushed by a strong club level player, and then there's several more steps upward until we get to anyone playing professionally.

The flipside is that improving in chess is way easier. You can get to strong club level player strength without ever explicitly studying. Just play long games and think about your moves, and you'll get better. And playing itself is also much easier. There's no waiting around for good hands, no bad beats, no frustration, no tilt. You just sit down, and for 3 hours or however long you're playing, you can be completely immersed in your game, with no boredom and a significant but still pretty modest role of luck. (And then if you lose, who cares, it's just a game.) And if you do study your games, which you don't even have to, it's also infinitely easier than in poker. You just turn on any engine and it will immediately tell you exactly what you should have done in every position. No arguing, no conflicting advise, and you don't even need other players to do it.

If you only care about having fun, I'd recommend chess over poker to most poeple tbh, it just entails so much less frustration. But you'll also never make a cent with the game.

 

[Toruk Makto]

Chess is infinitely complex! Poker has its guidelines...

 

[Feats]

I like both chess and poker, but they're hard to compare. In poker the variance is enormous, while in chess it's almost zero, the strongest player generally wins.

 

[margmilo44]

Perfect information games can be fun. They reward memorization, pattern recognition, and strategic thinking. But ultimately, they can be solved.

Imperfect information is how we live in the real world. Learning to make decisions with uncertainty and incomplete data is, in my opinion, a much more valuable skill.

 

[Mazembe]

I was playing chess with my friends for months and all I can say is that there levels to it. It requires ridiculous amount of skills to put you in a (pro) bracket, there's no way an amateur/decent chess player can beat a pro,It's not impossible tbh
Unlike poker, I've been been playing poker for over 3years now, I know for a fact that if I go up against pro players or well known players e.g Mariano,Texas Mike,Nik, Rampage, Wolfgang etc
I can make something happen, I know I'm not at thier level but if I run good, I can destroy them
I believe that's the difference between poker and chess, in poker a pro can be destroy by a decent player, while in chess it's very difficult for a decent player to beat a pro

 

[Johnvaka]

Exactly as well it is

 

[john_entony]

What a beautiful title for this topic! Yes, we play poker with hidden pieces, which are much more numerous than in chess. And the more we learn about the efficiency of these hidden pieces, the greater success we can achieve.

 

[PHAkash]

Sempre pensei em como o pôquer é semelhante ao xadrez — mas com uma grande diferença: no xadrez, todas as peças são visíveis, enquanto no pôquer, a maior parte do jogo está escondida no desconhecido.

Ambos os jogos exigem estratégia, paciência e a capacidade de pensar alguns movimentos à frente. Mas no pôquer, você não luta apenas com as cartas — você luta com informações incompletas, emoções e psicologia humana. É isso que o torna ainda mais fascinante.

Cada aposta é como mover uma peça pelo tabuleiro, às vezes sacrificando algo pequeno por um plano maior. Cada blefe é como criar uma ilusão, forçando seu oponente a ver o que não está lá.

Para mim, o pôquer é um esporte mental onde a lógica encontra a incerteza, e essa mistura constante de habilidade e acaso o torna muito mais emocionante do que qualquer jogo de “informação perfeita”.

O que vocês acham — o pôquer é mais próximo do xadrez, ou talvez até de algo completamente diferente?

I totally agree.

I remember reflecting on that comparison when I heard the statement that “life is not a game of chess, it's a game of poker.” In chess, you have all the information, you see everything, and you have total control over what happens; you just have to calmly analyze your opponent's movements. In poker, however, almost nothing is under your control. There are bluffs, hero, and villain; flop, turn, and river that hardly ever benefit you; and good hands and ruins. In short, just like life, poker is about making the most of current situations. Sometimes the situation will be better; sometimes, worse. In chess, on the other hand, everyone starts off on an equal footing.

 

[Roller]

The big difference? In chess, all the information is on the board—you see every piece and calculate from there. In poker, the cards are hidden, so you’re working with incomplete information, probabilities, and psychology.
That uncertainty makes poker as much a mental game as a mathematical one.

 

[Peteski84]

Both are amazing games but there is no luck in chess. Pure skill.

 

[YLAN]

Poker is not like chess with hidden pieces. Chess gameplay is all within your control to win. Poker gameplay is not within your control from cards you're dealt, to cards dealt to your opponents, to the community cards. You just get to take a chance to bet or not with your money just like any gambling game.

 

[MishkaZL]

Hi
I share your views. For me, poker is a sport, just like chess. I don't consider poker to be better or worse than chess; I consider poker to be a special game unlike any other, including card games. Poker is a unique game, just like chess.

 

[s0ftdumps]

Chess is infinitely complex! Poker has its guidelines...

You got that backward, my friend!

 

[puzzlefish]

Poker is like chess but with a third independent player that can randomly decide to take away your pieces or just toss the entire board on a whim.

 

[Academico]

That’s a great comparison. Both games require strategy, reading your opponent, and thinking several steps ahead, but poker adds the extra layer of uncertainty because you never see all the 'pieces.' That hidden information makes psychology and risk management just as important as pure logic, which is what gives poker its unique complexity.

 

[wushibala]

I don’t really think those two games are alike. Poker is a game where you’re basically trying to sell someone something you don’t actually have when you’re bluffing — and that’s what makes it more alive than any other card game, or even chess, checkers, backgammon, etc. That’s why, in my opinion, it’s so popular around the world.

 

[wushibala]

Yeah, pretty much anything can turn into an addiction — games, food, drinks, whatever. We just need to make sure it doesn’t start causing us harm

 

[thwenth1983]

Good morning everyone, I agree that poker is somewhat similar to chess.
The differences between poker and chess:
In poker, it’s possible to start late. I started at 38, and I didn’t even know that AA was the best pre-flop hand, nor why it eventually became my main source of income.
With chess, it’s not possible to start late and make a living from it; chess is a much more complex game.
Poker is a complex game; playing like the best in the world is extremely difficult. These guys play almost like a computer or GTO.

To illustrate the complexity of chess, let’s take an example: the best in the world is Magnus Carlsen. If he started studying poker for two years and competed against the 50 best poker players in the world—51 participants in total—and they played 10 MTTs, Magnus would finish ahead of at least one player in some tournaments. Now, if the 50 best poker players studied chess for two years and played 10 tournaments against Magnus, Magnus would finish first 100% of the time.

Magnus might win a few hands against the best poker players, while the best poker players would have no chance of winning a single game against Magnus in chess. That is the complexity of chess.

 

[fernandofcp]

It's interesting that you say poker is like chess, but with hidden pieces. I see it from a different perspective: while both require skill, strategy, and tactical study, they differ fundamentally in how information is presented and the nature of its consequences. In chess, information is perfect, and every move has a clear consequence, while in poker, information is incomplete, and luck plays a more significant role in each hand. We could say that in chess, luck is unimportant.

 

[JCchon413]

In Chess, at almost every scenario, there is 'the best move' and player is rewarded. In poker, there is no 'the best move', players can make the optimal move and still get punished or play the worst move and get rewarded.. In chess, your decision is solely based on the strength of your position on the board at that moment. In poker, your decision is based not just on the strength of your hand in relation to the board on that street, but also on the opponents strength of your opponents range, your perceived range, action on previous streets, possible action on future streets, type of your opponent, emotional state of your opponent, tells, body language, stack sizes, bet sizes, board dynamic, table dynamic, tournament stages etc. In a nutshell, while chess may be tactically more complex and controlled, poker has more variables and factors some of which are beyond the player's control.

 

[Academico]

Poker is like chess, but with hidden pieces. You have to think strategically, anticipate your opponent’s moves, and plan several steps ahead — all while guessing what cards they might be holding. Every decision combines skill, psychology, and patience, making it a game of both logic and intuition.

 

[KeyPatience]

I recently saw a video on YouTube of Magnus Carlsen playing poker and his body language looked phenomenal!