I respect you as a Poker player but you know nothing about chess to make this statement.

Exactly, I could not agree more. The people who try to compare the two and say Poker has more skill obviously are stupid.

The Top 10 Starcraft player, ldo. DUCY?

Not sure if this has already been posted but here's another article on Sarwer:

http://www.pokerlistings.com/chess-p...ates-ept-37783

Seems like a super interesting dude. I'd have to imagine it would be good for the skill argument in poker if this guy is successful.

what's his screename, I can't find a TR link in this thread

doesn't have one, he doesn't play online or have a 2p2 account

Was the film, "Searching For Bobby Fisher", based on Jeff?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108065/

it's based on josh waitzkin. but jeff was played by an actor near the end

Jeff is represented by 'Jonathan Poe' in Searching for Bobby Fischer who is a fictional character based on him and is Josh Waitzkin's big rival in the film. Jeff's real matchup with Josh Waitzkin is a famous one and you can find it online with Jeff's comments.

Obviously some poker players' egos can't accept that chess is much more difficult. However, having played both, the claim that poker is as complicated or more complicated just seems absurd. I've played chess for years and studied it hard but I'm only Class A USCF. In poker, I started winning consistently and moving up through stakes within a few months after having learned the rules. Still, both games are quite complicated when played at a high level.

Hey, just posted an in-depth article with Jeff Sarwer on Chess Life Online that addresses some of the issues in this thread: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10007/571/

Great interview. Even though I was multi-tabling when I started reading, I couldn't stop reading even as I made it deep then heads-up!

Jeff became 2nd in the EPT High Roller yesterday (€10.000 buy-in). He won 110.000 euro.

With the final six getting paid there were still two Dutch guys left in the tournament. When hands were over they talked Dutch against each other. This is not against the rules at all in an EPT, just to be clear. Also, they didn't talk about colluding of course but they did talked about the hands they played. Also they sometimes talked to the rail where some Dutch guys were standing.

Jeff understands and talks Dutch very well since he lived there for two years. Not many people know this about him though and the two Dutch guys still left in the tournament sure as hell didn't.

He was talking English all the time and even asked one befriended Dutch blogger what they were talking about to throw them off although he understood everything they were saying.

After the last Dutch guy busted in 3rd and he was gonna play heads-up for the title he congratulated him in fluent Dutch; "Goed gespeeld". He continued the tournament and busted out in 2nd eventually and was a guest in our live pokerradio show talking very good Dutch.

This was an edge he couldn't ignore - understanding what his opponents were saying although they didn't knew he was able to.

Also he degened it up (in his own words) because he didn't have a buy-in for the high-roller tournament since the moneywire didn't come through. So with 200 big blinds for the pot limit omaha cashgame he started his quest for 10k euro's and he made it finnishing with a totall 11k eventually - enough to buy-in.

Genius! Love this guy!

Jeff doesn't agree by the way on this. Especially since he used to play speedchess alot where there is bluffing and people make mistakes all the time he said. More parallels than one would imagine it seems.

One of the best comics ever. Why nobody took the money issue into account? Not everybody is ready to choose the life of no money.

whole threads results oriented... kids no diff than the other chess masters who switched over.. he just is running good to start with. nothing to see here.

Can only talk about the guy in good words! on the pokerside mentionable he asked atleast 3 guys after busting 9th (500e tourney!?) if he maid the right decision. Hes just playing to get better and for the challenge, role model. Think I need more 2% swops jeff...

I know you were being sarcastic, but your first statement is actually true...

He was too good. There was no use in playing him. It wasn't interesting. I was getting beaten, and it wasn't clear to me why. It wasn't like I made this mistake or that mistake. It was like I was being gradually outplayed, from the start. He wasn't taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn't even getting out of the middle game to an endgame. I don't ever remember an endgame. He honestly believes there is no one for him to play, no one worthy of him. I played him, and I can attest to that. It's not interesting. – Peter Biyiasas (Canadian National Champion, after losing 17 straight blitz games to Fischer in 1981)

He's obviously very good, but I did see him get it all in for 150BB Level 1 with pocket tens vs 2 villains (AA, KK, obv) at an Irish open 1500 euro side event. So there's hope for us all yet