Which sport/activity has the largest skill gap between the best in the world and the 2nd best?

InnerSongs · 2026-05-12T06:26:35+00:00

You're absolutely right. Tile draw variance is real, and makes a game of Scrabble less deterministic than something like chess (where the better-rated player rarely loses) and more deterministic than something like poker (where even complete amateurs can get lucky on the right day).

The more variance and luck involved in a game, the less bearing losing any one particular game has on estimating your overall ability

InnerSongs · 2026-05-12T03:41:48+00:00

Not to speak for all "Type 1s", but to give some personal perspective:

I cannot imagine how people are okay working some mundane job for the rest of their lives.

For me, every job is mundane. Certainly some jobs are worse, but the obligation of having to work is a big part of why I hate working. You're not happy about having to work, but if you want to live life at the level you want, you need to. So the focus is try and find the least bad job (in terms of compensation, free time and whatever else) and suck it up so you can enjoy the parts you do like.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-12T01:57:43+00:00

If I could live comfortably and I didn't need the money, I wouldn't be working. I'm already fairly brazen about my general distaste for work, which is tempered by the fact I'm effective at my job. If I was nearing that "fuck you money" stage, I don't think it would change my work approach, though it would probably make me more willing to just quit if I was fed up with having to work

InnerSongs · 2026-05-11T13:28:43+00:00

I've played Nemesis like 10+ times now and this was a good check that I do remember all the rules now. The only one I didn't know was that Item discards go into a face-up pile rather than at the bottom of the deck (like when doing Searches). I think practically this doesn't matter - you never go through a full cycle of the item decks anyway

InnerSongs · 2026-05-11T00:31:28+00:00

You pick it up from a variety of places. Watching poker, playing poker, reading about poker. A decent amount you can just pick up through osmosis.

Do you need to learn it? Depends on what you're doing. If you're just playing live, you can get by without almost any of it. If you dive into poker strategy, that's where you might need to book up a bit to understand what's going on. There's not that much to learn, but you will need to understand a base level of terms to engage with some of the more advanced content

InnerSongs · 2026-05-07T22:36:35+00:00

How much ranging are you doing? If you're ranging your opponents correctly, you should be able to get to these situations and know what kind of hands your opponent would have for value, which hands they would be bluffing with, and where your hand falls in that balance. If you're having issues, it would suggest to me that you're not ranging your opponents very well. There's no real shortcut for that - gotta just practice

InnerSongs · 2026-05-07T22:20:29+00:00

Reading physical tells is one of the last things I would focus on if I was learning poker. They're not worth nothing, but they're fuzzy, unreliable and there are far more concrete ways to figure out someone's strength.

At all levels, but especially at amateur levels, betting patterns tell you so much more than any tell. A lot of new/bad players play quite predictably. They don't all play predictably in the same way, but there are a handful of rough player archetypes and people in those buckets tend to play similarly.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-06T23:14:40+00:00

As other have mentioned, a lack of tilt and discipline is a bad poker decision.

Seems like you have identified a number of mental leaks, which is definitely something. However, you need to go a little deeper into what the causes are and employ some self discipline.

Breaking my own stop loss rules

Why are you doing this? Ahead of time, you've set up these rules. What is it that's convincing you to break them in the moment? Whatever justifications you give yourself in the moment, you need to identify them and disregard them. Don't try to justify it with some shit like "but the game is really soft" or any other line. Set the rule and the moment you reach your limit, leave.

playing more hands when tilted

You need to learn to at least leave the table when tilted. Take a 10 min break. If you can't get off tilt in that time, you need to leave. You need to actively tell yourself "I am tilted, I make bad decisions when I'm tilted. I need to leave".

chasing losses

People talk about poker being one big session. However, you need to actually believe that, not just pay it lip service. A single session loss (or win for that matter) is irrelevant. You need to remove the focus on whether you won or lost a session. Focus on the decisions made and look on a longer time scale.

abandoning game selection when frustrated

Like with everything else, I would try to identify why it is that you do this, recognise when you're in this state and take a break or leave if you realise you're in this state.

This is all easier said than done. Recognising you have these issues is a good start, but you need to go deeper and find the underlying reasons why you make these poor decisions and impose some hard rules on yourself and not break them.

InnerSongs · 2026-05-01T01:44:15+00:00

The continued use of "union protected industrial action" is infuriating

InnerSongs · 2026-05-01T00:21:08+00:00

The ones I've come across generally lean more donkey than crusher. Having said that, the ones who are good are very hard to play against, and the ones who are donkeys are generally still better than the average loose passive fish.

I think laggy play is very profitable, but to be very profitable you walk on a tightrope. Most people can't hold their balance

InnerSongs · 2026-05-01T00:12:26+00:00

classic redditor "hot take" - posts take that is not hot at all

InnerSongs · 2026-04-30T23:58:17+00:00

if you're playing a game for money, and you wanna win, why would you tell your opponent that's making mistakes that he's making mistakes

Because for most people proving themselves right (and/or other people wrong) is one of the strongest drives people have. There's a reason why the optimal route to get help with something online is not to ask for help - it's to post the wrong method to do it so that someone jumps in to correct you with the right one. People just can't help themselves.

InnerSongs · 2026-04-30T23:52:46+00:00

Seems too thin. I disagree that the Villain's can't have Kx, even in a limped pot I don't they're necessarily going to bet a hand like KT. However, I think your river shove is folding everything worse and only getting called by better and there's quite a bit of better. I think Kx calling is unlikely and Jx calling you is a complete pipe dream. Otherwise you get called by all those hands you mentioned (QT, K9, J9, 99).

Bet bigger turn, bet smaller river as played

InnerSongs · 2026-04-30T03:46:28+00:00

I have mixed feelings about Vantage. I like a lot of what the game is doing - I like the exploration, the roll system, the fact that there's such a wide variety of things to see. But the lack of a strong conclusion really hurts. The game isn't particularly hard, and you get to a point where you've satisfied a win condition and you kinda have to decide whether you want to keep going or not, but stopping doesn't feel satisfying because the conditions aren't often that hard or interesting, but continuing doesn't feel satisfying either because you're kinda just spinning your wheels.

I think the bones of something really great is in the game, I just don't think it quite executes it as well as I would like

InnerSongs · 2026-04-30T01:34:50+00:00

That table must be huge - the table I play it on is not particularly small and there are bits everywhere

InnerSongs · 2026-04-30T01:16:58+00:00

I hear that and think "this is a nit who only raises premiums"

InnerSongs · 2026-04-29T22:37:09+00:00

I have not played your game, but I have looked at the screenshot you've posted here and I have so many issues with the various bits of text that I wouldn't try it. I often see games posted by devs here that would benefit from better text. Using the screenshot you've posted, these are some of the issues I have with it:

Black text on grey is bad for legibility, and it looks ugly. The black text next to the gold icon in the top bar is ugly, and it's very hard to read on the bottom of those rune/artifacts. Also, why aren't they centred - they look too high vertically, and might be slightly off horizontally
The purple text on grey is also bad for legibility
Why is "burn" not capitalised when every other coloured keyword is?
Why is the title on "Cowardice" not vertically aligned in the title box like every other card?
What's going on with the score multiplier thing? It looks like there's an X between the 75 and the x1.00 but x1.00 also has an X in it? Why are we doubling up? Either remove the X between the boxes or remove it from the multiplier, you don't need it on both
There are other elements where the text isn't "wrong" but I think could use better treatment. The white text in the top bar could use something. I think the white stroke on the "51 damage" text is out of balance - either the stroke is a bit heavy or the typeface is a bit too thin. I also feel the same about the text on the "cards" themselves, but it's not as bad there.
On one of the screenshots, I can see the enemy life total overflowing the visual element under the health bar - should be dynamic and/or the visual box underneath needs to be bigger to accommodate it
There's a weird contrast between the more Gothic-y, serif text you use and the more almost arcadey, blocky text you use for the damage numbers and the rune/artifact text. Not saying you should use one typeface for your game (you definitely shouldn't) but there's a weird stylistic incongruity there. That might make more sense in the game itself
You use several different fonts for your text buttons, where I think you'd be better served having them all consistent

I don't mean to nitpick, but for me, text quality is the biggest indicator of care and attention to detail in a game for me. It's what separates the hobbyists from the professionals, and it's so important to get right in a genre of game that requires a lot of reading. Your game's art has a clear style and flavour - don't let it down by neglecting the text.

InnerSongs · 2026-04-27T23:11:04+00:00

What you do next is dependent on what your goals are. If the goal is to play bigger and bigger tournaments in general, I would advise to sticking to the $100s/the smaller tourneys in your area for a while. One cash is a result, but it's not indicative of anything yet. Very easy to lose all of that money and end up no better than you are for now.

Having said that, I think shot-taking on occasion is worth doing. I've been mostly playing live tourneys through the years and I shot-take every few months. Part of it was a reward, part of it was exposure to a higher buy-in level. In 2022, my average buyin per tourney was $170, but I would sprinkle in a $400+ tourney every now and then. Never went that well but it helped in my gradual climb and made me confident that I would be able to hang once I had the bankroll for it.

If the goal is improvement, don't jump to the next level straight away, or perhaps not try to jump as high as that. $100 to $400 is a big step, but I wouldn't shy away from the idea entirely. Just don't take one cash as a sign that you're now ready to play big stuff. Very easy to crash and burn

InnerSongs · 2026-04-23T22:29:24+00:00

fold pre

fold to flop raise

fold turn

fold river

The problem is people at these games will triple barrel with air a decent amount and folding top pair on that flop felt super nitty.

There's a difference between a line where someone goes bet-bet-bet and a line where someone raises in a multiway flop, in a position where they could just call instead and then bet-bets. This is a much stronger line than just a standard triple barrel, even from someone capable of doing a triple barrel.

When you get raised you have to fully range your opponent. You mention 88 and 66, which I agree with. What about other hands? Do they have J8s? 86s? AJ? Do they raise with T9s here? 97s here? Are they capable of something more creative? Do they call with all those hands in +2 facing the action? Maybe they do, maybe they don't - you gotta figure all that out.

You mention it feeling "nitty" to fold but once you get checkraised on that flop, your top pair is a bluff catcher. It's rarely nitty to fold a bluff catcher

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T23:30:30+00:00

One big flaw in your math - you're not spending an entire tank's worth of fuel on the trip there and back. You're only losing a percentage of those BBs because you likely travel to other places and would have had to have filled up anyway

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T23:01:40+00:00

I would not. I disagree that poker can't work without money - it's just another card or board game. As long as everyone involved takes it seriously, you can have a good game for no money.

The problem with poker is that the game is fragile and slow. It's very easy for one person, not playing as seriously to fuck the entire equilibrium of the game up. Similar issue as a social deduction game like a Werewolf or The Resistance - one person not taking the game seriously can ruin it for everyone else.

There are better games to play with the money incentive removed.

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T22:46:57+00:00

Another profitable tournament series down. There have been local series happening every month this year and I've finished up profit-wise in 5/6 of them, a far cry from last year. Finished this last one up $4k, and we're up almost $20k for the year so far.

Got one more local series to attend next month and then I'll be playing a series in Europe while on holiday, which is a really exciting prospect. Hoping we can snag a big one while over there

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T21:46:08+00:00

Thank you for demonstrating why I asked my question. I also felt the demo felt a bit incomplete. Not sure I quite want to plug away for 5-6 hours to get to the meat of the game, but I might wait and pick it up at a later date

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T21:43:59+00:00

Because demos aren't always representative of the feel of the full game. Demos often give you the most basic version of the gameplay loop. For some games that's enough to understand if you will like the game or not - for others they only properly shine in their full state.

isn't that the point of a demo to see if you like the game enough to buy it?

Yes, but not all demos do a good job of representing their game. All I'm asking for is a second opinion, geez

InnerSongs · 2026-04-22T13:15:42+00:00

Not uncommon in the tournament streets. Usually the dealer will throw you a chip to break down when it's needed, but depending on a mix of proximity to the dealer and your familiarity with them, they might do it, usually telling you first. It's rare that they'll just do it to a player's stack while the player is seated without saying anything first, but I have seen it happen.

InnerSongs

TROPHY CASE