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Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

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Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#2
Any game where you can play badly on purpose has skill involved.

Some games still involve more luck than skill--blackjack, for instance.

Other games involve more skill than luck, and poker certainly falls into that category.

Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance.

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#3
post #2

Any game where you can play badly on purpose has skill involved. Some games still involve more luck than skill--blackjack, for instance. Other games involve more skill than luck, and poker certainly falls into that category. Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance.

> Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance.

It depends on the level of the players. For beginners and casual players with less strategy, the game is much more about luck.

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#5
Well, now that we (nearly) have that strawman out of the way..I guess now we can shift gears and focus on Sheldon Adelson's 'online poker is so much more dangerous for compulsive gamblers and minors' doozy. Oh, and can't forget about Terrorist Hold 'Em!

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/what-do-terrorism-and-on...

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#6
WSOP Main Event final tables are often used as an prominent exhibit that poker is not "tru gambools". It is the final 9-10 players of a tournament.

Dan Harrington made the final table in 1987 (152 entrants), won the final table in 1995 (273 entrants), and made back-to-back final tables in 2003-2004 (839 and 2576 entrants). Or in a lesser example, Johnny Chan won back-to-back in 87-88 (152 and 167 entrants).

The Cavs winning the #1 pick three times in the last five years, however. That is rigged.

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#7
post #3
post #2

Any game where you can play badly on purpose has skill involved. Some games still involve more luck than skill--blackjack, for instance. Other games involve more skill than luck, and poker certainly falls into that category. Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance.

> Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance. It depends on the level of the players. For beginners and casual players with less strategy, the game is much more about luck.

Sure, but the same is true of every skill game -- even, like, chess, without any explicit luck component. If both players are making essentially random legal moves, the game comes down to luck.

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#8
There is a lot of nebulous, vague law in the U.S. about games when you have the chance to win real money. Each state has its own self-inconsistent set of laws, usually made to preserve the monopolies of neighboring casinos. There is very little actual reasoning behind the laws - it's corruption, plain and simple.

This stifles innovation in real-money games. No company will risk spending any money on the design/development of a new real-money game when there is a tangible chance of going to jail and losing everything. This frustrates me a lot, because I enjoy real-money games (poker included), and I'd love to play new kinds of real-money games, but these freedoms don't exist.

Re: Good Poker Players Aren't Lucky

#9
post #3
post #2

Any game where you can play badly on purpose has skill involved. Some games still involve more luck than skill--blackjack, for instance. Other games involve more skill than luck, and poker certainly falls into that category. Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance.

> Poker is a game of skill with an element of luck. It is not a game of chance. It depends on the level of the players. For beginners and casual players with less strategy, the game is much more about luck.

By that reasoning, basketball is a game of chance, depending on the level of the players. They're going to lob it up there and hope it goes in.

But their lob was a skill--one they don't control very well, but a skill nevertheless.

Betting in poker is the same thing, and is the only thing the player controls.

The way the cards come out is always chance, and the level of skill can't influence it.

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