Is Poker Luck or Skill?

Is Poker Luck or Skill?

This is not even a question in my mind, but in many minds it is. The question about the skill or luck in poker is often asked. Those who really don’t know much about the game would consider it a game of luck.

Just take the many of the governments across the world that has made online poker illegal for instance. I guarantee if any of them who had made those decisions have ever played poker in their lives, they would think differently. Anyone who plays poker on a regular basis knows how much skill is involved with poker.

Of course, I know that there is a lot of luck involved in a poker game, I am not denying that; but my point here is that there is even more skill involved. I get in this argument all the time, and I just can’t let it go. It pisses me off when people try to tell me that poker is a game of nothing but luck.

Why Poker is MORE Skill than Luck

Well, first of all there is the professional poker player point.  You cannot tell me that those who make a living playing poker are just really lucky. I don’t buy into that for a minute.

Poker is a game of probabilities and statistics, and it is a long term game. It doesn’t work out right unless you play over a long period of time. On any given night, at any given hand; anything can happen. We have all seen the poker hands where the guy with 1 out has won the hand when he had only a 3% chance of doing so. Yes, that happens…but it only happens 3% of the time. That means that over a long period of time, the other guy will win 97% of the time.

If you make the right decisions and play by the probabilities alone, you would win over a long period of time. You could never bluff or do anything else except play the odds, and you would be a winning poker player. If you add the other essentials into your game, you would just be that much better. This has nothing to do with luck; it has everything to do with knowing your odds and making the right decisions.  

The better players are going to win over the long run. It is true that on any given day anybody could win a poker tournament. With some good luck, a player could be successful on any given day. Over a longer period of time however, those players will not be winners.

That is why there are people who can make a living playing poker. They can win over the long run. The luck comes and goes, but the skills are never going anywhere. So I guess that I would say that on any given day; luck could have a bigger impact in a poker game then skill. Over a long period of time however, skill will overcome the luck in poker by a long shot.