Poker: Game of Luck or Skill?
There is a great deal of debate on this subject, sometimes making people reach their boiling point. Try going up to a professional poker player and telling them that their game and career is based on pure luck, I’m sure you will catch an ear full of rebuttal. While I will agree that each deal is based on luck, the way you play your cards and make your wagers make Poker a game of great skill.
Any person can agree that luck does play a large part of poker, in the dealing of cards. Skill enters the game of poker when you have to decide on what you want to do with those cards. The first test of skill is the decision to play or fold your beginning hand. This sounds easy enough, but there is a good bit of reasoning and logic that can play into it. (All references to poker will be in regards to Texas Hold’em) A skilled player will know that a starting hand of pocket 8’s is not really that strong of a hand, while a beginner or amateur might view it as being strong. Knowing the right hands to start with and their respected potential for yielding a winning result is a skill one can only achieve through practice and play.
A skillful poker player will spend the same amount of time, if not more, observing their opponents to gain an insight into how they play the game. Some players will display signs or “tells” that give away the strength or weakness of their hands. Being skilled at reading another person will also help you to be successful at the game. Also, being able to disguise or hide your own “tells” is a skill only achieved and possessed by a veteran poker player.
So is poker really a game of luck or skill? Well I would say it’s a combination of both but leaning more toward skill. While luck plays a big role into what cards you are dealt, there is much more that actually goes into the game than that. Take time to practice the game and you will learn the keys to success. That will entail investing in a nice set of poker chips and a poker table, but it will be well worth the reward of winning.