skill and luck in pocker
Posted on March 31, 2008
Filed Under Pocker
Often for those who are not entirely knowledgable about pocker, the idea of there being a large element of skill involved is often met with surprise. People have said to me in the past ‘whatever cards come out is determined by luck, and so clearly the winner must be too’. www.pacificpocker.com
Firstly I must point out that a player can be forced out of a hand before they have a chance to make what would have been the best hand in a pot, and sometimes can even be bluffed out after they make it. There are many other skill based factors that make a great difference in terms of winning and losing and despite these, I cannot argue against the fact that sometimes in the game of pocker, a player can make a wrong move and end up with twice the amount of chips they had previously, or that a hand can be played pefectly and still result in the loss of many chips because someone with the worst hand called, then got very lucky.
What I can point to, in support of the notion that skill plays a huge part in the game is that, if fortune has decided that the cards will fall in such a way as to make me the best hand at the table, my skill will then dictate how much money or chips I will win by the end of the hand. Similarly if I am dealt a strong hand but one which will ultimately be second best, if I am reasonably skilled I will lose far less chips, and that is the variable that skill in pocker dictates.
So although if pocker luck causes me to lose enough hands and consequently forces me to run out of chips, then there is nothing I can do to change this of course, but what I can do is use my skill to ensure I need to be unlucky far more times than most unskilled players players before I am out of a tournament. Rest assured that luck, favours no one in the long run, and will always average out over a long enough period of time, and as such, those who display the greatest skill at the pocker tables may not win every tournament, but you will find they have a good success rate over the course of a year.
Where pocker luck is something that cannot be manipulated or changed, making the correct decisions and playing with clarity of thought, and skill, will always see you through to success as the constant fortune or misfortune you encounter as player, eventually evens itself out. www.pacificpocker.com
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