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Is Poker a Game of Skills or a Bit of Luck ?

April 25, 2008

You have just won a game of poker. Did you win because you had Lady Luck on your
side or because you have a massive amount of skill ?

  The truth is that poker players will argue this point all day long and most of the time, games are won through both; a fair amount of skill and a good amount of luck. Show me someone who believes that it only takes one or the other and I’ll show you a fool.

Just some of the skills that are involved in playing this strategic game include arithmetic, psychology, restraint, calm, courage and assessment. If you lined up twenty different poker players who were completely and totally different from each other, I’ll bet they’d all share most of these qualities … If they’re any good, that is.
On the other end of the spectrum sits luck. The truth is that a player can utilize all of the skills he or she wants and without some blessing of a kiss from Lady Luck, those skills can easily fall flat. What a player can only do is to work with what he has and use those attributes to the best of his ability and then wait to see what happens in the way the cards fall.

However, the skills will be much more important to win.

A seasoned player who wins from luck alone is not much different than a little girl who could win on luck alone or a monkey who could win on luck alone. To continue winning consistently, the person must have skills. Luck can really have an effect on you on a particular night or two but over the course of a month, say, the skills are what’s going to bring home the money.

 It comes down to how often you play. If you play maybe one or two poker hands every year, you want to rely on the luck. But if you play daily, you should really depend on your skill to get you through.

In truth, poker is a game of both the attributes you bring to the table as well as how the
cards will be dealt and who will pick up what cards. Over time, the statistics can be generated as far as skill goes, but it takes a while. In fact, if you had the statistics from each game you’ve ever played, you could probably see the patterns falling here and there. However, luck cannot be measured. While both are important, a seasoned player had better stick to his attributes.

We also recommend 4kingpoker.com for online poker room ratings &
milliondollarpokerguide.com for more poker strategy guides & poker directory. 

Written by rob · Filed Under Poker Strategy 

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One Response to “Is Poker a Game of Skills or a Bit of Luck ?”

  1. Poker Strategy on pkrpokerreview.com | 4king poker blog on April 28th, 2008 3:32 am

    […] Is Poker a Game of Skills or a Bit of Luck ? […]

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