Luck Vs. Skill

Talking to my friends Victor and Jane today I was trying to explain the skill factor in poker versus the gambling or luck factor. Many people have the wrong idea about skill in poker. They are aware of luck in gambling because that is mainly what it is. The house always has an edge in every game, and there is little that a player can do to improve his results. There have been many "systems" created over the years by players to win. For instance the famous "Martingale" system of blackjack. This is simply establishing a baseline bet, say $5.00, then if you lose your bet, you double it on the next bet to $10.00. If you lose that bet, double again to $20.00 and so on. When you win that last bet, you go back to your baseline bet. I have heard people claim that it is impossible to lose this way, and claim they are big winners doing this. In theory, this is correct but if you contiue the formula you can see that eventually the bets reach unmanageable sizes and/or over the betting limits at the casino. Throw in the fact that you can also get double downs or split hands involved and it soon falls apart.

But the luck factor in poker is lessened and the skill factor is enhanced by several factors. First there is starting hand selection. Better starting cards usually mean increased odds to win. We would all like to start with aces rather than deuces. But in poker it is more involved. Hand selection varies with position, previous actions (are you calling a raise or just a bet), tendencies of players in the hand, etc. Another non-luck factor is reads, or deciphering a players body language, comments, facial expressions, reactions, etc. This is definitely a skill, and one that can be learned over time. The bluff in poker is a big non-luck factor. As I explained in an earlier post, the pro's do not necessarily need great cards to win. They use their table image, position, chip stack, reads, etc. to win chips. Poker without bluffing would be a "showdown" game which you could probably play with cards face up.