Is Poker a Game of Chance?

[efranto2286]

Keep in mind that a bad player, luckily you have, always ends up losing. In the short term luck may have a determining role in our results, but in the long run, after thousands and thousands of hands, its importance diminishes until its influence is priceless.

 

[Shooter74]

for me 60% skill...and 40% lucky...

 

[Pablo22]

Poker is a game of chance that you can get your money in as a heavy favorite and use skills to win pots.

 

[honorwar]

I say that poker is a game of luck.If the cards don't hit the flop that's bad luck.

 

[Anton Fedorov]

poker is like walking on a rope, no matter how well you do it, you should always do it as well as possible. Just hope for good luck and immediately fall down. Always do the best possible game and then luck will be on your side, after 1000 or 100000 hands it does not matter

 

[puzzlefish]

Cash games are games of skill over the long run. MTTs are somewhat of a game of chance. That's for live poker. online poker is something else entirely and the more I play it, the more I realize that I am playing what looks like poker but with different rules. So basically online poker is a game of deception.

 

[vov4ik]

Yes, I think that poker is a game of chance for fans, I agree with Pablo22 that you can use your skills and win money!

 

[GameTooHard]

You should be basing pretty much all of your poker decisions around EV, if you are an overall +EV player over an infinite (read: very large) sample of hands you will be a winning player.

Over one hand, or even a 1000 it can be a game of luck, but after 1000000 it's 99% skill.

 

[dregan]

Poker is 100% gambling. No wonder it is banned in some countries where there are laws prohibiting gambling. I wonder why bets are paid less attention as gambling.

 

[GameTooHard]

Poker is 100% gambling. No wonder it is banned in some countries where there are laws prohibiting gambling. I wonder why bets are paid less attention as gambling.

It's obviously gambling but it's against people, not against a house that has guaranteed positive odds against you. If you can beat the people and the rake at poker you can win through skill. What I mean by that is there is no long term statistical impossibility of beating the house i.e. roulette, Craps, blackjack, slots, the lottery etc...

There aren't many successful developed countries that have prohibited gambling, Japan comes to mind but other than that I can't think of another.

 

[Lena M]

Hello.
It is obvious that poker is a game of skill, patience and discipline. Without a doubt, you will be able to become a successful player if you are patient and disciplined. But this requires time, perhaps 3 or 5 years of regular practice, combined with an effective analysis of the game and daily training.

 

[Reload]

A game of chance is blackjack. Or the slots. Poker will never be only a game of chance, ask yourself why top players are still there on top.

 

[dbchristy]

I like to think, that its more than chance. There are too many consistent winners. Im just not one of them sigh

 

[leogetz79]

i believe so. poker is a card game, and you need chance to achieve your hand. you myght win with a bluff, but only if your opponent doesnt have a hand.

 

[bstest]

Poker is a game of luck, but luck favors the dominating player. It also favors the slow ball patient player. But as a rule for me luck mostly favors the cards, hence luck favors luck most.

 

[rafffinamore]

poker is a sport of the mind, believe me, it has already been proven, the fact of luck, or bad luck is just the variance of the mathematics of the deck, if you play to get lucky or waiting for you to hit your cards you are doomed to failure, do not think so power is study, and readings, and imports, if it were gambling, explains why so often the best players comes to the final tables and wins but a tournament in a short span of time .. Poker is the Esport of the Mind!

 

[M13A13]

The live have much chance, we know to chance when need for better in we life.
The poker is example of live.

 

[bidearm]

sometimes but usually the luck will run out and the skilled players take over

 

[MishkaZL]

I think that in poker the player's success depends on his experience and skill. Only skill and experience will allow you to become a successful player. I have been playing poker for one year, and I have already figured out how important it is to get experience every day and improve my skills.

 

[Reload]

poker is much more creative game

I would not say creative, it's more a mind game, where you play the players.

 

[ledsmith]

Poker is a gamble. You cannot compare poker with chess, chess is interesting without a monetary component. Remove money from poker, and all its popularity will come to naught.

 

[Dontnonothin]

Longterm definitely NO

Well it all depends on the time frame. If you play just once, you can be the best player in the world and still end up the big looser of the night. But in the long run this player would have more winning sessions than the average player. There is no such thing as luck, it is just mathematical chance and if you are a long term looser or winner depends solely on your playing skills.

 

[tauri103]

I think that to win on the MTT it is impossible to win if we do not have a minimum of luck. To advance even when we play tighten. it is to oblige at one moment or another to play flip. the experience and skills of a player account for a lot too and that's probably why it's always the same players who win.but if we take the time to watch them we see that they too can not do a lot if they do not touch their cards.

 

[MikeCarasone]

Poker is definitely a game of chance because you never know what cards can come your way. Although there is chance and luck involved it takes tremendous skill to be successful. Obviously the great players are not the luckiest guys around. They utilize there skill and knowledge of the game to benefit and exploit the chance. Knowing that there is no guarantee with any hand makes me believe that there is a chance and luck factor. We all know having a huge 91% favorite to win hand doesn’t mean anything sometimes we still lose unfortunately. On the flip side we sometimes hit that 1 outer on the river.

 

[ddg373]

If you want to know if it's luck or skill, read the threads on playing styles, hand analysis, equity, and use the odds calculator for a week or two and see if skill outways luck.