Skill or Luck: What Makes a Good Poker Player?

Filed in archive Information about , Internet Poker on October 3, 2009

© adam.croft


Poker is a game of skill. It's also a game of chance. So the question has been argued for decades... Is luck more important than skill, or is skill more important than luck?

I've always thought the argument was a bit senseless. It's like asking whether it's more important to have a good kite or plenty of wind. Or, which is more important: the gas or the gas pedal? Some of it is simple brains. What situation are you putting yourself in when you play? Are you getting any kind of a rakeback for being there?

But if you have no luck, you may as well not play (no matter how good you are). If you're no good at the game, luck doesn't help much if you don't know what to do with the cards you get.

One thing you can say about poker is that luck becomes more important as the other players at your table become more skillful. If you're playing a couple of guys and Lady Luck seems to be smiling on you all about the same, the most skillful player wins. If the other guys at the table are simply better than you, you better be lucky.

If you want to take some of the uncertainty out of it, you can always play at some online site, like Rakemonkey... you can even play poker rakeback there.