Poll: Poker - Luck or Skill based game?

[MrFluffy-X]

mostly skill but luck does play a big part of it

 

[kickyourass]

both, you need luck to get the cards you need, and skill in order to bluff.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Wow i think the poll result so far says a LOT about how much the escapist community knows about poker (ie, not a lot).

Well why don't you enlighten us then if you're so knowledgable?

 

[Shapsters]

Well to ruin the validatity of the poll the answer is both. As luck is required with getting cards while skill is required with calculating chances of getting cards, calling bluffs and bluffing, etc

I did not include the middle option as I feel 90-100% of voters would have chosen that one. I'm more so looking for which people think is more important within the game if that makes sense?

Well in that case it is skill. There is a reason there are poker players who make millions of dollars every year. Sure you need to be lucky to get the cards, but you need to be able to bluff, read other players and do other things in order to be a higher skill-set.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Although I dislike Poker, I can appretiate the skill required in it's psychological aspect. Afterall, you have no idea what kind of a hand your opponents have, so you need to be able to "read" your opponents and make the most of the hand you are given.

That said, the sheer fact that the cards you receive are entirely random (unless someone is cheating) makes it at least somewhat luck-based.

 

[asinann]

Luck. Doesn't matter how good you are, if the other guy has better cards you're inevitably fucked. Say you're playing Texas Hold'em and you see a single ace in the flop. You're holding on to two aces... there's pretty much no way you're going to lose that hand. Say your opponent had a pair of kings...

According to strategy, before those first three cards even come up you'd both be right to lay large bets. You'd be stupid to fold. When those three flip, and say there's an ace, two, six (non-suited). There's pretty much no way for you to lose that. Doesn't matter if the guy holding the kings is a "world class poker player", he's fucked.

(Yes, I know they could still get a flush and beat your three of a kind.)

Then explain why the same 20 people are winning the big open tournaments every year. In a single hand, luck has a lot to do with it, over a long period of time (even the course of one night) the skilled player will win nearly every time.

 

[Pacerman]

If your skillful enough, you don't need luck. Even if you get hand after hand of crappy cards, a well placed smirk is all you need to convince your opponents that your bad luck has run out, even if it hasn't. Now if it was video poker, then it's all luck.

 

[floppylobster]

Skill

Real poker players don't really focus on what cards they have. It's all about learning to read the other players at the table. You need to learn when they have something and when they're bluffing. Then you just wait until you have something half-decent and know they're bluffing, and you get them to bet it all. It's all about your po-po-po-po-po-po-po-poker face. That's why you sit around, talk, try to get inside their heads. That's what real poker is about. Interestingly it only really works if everyone is trying to fool everyone else. It's all about reading people. If someone's not playing that type of game it throws the whole game out. In that case then it is just luck, and then it's jsut kind of boring.

 

[Marter]

I think it takes good perceptive skills, and you need to be pretty good at math in order to win, but in the end if you get crummy cards, you are going to lose.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Neither it's based on % probabilities!

 

[Angerwing]

It depends what level you're playing at. If you're playing at a rookie level, it's luck based. No-one experienced enough to use any skill. If it's at a master level, it never really matters what hand you have (though it does help).

 

[Indecizion]

i play it does take both, but in the end the best hand will beat the best bluff, luck is slightly moar important imo, but it may just be that the guys i play with are really bad at bluffing rofl.

 

[archvile93]

Getting good cards is luck. Using the cards you have effectively is skill.

 

[Agayek]

Well to ruin the validatity of the poll the answer is both. As luck is required with getting cards while skill is required with calculating chances of getting cards, calling bluffs and bluffing, etc

Basically this.

It's a combination of the two. Luck comes into play with the cards you get, while skill comes in on reading your opponents and knowing when to bluff/call others bluffs or when to fold, things like that.

 

[CompanionCube]

Skillful luck.

 

[SliverBlade]

I say skill because to know when to fold or when to bluff is not luck, it's skill.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

There is skill involved, but 90% of it is what you are dealt, which is total luck.

That. And I never understood how on TV they always had all these really great cards... through the hundreds of times I'm played poker, without using any wild cards, best I ever got was a flush, and that was only once or twice.

 

[blaze2142]

I think it is a little of both.
The cards you get in the begining is your luck.
What you do with those cards is your skill.

 

[Phase_9]

The second you involve random chance as a major part of the game, it becomes luck. Sure, you can make educated guesses and bluff, but in the end, the hand you are dealt is your hand, period. That's why its a cliched proverb.

 

[Spiner909]

Skill if you count cards, hah!
Luck is always a factor.