Over the last few weeks I've been writing about the effect luck can have on Poker, how some game designers have looked to combat the sometimes unfair effects that luck can have on the game, such as by playing Small Ball poker, or even creating new versions of Poker entirely.
However, I've not written about how you I believe you can combat these difficulties or the tactics I use when doing my best[...] Read more » Relying On Yourself
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
I believe that luck is a fundamental part of poker, whether it is good or bad and how you handle these situations is paramount to success or failure. To overcome bad beats is very important in playing well
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Well on the subject of short stacks, short stackers can be played right if you have somebody who knows how to exploit and shove when needed and you can learn it with some sng wizard and so on. But also some people tends to play better when shortstacks and some play better when they are deep. I am the former and I would prefer to be able to play deep though it is better in the end!
Joined: Sep '13
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1564
Well yea but sometimes those people do get lucky, and they steal a pot that consists of many small pots you had to win to get to that point
just had a guy who was calling my pot sized bets on both flop and turn, obviously chasing flush and then betting himself on the river when his flush hit. Odd thing (if theres such a thing in poker) is he didnt give up his awesome hand (54s clubs) even when he only got 1 club flop. And he did get paid, well not quite because i didnt call his river bet, but when he showed i expected at least some kind of KXs though, not 54s lol
Just makes you wonder how many times he lost his runner runner chases that way :o)
There are (un)fortunately very few poker sites where you can buy in truly short stacked (<20BB). On most sites the minimum is mostly 40BB, which is very hard to play, it is neither a short stack, nor a deep stack.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
I will never agree that luck has nothing to do with the poker game, it's true that on long term his contribution is very low but it's a component after all...
I also think that on game like mtt or even large field SNG luck has a bigger contriubution compared to cash games.
Poker is not a luck game, it is a skill game. Of course you almost never have 100% chance, that you win the tournament even if you do everything right, but if you play right, you will make your odds of winning the tournament bigger, so you can (over a bigger sample of tournaments) show a profit.
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Netherlands
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 508
In my opinion: if you are dealt a lot of hands in your total poker-life (let's say a million) you just can't be really lucky or unlucky, right? In addition, if you throw a dice a million times, then your average can't be much higher than 3,2!
So I think luck is just a very little thing, it's far more skill.
Joined: Aug '10
Location: Germany
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 2219
Luck in combination with poker skills are the fundamentals in poker in my opinion. But i never heard about only one player which have luck longterm- only the other side you can find in every poker forum with bad run stories.
As Pascal says, in a big enough sample of hands, you will see, that the money you were expected to win (according to the odds) will be the same as the money you have won.
Over a millions of hands sample it would be extremely improbable, that you will be more than a 1% below or over the expectation.
I will never agree that luck has nothing to do with the poker game, it's true that on long term his contribution is very low but it's a component after all...
