According to a survey conducted by Poker Players research in 2009, 3.2% of all adults in the UK play poker for money. This figure indicates that around 1.5 million adults in the UK play or have played some form of poker. But whether or not poker is simply a game of chance or if it does indeed require a great amount of skill to play is a question which divides opinion.
So on a sunny but cold Saturday afternoon in Leeds I decided to ask the question to the public; Do you think poker is a game of luck or a game of skill? Due to the fact that Leeds in the sun is such a hospitable city compared to Leeds in the rain people were only too willing to give me their opinion. Whilst for most people a simple reply of 'Luck' sufficed a small number of people declared to me a confident answer of 'skill' with the majority of people who gave this answer then dictating to me an explanation into why they absolutely knew poker was a game of skill. But the people of Leeds had voted and 78% of them had declared poker a game of luck.
The result of the survey in Leeds was not unexpected, although poker has evolved so that it is just a click away for everyone with an internet connection many people still see it as a game played in a dank damp basement or garage or somewhere excluded to inner city casinos.
Ross Jarvis Poker Tournaments
Apr 21, 2014 Ross Jarvis, editor of PokerPlayer magazine, said Coren Mitchell's win came at a time when professional poker veterans are fighting it out with a new generation of online whizzkids, many of whom. But it was finally Ross Jarvis who was crowned at the end of the tournament. Jarvis approached the final table with the third largest carpet, after fighting to survive the bursting of the bubble. Brockton casino news articles. Phil Jenkins was the first victim of Jarvis, he was eliminated in the 4th place when he pushed his short stack to 7-8 against the two Queen of Jarvis.
Sam Grafton, a British professional poker player says that there are so many different elements to poker which makes the game unique: 'We do a lot of work on the math, there's a psychological element to the game as well and hand ranges, it can't ever be boiled down to just pure luck.'
Similarly Ross Jarvis, another British poker professional who is also editor of Poker Player magazine, when asked whether poker was a luck game or a skill game said: 'If you gave two players the same cards, the better player would win more (or lose less) then the other player over a large sample.' Parx casino poker tournament payouts.
Grafton, who has earned over £1million playing poker, agreed that whilst there is an element of luck to the game in the long run the superior player will win more (or lose less) then a less skilful player: 'Poker is becoming more difficult as more people know what they should be doing if it was a game of luck then this wouldn't matter'
He added: 'If you think of it like a pub quiz a quiz with 10 questions would be easier to win as one question has more weight to it then say a quiz with 60 questions.'
Ross Jarvis Poker Player
It is clear that poker is a greatly polarizing topic. It seems that if you ask the professionals then they will tell you that the game does involve skill, so since these people are the poker ‘professionals' then wouldn't that mean that when it comes to poker; what they say is probably true? If we talk to say a professional fireman or a professional doctor who has practised and thoroughly learnt their profession then would we not take their word for the truth if they were to inform us on their profession?
The consensus seems to be that for poker professionals who put hours of their lives each and every day into playing and studying poker then there is skill involved. But for the average player who enjoys playing poker but does not thoroughly study the game to the extent the professionals do then it is luck based.
Joel Cavney, a 22-year-old student and recreational poker player is of the belief that any form of gambling requires luck and poker is no different, he said: 'When I play poker I know I'm not going to win all the time because I'm going to be unlucky some of the time, even the best players are going to lose because they can't be lucky all the time.'
The argument asking whether poker is a skill game or a game of luck seems to be irrelevant as peoples opinion on the subject differ from one another. However it does seem fair to say that it is neither one nor the other, to be a successful poker player a player needs to be skilful at the game and lucky at the same time.
The author R.A. Salvatore's description of luck is very apt: 'Luck? Perhaps. But more often, I dare to say, luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in executing the correct course of action.'
If I had one criticism of the televised EPTs it would be that the tour locations are interchangeable and generic to the viewer – unless you are told in the commentary it's impossible to decipher whether the tournament is being held in Prague or the Bahamas. More unique elements, such as when the 2007 PCA final table was held outdoors, infrared contactlenses would help add some character to the individual stops in my opinion.
The TV production of the November Nine was fantastic and really made poker out to be a mainstream, exciting sport on a par with American football, soccer or boxing. Despite many of the players being relatively unfamiliar to poker fans ESPN did a great job with interviews and vignettes to give each one a character, and the audience a reason to root for or against them. Commentators Lon McEachern, Norman Chad and Antonio Esfandiari were excellent also, it's not easy to stay informative and entertaining on commentary for such an extended period of time. Esfandiari's analysis in particular was very impressive. He seemed to be spot on with his reads the vast majority of the time (hole cards were only revealed at the end of each hand) and his attention to live physical tells was particularly interesting from the view of an online grinder like myself.
As you know, Ryan ‘The Beast' Riess was the eventual winner and new world champion. Inevitably, questions immediately sprung up as to whether the 23-year-old Michigan native was ‘good for poker'. That much will have to be seen in the coming months and years but I imagine Riess was already regretting his status as the ‘face of poker' after this horrendous interview with Fox News….
No regrets
While it wasn't quite the November Nine my biggest tournament of the month was the latest PKR Live, a $500 event at Aspers in London. The vast majority of my online poker career has been played on PKR, and over a few years it's where I moved up from playing $25NL to playing professionally at any stakes up to $5/$10. Because of this, I always want to do especially well in their live events as I'm often playing against people I regularly battle with online and know a lot of the players and staff.After a ninth place finish in 2011 it didn't go quite so well for me this year. I finished Day One with an average stack of 30k and found myself on a really fun Day Two table with WSOPE winner Scott Shelley and some other good players. All was going quite smoothly until I opened A-J to 3200 on the button and the big blind called. I started the hand with 43k, or 27BBs. The flop was a beautiful Js-7d-6d. I c-bet 4k and he check-raised me to 9200. He hadn't been playing particularly aggressively but, given the flush draw on the flop, I felt I had to go with my hand even though I was not in love with the situation. I moved all-in and he quickly sighed – a good sign! Then he eventually put his chips over the middle and showed a Jack also – still good – followed by a Six for a weird two pair – NOT good! I'm not sure what he was so scared about but never mind, his two pair held up and suddenly I was out in about 60th place.
When you play live tournaments regularly (or even semi-regularly as I do) you must learn to cope with the disappointment of frequently busting. You will leave the tourney without cashing so often that you can't afford to get down about it and let it affect your poker game the next time you play. All that you can do is objectively look back on your tournament, the key hands that you played and analyse whether you could have played them better. At PKR Live I could have just called his flop check-raise on the turn and possibly allowed myself to get away if he continued betting, but in the long run I think the differences between the two lines are pretty minimal so I was relatively happy with my tournament as a whole. In the end, being happy with your own play is all you can really ask for in poker – you just need a bit of help from the luck gods to push you to the big money.
Hand of the week
I've played some pretty interesting marked cards contactlenses cash game hands this past month. I think this one offers up the most potential for discussion. I'd love to hear your feedback on how I played the hand, across all streets really. The Villain is a good, winning reg but doesn't play $5/$10 that regularly, so he may have tightened up his game a little. My line could definitely be horrendous, it could be really good – a few weeks later on and I'm still not sure!***** Hand History for Game 2448836834 ***** (PKR)
$1000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em – Wednesday, October 30, 05:17:41 ET 2013
Table The Floating Lotus (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Seat 1: keken4s ( $1399.51 USD )
Seat 2: Tiptop22 ( $1000.00 USD )
Seat 3: MrStarch ( $1188.75 USD )
Seat 4: Cryjob ( $1030.00 USD )
Seat 5: Kingand77 ( $1385.00 USD )
MrStarch posts small blind [$5.00 USD].
Cryjob posts big blind [$10.00 USD].
Dealt to MrStarch [ Td Tc ]
Kingand77 raises [$25.00 USD]
keken4s folds
Tiptop22 folds
MrStarch calls [$20.00 USD]
Cryjob folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, 9h, 6c ]
MrStarch checks
Kingand77 bets [$40.00 USD]
MrStarch calls [$40.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ad ]
MrStarch checks
Kingand77 bets [$100.00 USD]
MrStarch calls [$100.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
MrStarch checks
Kingand77 bets [$245.00 USD]
MrStarch raises [$1023.75 USD]
Kingand77 calls and has a set of Nines to absolutely discombobulate me!
Ross rambles
1) Watching Gravity on Wednesday and CANNOT WAIT. Full 3D at the Empire casino in Leicester Square, should be great.2) It's great to have Masterchef back on TV – even if I do feel as though I spend half of my life watching it.
3) Level 106 of Candy Crush Saga. Huge respect to Vanessa Selbst who tweeted that she has now completed all 450 levels. That's definitely an achievement to rank right up there with anything she had done in poker…
4) Beer of the fortnight: Jaipur, Thornbridge brewery.