Hi. Come on in. I got us a half-dozen of those $9 cheeseburgers and a pound of Cajun fries. Put on your bib and dig in.
Many players, especially those recently new to our beloved game, have not yet grasped several poker truths. So, today we'll take a few subjects from my "notes file" and roll them into one - soft games, tough games, luck, time, skill, and balance.
No. 1 - A soft game isn't necessarily the easiest game to beat.
No. 2 - A tough game isn't necessarily the most difficult to beat.
No. 3 - A skilled player isn't always better off in a soft game.
No. 4 - An unskilled player has very little chance in a tough game.
That fourth truth is the easiest to accept. The first three will bring arguments. So, before people come running in here to argue, let me string all of this together so that you'll be able to use the information in your daily play.
Many players, even in this information age, still believe poker is mostly a game of luck. Luck is a factor in every poker game, more even than many skilled players are willing to acknowledge. But please don't go blabbing it around that Roy West said that poker is a game of luck and your skill doesn't matter. No, no, no. The fact still remains that over any appreciable period of time, the skilled player will be money ahead, while the unskilled player will be money behind.
Now, here's an early conclusion before we continue:
If you are a skilled player, you'll want to play in games in which the luck factor is the lowest. If you are an unskilled player (and who would ever admit to such a thing?), you'll want to play in games in which the luck factor is the highest. Many players are now saying to themselves, "I knew that." But I'm willing to wager that more than 80 percent of them never have actively thought about it. And worse yet, they haven't done anything about applying it. This would be a good time for you and I to begin applying it.
In the area of "truths," you must realize that luck is a short-term factor, while skill is a long-term factor. Small-limit games promote luck, while higher-limit games promote skill. So, the smaller the limits of the game, and the shorter the time frame, the more luck is a factor. Small-limit games generally have more unskilled players, and a short time frame generally doesn't allow enough maneuvering room for your skill.
Luck reigns supreme in a game in which no one is a skilled player. It becomes a game of "cards on the table and let's see who has the best hand at the end." In my opinion, skill alone will not consistently beat such a game. I know players who have gone bonkers or broke, or both, trying. They never have figured out why they couldn't beat those small, soft games.
Many players will make the rounds of several poker rooms, looking for nine "lives ones" and an empty seat. That's looking in the wrong direction, because luck is a very large factor in such games.
In any game of limit poker, whatever the limit, if you are the one skilled player against nine purely recreational players, in my opinion you are running headlong into a wall called "luck." You're trying to be skillful, while they just came to gamble. "They," as a group, are the favorite. In this game, with six or seven players in every pot, you'll need some luck to win any appreciable amount of money. But, with four or five skilled players and four or five unknowing opponents, there are fewer players in each hand and the skill factor rises dramatically. The closer balance actually works in favor of the skilled player.
Let's round up 10 professional players of equal skill and seat them in a game. Who would win? The player who kept his discipline and made the fewest mistakes. But what if they all maintained their discipline? Then, card distribution, which we refer to as the luck part of the game, would be the determining factor.
Now you can see that part of the skill of your skillfulness should be in knowing when and where your skill matters, and to what degree. Luck (card distribution) is indeed a factor in the game of poker - but skill is the
bigger factor.
Incidentally, not understanding all of this is the reason that so many skilled local Las Vegas players have a difficult time winning on major holiday weekends. The town fills up with unskilled recreational players who are tough to beat in groups of nine. Three or four unskilled players in a game is fine. Nine is a crapshoot.
The hour grows late and I require the repose of my sleeping chamber. Take that last humongous burger for your breakfast and kill the light on your way out.
Roy West, poker author, continues giving his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas for tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome.
