Luck Versus Skill in Poker

Is it true that poker is a game of skill? This question was very popular in the past month or so with the courts and also the press.

First, a long legal battle in South Carolina over that very question appears to have come to a close. It’s a case that Card Player has followed closely since five poker players were arrested in a home-game raid back in 2006. The judge in the case said, “Texas hold’em is not gaming or gambling,” and that it was clear to him that poker is “a game of skill,” as opposed to “a game of chance.” For more details, see Page 24.

Next, George Will wrote a great editorial in the Washington Post in August that pressed the skill argument and provided the general public with an introduction to poker and its logic, probability, and game-theory foundation.

Will concluded his column by stating, “Congress probably should fold its interference with Internet gambling and certainly should get its 10 thumbs off Americans’ freedom to exercise their poker skills online.”

He makes a good case that laws against online gaming are pretty silly, considering that the UIGEA “blocked online competitors from poaching gamblers from the nation’s most aggressive promoters of gambling — state governments. They are increasingly addicted to revenue raised by lotteries — the 42 states that have lotteries spent $520 million in 2007 promoting them — and from taxation of other legal gambling.”

There have been several other news and editorial pieces out on this topic recently. The Poker Players Alliance website contains an extensive archive of recent articles if you interested in reading more.

The same “skill versus luck” question was posed to me upon arrival in London for the World Series of Poker Europe event. My cabbie was a budding poker fan who was trying to kick his “fruit machine (the British term for slot machine) habit,” and he said that he heard poker is more skill than luck. He wanted my opinion.

I told my friendly cab driver bloke to take a walk down to the Empire Casino and ask the players still in the tournament how much skill is involved in the game. Six of the nine WSOPE final-table players have WSOP bracelets, and two of the others are part of this year’s WSOP “November Nine.” Case closed.

Another recent tournament series that reinforced the skill argument was the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. It was the largest tournament series ever held online, awarding 45 bracelets and paying out more than $51 million. Online superstars Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Daniel “djk123” Kelly, and Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo won multiple bracelets, which helped shape big story lines. Check out the full event report on Page 50.