Luck and Skill

So I finally got around to submitting my first post.

In this Blog I hope to shed light on some principles I use to be semi successful at poker.

That is being successful but not necessarily beating Phil Ivey.

My perspective is from playing no limit Texas Holdem in about 200 live tournaments and a couple of hundred hours of online play predominantly in low limit cash games.

This blog will be aimed at the intermediate player.

Someone who knows how the game is played but might not understand a whole lot about being successful.

I hope to include some game theory, some psychology, some new ideas.

If you have burning questions you want answered I may be able to help.

Now onto Luck. Anyone who says that poker is all luck or all skill hasn't played enough poker. Either that or they have a limited view of the game. There is (for me) about 70% luck 30% skill. Skill can get you out of bad situations luck can do both. It would be a very boring game without an element of luck.

In the movie Rounders Matt Damon's character says It isn't luck that the world series main event final table is made up of the same players every year.

The truth is that the world series final table IS made of different people every year, precisely because of luck.

There are anomalies such as Dan Harrington (which I have had the pleasure of meeting) chewing through massive fields to make the World Series Final table twice, but this is only because of large amounts of luck coupled with large amounts of skill. I have seen many situations when the worst hand has won, it is a necessary evil.

There will be times when the correct decision (using skill) is to go broke and making a different decision while useful in that hand would be incorrect in 9 out of ten hands.

The sooner you concede that luck forms a large part of poker the better.

The goal is to reduce the luck of other players by using skill. For example raising when there is a possible flush draw so that other players don't get lucky (cheaply).

The other goal is use your skill to put yourself in situations to get lucky.

Be aware, that this does not mean chasing most draws in order to hit. This is devoid of skill and easy pickings for most players.

If this is all gibberish to you ask questions and I will clarify.

Good Luck!

Originally posted by: *PKR ADK*