Poker Articles

I'm a professional poker player, but I don't gamble.

There are very few people in my life that I have actually taken the time to explain why poker, if played properly, isn't gambling. Many people just wouldn't understand.

A lot of people were raised to believe any games you play in a casino can't be beaten, period. After all, how are all those hotels in Las Vegas so big and glamorous? For the most part, that's all paid for with customers' money that was gambled away.

'The house' will be the only long-term winner, right? This is true when the person is playing against only 'the house.' However, poker is great because you're playing against other players and can capitalize on their mistakes. The casino always gets its cut from the games, regardless of who wins. It rakes a percentage of each pot in cash games and charges an entry fee to tournaments. The money that is won and lost by the players in poker comes down to those individual players' decisions.

Poker is a game of skill. If I were to sit down with a complete novice and play 10 hands of no limit holdem, it is not unrealistic to think I could lose many of the chips. But if we were to play 100 hands, I would win the majority. And as the number of hands went up, the more talented player would subsequently win a higher percentage of chips. On any given hand, anyone at the table can win, but skill is the deciding factor in the long run.

There is a lot of variance in poker, both positive and negative. It is variance that truly makes the game fun and profitable for the more skilled players. Some new players experience positive variance when they start, making them think they are better than they truly are. Conversely, sometimes when strong players experience negative variance, they tilt and don't play up to their potential. Once variance can be understood and accepted, the peaks and valleys are minimized.

Emotional control is just one of many skill sets involved with poker. Computing pot-odds, recognizing betting patters, and understanding the intricacies of the game, such as positional power, hand strength, and the general ebb and flow of the game are also factors that make poker a skillful game.

There are thousands of people that have made a living strictly from poker for their entire adult life. You can not say the same for games such as roulette and craps. While some may have tried, none have succeeded for any extended period of time.

Poker is a game that can be learned, studied, and improved upon. If this wasn't the case, then how can the continued success of players such as Phil Hellmuth be explained? This is a 42-year-old who has over $9 million in career tournament winnings and 11 World Series of Poker bracelets.

Or, better yet, how did 19-year-old Annette Obrestad, the recent winner of the inaugural WSOP Europe on Sept. 16, win a 180-person online tournament while having her hole cards covered the entire time?

There are many smart, educated people in the world that are oblivious to poker being a game of skill. Perhaps if they took the time to understand the complexity of the game, they would have different opinions, and the government would not continue to hinder poker by classifying it with other casino games decided solely by chance.