Luck in Poker?!

How much luck is there in poker? If you have a table of 10 guys with about equal skill online, who will win constantly and why? Will it vary, due to cards and luck?
I can see that a brick and mortar game is different as you have more opportuntiy of reading your opponent but my question here goes for online games.

I think the aggressive bettors will do better. If you are the one applying pressure and making the others decide what to do, you will do better in the long run. How many times do you see people online fold because they have a good hand but are afraid you have the nut? Becoming the bully is easy b/c you can't tip your hand with tells.

Yea the player whos more agressive because hes playing the most hands. I think that makes some sense

I did not mean playing more hands, I mean once in a hand you push the other players to make the decisions to fold, call, raise, etc. If you bet your options are to win the hand or make the pot bigger. You will win chips when you put pressure on other people to make decisions. It is not often people get the nuts on the flop and are willing to risk alot of chips on a hunch they have a better hand than you.

Ahhhhhh better way to look at it, is you win by taking advantage of your opponent's mistakes. That is how you win at the highest levels well actually at any and all levels. The game is all about making opponents pay for mistakes. Hence why low stakes online hold'em is so profitable tons of players making mistake after mistake!

I win almost all hands I play. But, I don't play anything close to the number of hands most players play. I wait for my cards and bet big when I have a hand. Its the quality of the hand played, not the quantities of the hands played. Luck comes into play when you play a lot of hands.

P.S. I should have said, I win almost all hands I play (blind hand excluded).

MicheleW said:

I win almost all hands I play. But, I don't play anything close to the number of hands most players play. I wait for my cards and bet big when I have a hand. Its the quality of the hand played, not the quantities of the hands played. Luck comes into play when you play a lot of hands.

P.S. I should have said, I win almost all hands I play (blind hand excluded).

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I see we have another player with self confidence issues

Whether you call it luck or random chance, the 2 cards dealt to you are just that. I've had runs of great hands, runs of terrible hands, and everything in between. So it's chance as to the cards you get, and skill in playing them properly. Pretty easy to build a stack when you get a steady supply of aces and pairs, hard to do with endless 9-2 offsuit...

Sorry XD - I keep track and am giving you my stats. I'm sure I don't play half as many hands as many of you do - so that's why I can state that. And yes, I do have confidence in my poker play. Would it be better if I had no confidence in myself???

And like others, I have slumps too sometimes and am always learning.

the tight players imo , coz being loose doesn`t always have benefits , u can always bluff what u don`t have and u may get smashed in the face with a call or a raise , this may be profitable for 2-3 hands , or maybe 5 but my point is that players who think any 2 cards can win will end up with fewer cash than tight players .

In any one session poker can be a hundred percent luck, but over a month or a year it is almost a hundred percent skill.

MicheleW said:

Sorry XD - I keep track and am giving you my stats. I'm sure I don't play half as many hands as many of you do - so that's why I can state that. And yes, I do have confidence in my poker play. Would it be better if I had no confidence in myself???

And like others, I have slumps too sometimes and am always learning.

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hehe Was just ribbing you! Well of course it would be better if you had no confidence better for every other player anyways Anyways I was just kiding with you..... As long as your style works for you and you are comfortable then there is no reason to change! <hug>

Awwwww, aint that just the sweetest thing. XD where's my hug, I owe you one for the AA double disaster thread. C'mon over here ya thick lump.

diabloblanco said:

Awwwww, aint that just the sweetest thing. XD where's my hug, I owe you one for the AA double disaster thread. C'mon over here ya thick lump.

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Double Disaster AA thread errrrrrr........ my brain no remember

Yep, I still have nightmares...

Pocket Aces sneaking in my room in the middle of the night while I'm sleeping, a pair at a time, one after the other. Wielding blades and wearing bandannas with mathematical equations on them. Screaming obscene numbers like 4.6589435672 billion, and 48,000. What are the odds of having this dream night after night? Tell me XD, what are the odds?!?

At a single table where blinds do not increase, I believe in the end the better player will rise to the top. They may not win every time, but will be near the top overall. Most players are not patient enough. They bet too aggressive when they flop top pair and someone laid in the weeds with a bigger hand and crushes them!

Luck does seem to come into play when a player plays too many hands. Eventually they are going to catch a big hand, but that is just the odds of the game and has nothing to do with luck.

If it was all luck, we would all win some of the time.

I think that luck really only comes in play when there is an all-in before all the cards are laid out. Thats when you have to leave it up to luck and hope the right cards fall for you, until then its all about how you play what you got when you get it.