Ahoy
Legend
Silver Level
Hello CC !
Before I start writing this post, I shall warn you that this thread is going to be full of theoretical opinions and thoughts, so don´t get angry at anybody´s opinion
I was wondering for a long time, if Poker, our lovely game is mostly a game of luck or a game of skill.
I think this is a pretty discussed topic and it would be awesome to not even discuss it, but actually TRY SOME EXPERIMENTS.
I saw a thread where people discussed their opinions and most of them said that Poker is a game of BOTH luck and skill. I agree with this statement, however, it´s not always true. Let me explain myself :
Yesterday, I tried a little experiment playing the "Poker School Open Skill League" freeroll on pokerstars. At the start, there were ~8000 players enrolled.
After winning my first hand with , while receiving a beautiful fullhouse on flop, many of those who called my all-in with WAY better cards, must have felt really bad.
This way, going all in ALL the time, I made it to be the chipleader of the tournament in a few minutes. Other players at my table did not always call my all in, however, most of the time there was at least single player who dared to call me.
About 6-7 hands later from the start, I was sitting at the first place of the chip structure ladder and I had mixed feelings - in the past, while trying my best to tactise and play only the best hands, I always ended up with no chips and out of the payed positions. This time, playing with absolutely 0 skill, just going all in all the time, I was first. I would like to mention this odd thing that happened : I received and went all in again. A player called my all in with . He ended up loosing everything since the cards came as .
After some time I started loosing. I had enough chips to lose some hands and not even notice, but after some time passed there were players who had nearly the same amount of chips, or even more than me. I lost all my money when there were only 4000 out of 8000 players left.
Now, lets analyse this :
Playing about 70 hands, I only got a monster hand maybe 2 or 3 times. EVERY SINGLE TIME when this happened, noone called my all in.
Thinking about it, those players who made more chips than me must have been even more lucky going allin all the times.
What I am trying to say, that the luck/skill ratio depends on whether you are playing a freeroll or a high stake cash game or high buy in tourney.
Players in freerolls tend to call anything, because they have nothing to lose.
We could say that bluffing in these tournaments is irrMY elevant, as everyone calls everything, mostly.
My outcome:
It depends what type of tourney/game you are playing.
While playing freerolls is more about luck, playing high stakes or high buy ins MAY BE more of a skill.
--------------------------
When somebody says its just about the skill, I say :
How can you affect the flop?
The answer:
You CAN´T affect the flop.
How can you affect the hand you will be dealt at the start of the game?
The answer:
You CAN´T affect the hand.
--------------------------
When someobody says it´s just about the luck, I say:
How can you raise your chances of winning a hand?
The answer:
By playing only good hands, or forcing your opponent to fold by being aggresive.
How can you affect your opponent´s next move?
The answer:
Every actions makes a reaction. You can affect what your opponent will do by doing something. Calling, raising or checking will make your opponent react in different ways in different situations.
------------------------------
Make your own opinion on whether this game is about luck or skill more, and write your opinions down here, please
I will make sure to update this thread by simply trying my experiments again and again, and in different toruneys.
Today I will play this freeroll again and I will update this thread with my outcome.
Later I will do this in low buy in tournaments, and even higher buy in tournaments and will tell you what did happen to me.
I think that we can definitely say that what I am doing here is just pure about luck.
Before I start writing this post, I shall warn you that this thread is going to be full of theoretical opinions and thoughts, so don´t get angry at anybody´s opinion
I was wondering for a long time, if Poker, our lovely game is mostly a game of luck or a game of skill.
I think this is a pretty discussed topic and it would be awesome to not even discuss it, but actually TRY SOME EXPERIMENTS.
I saw a thread where people discussed their opinions and most of them said that Poker is a game of BOTH luck and skill. I agree with this statement, however, it´s not always true. Let me explain myself :
Yesterday, I tried a little experiment playing the "Poker School Open Skill League" freeroll on pokerstars. At the start, there were ~8000 players enrolled.
Basically, what I was doing, was going All-in from the start to the end of the tournament. Before the first hand was dealt, I thought that in this kind of freeroll where many players just try to grind some chips at the start or lose everything immediately, I will end up loosing the very first hand and my experiment will be over.
HOWEVER this did NOT happen. I was lucky.
HOWEVER this did NOT happen. I was lucky.
After winning my first hand with , while receiving a beautiful fullhouse on flop, many of those who called my all-in with WAY better cards, must have felt really bad.
This way, going all in ALL the time, I made it to be the chipleader of the tournament in a few minutes. Other players at my table did not always call my all in, however, most of the time there was at least single player who dared to call me.
About 6-7 hands later from the start, I was sitting at the first place of the chip structure ladder and I had mixed feelings - in the past, while trying my best to tactise and play only the best hands, I always ended up with no chips and out of the payed positions. This time, playing with absolutely 0 skill, just going all in all the time, I was first. I would like to mention this odd thing that happened : I received and went all in again. A player called my all in with . He ended up loosing everything since the cards came as .
After some time I started loosing. I had enough chips to lose some hands and not even notice, but after some time passed there were players who had nearly the same amount of chips, or even more than me. I lost all my money when there were only 4000 out of 8000 players left.
Now, lets analyse this :
Playing about 70 hands, I only got a monster hand maybe 2 or 3 times. EVERY SINGLE TIME when this happened, noone called my all in.
Thinking about it, those players who made more chips than me must have been even more lucky going allin all the times.
What I am trying to say, that the luck/skill ratio depends on whether you are playing a freeroll or a high stake cash game or high buy in tourney.
Players in freerolls tend to call anything, because they have nothing to lose.
We could say that bluffing in these tournaments is irrMY elevant, as everyone calls everything, mostly.
My outcome:
It depends what type of tourney/game you are playing.
While playing freerolls is more about luck, playing high stakes or high buy ins MAY BE more of a skill.
--------------------------
When somebody says its just about the skill, I say :
How can you affect the flop?
The answer:
You CAN´T affect the flop.
How can you affect the hand you will be dealt at the start of the game?
The answer:
You CAN´T affect the hand.
--------------------------
When someobody says it´s just about the luck, I say:
How can you raise your chances of winning a hand?
The answer:
By playing only good hands, or forcing your opponent to fold by being aggresive.
How can you affect your opponent´s next move?
The answer:
Every actions makes a reaction. You can affect what your opponent will do by doing something. Calling, raising or checking will make your opponent react in different ways in different situations.
------------------------------
Make your own opinion on whether this game is about luck or skill more, and write your opinions down here, please
I will make sure to update this thread by simply trying my experiments again and again, and in different toruneys.
Today I will play this freeroll again and I will update this thread with my outcome.
Later I will do this in low buy in tournaments, and even higher buy in tournaments and will tell you what did happen to me.
I think that we can definitely say that what I am doing here is just pure about luck.
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