I Held Off For as Long as I Could

…But, ultimately, we all knew it was inevitable. I am going to write a blog post completely dedicated to poker. I know, roll your eyes at me, but in all actuality, no one is forcing you to read this, so you can stop right now.


For those of you still with me, here is what I’d like to say. Poker is a game of skill, with luck and chance mixed in with the variance of the changing cards. However, the element of luck and chance are so miniscule to the overall big picture that if the best poker player sits down at a table and plays against complete donkeys (a term for a really bad poker player), the best poker player will ultimately get most of the money at the table. Maybe a donkey can beat him on a given night, maybe even have a good week, but let’s say this same group of players played eight hours a day, every day, for an entire year, the “luck” would even out, and we’d see the best player at the table with the most chips. It isn’t hard to understand, I promise, when thinking of poker, not many people think about statistics and probability. A player will be dealt pocket aces 1 in every 220 hands. So, a lucky player will not get those aces any more frequently. Conversely, an unlucky player, will not get those aces any more rarely. It’s all in how the specific player plays those aces. Level with me here, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
Now, there is one concession I will make, Texas Hold ‘Em, the most popular form of poker played today, is also the one where luck has the biggest factor. However, that is not to say it can greatly affect a career of a good poker professional. Let’s face it, Phil Hellmuth is pretty good when it comes to Texas Hold ‘Em, sure, he’s a jackass, but that doesn’t make him any less good. He has 11 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Championship Bracelets (the most all-time), and trust me, he has no lucky rabbit’s foot, no golden horseshoe, he just knows how to play the game. Having said that, there are plenty of other forms of poker where luck plays a much smaller role. Omaha hi/low split, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw are all examples of these. It’s really just a matter of, and excuse the cliché, how you play the cards you’re dealt. Poker is a game of skill, it’s a game of people, it’s a game of knowing how to get the most money when you have the best of it, and knowing how to lose the least when you don’t.
So please, when golf tournaments are legal in this state, where the variance of the winner changes as much as in poker, shouldn’t poker tournaments be legal as well? I mean sure, you get a long-shot WSOP winner every now and then, but we see the same thing happen in golf. Every so often some guy wins a major tournament that a week ago no one had ever heard of. Sure, eventually Tiger or Phil ultimately earn the most money, but you do get those stories. It’s no more rare in golf than it is in poker. Which is why I’m glad the poker world has strayed from saying “tournament winnings” and started calling them “tournament earnings,” because that’s really what they are. The person who works the hardest will be the best, over the long run.
Now, I’m not saying I’m thinking of going pro at poker, or even that I think I could. Hell, I’m not even saying I think I’m any good at the game at all. All I’m saying is we should give credit where credit is due, and stop pretending this is a game of outlaws, criminals and boozehounds, just trying to get “lucky.”
‘Nuff Said.