I been challanged! Please help!

[Joe Tall]

Is there luck involved in poker?

[Dynasty]

Yes.

[Joe Tall]

Then how do you overcome it?

[Fishy]

[Dynasty]

By playing well.

You already knew there is luck involved in poker and you already knew that you overcome it by playing well. So, what's your real question?

[ChuckRazor]

Luck is a short term concept in poker. By the way, if your nickname at the poker table is "Lucky", it just means you are good. Tonight I had ATo against AA, he called and re-raised pre-flop. Flop comes KJQr. He coughed up 6.5 BB to show his aces. Sometimes luck is thrust upon you...........

[Louie Landale]

[1] You don't overcome it. You accept it.

[2] You naturally overcome it by playing a lot. The more you play the closer your results are likely to be based on your skill rather than luck.

[3] You ignore luck. Just play each hand well yaddy yaddy and let the results take care of themselves.

[4] Without luck, there would be no games since the bad players would never win and would quickly quit. Image a slot machine that NEVER paid out anything. Even Aunt Sophie would quit playing that.

[5] You CAN reduce it by playing selectively and avoiding high-varience situations.

- Louie

[Homer]

Yes, but in the long run the luck/skill ratio decreases.

-- Homer

[Cyrus]

This is the question.

[Joe Tall]

Well, my brother is in from California. I have told him about my poker studing and playing, yet, he just gave me the , yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I arranged a game with the 'boys' that we grew up with and proceeded to win the tournament we played and out played the ring game afterward.

On the way home, my brother says, 'you got lucky tonight, eh?' and said 'No, there is no such thing as luck, luck is just variance'. And he says, 'Poker is all luck and I bet if you ask the best players in the world they would agree.'

So, I said, 'Ok I will'. And he pauses and says, 'what? how?' I jump on 2+2 and posted this, showed him Sklansky and Malmuth's books, read there bios, etc, explained everything and it seemed to get through to him.

And then Dynasty is the first to answer, he simply answers,
'Yes' /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif

I understand, the 'yes', Dyn, don't get me wrong it's just a simple question of rhetoric. Since I got through to my brother some we did get good chuckle out of it.

Thank you all for your replies.

Peace,
Joe

[bernie]

you couldve also got 'lucky' having these guys chase cards and long odds and win the tourney. you couldve also had the same thing in your ring game and lost for the night.

the real trick is explaining this 'luck/skill' deal to someone after youve lost for the night. good luck doing that. no one can explain it without sounding like a sore loser. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

btw...there is no longrun in a tourney. there is a ton of luck involved to win. and depending on how fast the blinds go up, the luck factor increases more.

cya

b

[gavrilo]

As I don't play poker professionaly(yet /forums/images/icons/wink.gif ) I do play to supplement my income some being a young person. My girlfriend though says she accepts this, but it's like her acceptance depends on my daily results.. I hate coming home and telling her how I did, I could have 10 straight winning sessions and have one small losing session and BOOM.. it takes convincing all over again.

[SittingBull]

YOUR girlfriend's money?? If it's your money,Y do U HAVE to convince your friend about whether you are winning or losing? However,if U are playing with her money,then U MUST be accountable to her because it's HER money .
HappyPokering, /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif
SittingBull

[Punker]

Well why didn't you post what you were arguing about: is poker ALL luck?

[Ray Zee]

poker is all luck it is true. you have to have been lucky enough to be born smarter than most to win. then you have to be lucky enough to be near a place to play. then lucky enough to have found something like 2+2 to get the valuble lessons. then lucky enough to have gotten good enough cards in the beginning not to get wiped out and give up the game. then lucky to be able to find good games. the list goes on.

[Simon Diamond]

Or lucky enough to be Chris Moneymaker.

Simon

You couldn't have cited a better example of how much luck is involved in poker /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[Cyrus]

: "As I get better, I get luckier."

[Carl_William]

Just as I suspected:

Poker players are all planktonic in nature. Victims of the random fluctations of the tides in the Poker Ocean. Some just float better than others....

[rigoletto]

"luck favors the prepared mind."

Louis Pasteur

[Joe Tall]

Thanks Rig! Being a quote junkie this one hits hard!

[rigoletto]

You're welcome - we don't want you to get any withdrawal symptoms now would we /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

[gte910h]

Tell her one of the most important things is to look at in poker is LONG TERM RESULTS. If she can't handle it, say, "Dear, you're actually making me play worse by bringing my attention to something that you're supposed to not worry about. If you continue to get upset, I will only be able to tell you about my win/losses over the course of a month from now on".

Then if she keeps getting bothered, only tell her every 1st of the month how you did the prior month. After a couple months of that she'll probably see its not worth worrying about.

[cferejohn]

Look at Dan Negranu's (probably spelled wrong) columns at www.cardplayer.com. (http://www.cardplayer.com.) He's got one called something like 'Hey Mom, I'm a Poker Player', where he talks about a similar thing with his mom. If he'd post a big win, she'd say 'get out now while you are up', if a big loss, it was the end of the world and he was ruining his life. Eventually he started 'evening out' his claimed wins and losses but still trying to be honest overall. So if he won $1000, he's say he won $300. If he lost $400 next time, he'd day he won $300. Every once in a while, he'd cop to a small loss (like $100-200), when of course in reality he was having swings like +$1500, -$800, +$1100, etc.

[Tommy Angelo]

Winning at poker is 100% luck. See Ray Zee's post.

Tommy

[Your Mom]

Doesn't the fact that there are best players in the world prove that luck isn't all poker is?

[Joe Tall]

Like Tommy said, read Ray Zee's post.

[Joe Tall]

I sent Ray Zee's and Tommy Angelo's posts to my brother and he went out and bought HPFAP last night. I'm sure he'll be seen playing middle limits at Ocean's Eleven in So. Cal soon.

Thanks for all of your responses,
Joe