Its more then a luck, which is why playing poker is clearly a game of skill!

I”ve been playing poker since I’ve learned how to recognize numbers and symbols in cards and making pairs, three of a kind’s, four of a kind’s, collecting flushes, full houses…. :) For about 15 years, and now I am 24 years old girl. As somone once said:”YOU CAN’T RUN FROM WHO YOU ARE, OUR DESTINY CHOOSES US…” Its in my genes and in my blood eversince I can remember. I used to play it with my brother and grandfather all the time as a kid, 50 dollars a game, untill the winner takes all, NL cash games-5 card draw. Today I play poker online at Poker Stars, I am not attending real tournaments, one day I will when I graduate from colleague, so maybe you will see me on your TV’s soon, sitting at the finale tables with some great poker stars…So, enough about me let’s talk about what is poker…

To be honest, when I first started to play poker I’ve thought that the main thing is just about being luck, like when you play lottery or bingo! But just recently I’ve realised that poker is not just about luck and being lucky. I am not a perosn who is supersticious and believes in luck, I am someone who likes to rely on „me, myself and I“, and someone who’d rather punish herself on every mistake I’ve made, rather then to blame it on the cards, the other „donkeys“, or some paranormal activities because this is the only way I can see where my mistakes are made! I can’t deny it, poker is called luck when some people become blind and keep on pushing all ins all the time with their small pairs, „picture card” e.g. QK, 10J, QJ, AJ even with AK’s…“ and when you make this move with those cards you don’t think about what will happen next at the flop, turn or river! You are not interested in what other players might have and why they raised, you just do it instinctively. And why would you even think about it, when you probably hold Jackies in your hand or something better or less because from the start you are the one with good odds to win! And when you loose with this favourite cards, we will not blame ourselfs by reacting to impulsive and going all in preflop, we’d blame it on the BAD LUCK and make a lot of excuses for our sometimes bad decisions which are made by our earlier furstrations, tiredness, fears… I can’t say luck is not an important factor in this game, of course it is. Isn’t luck the part of our everyday life? At my theory luck is an important factor, yes! But I’d place it at the last place in anything we do besides when you play lottery. When I’ve thought the luck is the key that keeps moving this game, I didn’t really win a thing, because on the long run I’d always loose! We need to throw away the fact that poker is just about being lucky we must face the truth that poker is something much more then luck.

 Its the skill you can grow and develop each time more and more… but its a skill you’ll never learn completely! Good player knows when to just call, raise, reraise, bluff. The most important thing is that a great poker player knows when to fold and he doesn’t relies just on his luck and his cards, he relies on himself and what he can do at that point even if he has nothing, but he knows what his opponent might have! Poker is not a game you play with your heart, you play it with you mind. Its like a battle field, you keep you friends close (your cards), but enemies closer (oponnents cards)! Which means that you have to always think about what others might have, what they could get on the turn and the river and not just about your own cards and nothing else. Poker is much more then luck and when you understand this and realise it, you’ll start to win! Poker is like a one night stand, its hard, its dirty and its an exciment, but if you mix in your emotions, you mess it up, so leave them behind your „bedroom doors“!

As once Matt Damon said in the Rounders: “Why does this still seem like gambling to you? I mean, why do you think the same five guys make it to the final table of the World Series of Poker EVERY SINGLE YEAR? What, are they the luckiest guys in Las Vegas? It’s a skill game, Jo!”

Advertisement