Since the beginning of time (at least as Man measures it) people have had a need to compete with each other. They do it physically in everything from fighting with each other to organized sports. Boxing, wrestling, football, hockey…the list can go on and on.
Then there are the strictly cerebral competitions; Chess, Bridge, Board Games, Trivia and of course Poker.
Poker is one of the ultimate games of skill contested between people. It boils down to one person attempting to force their will on another. Naysayers and apologists for the un-educated and un-indoctrinated will argue that luck is the most important part of a poker game. How then do they explain what happens when a player with the best hand lays that hand down to a strategic play from another? How do they explain the experienced and skillful player that regularly and routinely wins at the cash games or places in the money in tournaments. Do these players have other worldly abilities or senses beyond that which the normal person posses? Are they inherently lucky?
I submit to you that the successful poker player is no different than those who achieve success at any other endeavor. In fact they are very similar to successful businessmen, athletes and musicians. They may have a God given talent for assessment of other people. They may also have a talent for knowing when to push and when to back off. However coupled with that talent is a vast array of skills; earned, learned and developed over the course of time. Patience; developed from hours of grinding and waiting at a poker table. Attention and focus; maintained from the start of the game until the final table or the game breaks up. No, poker is no game of luck.
Why then is it considered gambling? Simply put, because one measures success in a poker game by how much one takes away from the others at the table, either in tournament chips or in real money, the State sees it as gambling. Consider the professional athlete. His/her success is measured by how many points he/she or their team amasses against the opposition while they are being paid to play. If they are successful, their pay reflects that success. Even if they are unsuccessful many professional athletes enjoy a substantial income. In poker, your success is easily measured by your income. No success, no income.
I for one would certainly agree that there needs to be limits on gambling in the U.S. True gambling, in my mind, is when you wager against a set of fixed odds. Almost all casino games have fixed odds, stacked against the player, that say you will lose at least a portion of your money. Regardless of how lucky you are on a given session, if you keep playing a fixed odds game, you will eventually give at least some of your money to the house. Often you end up giving it all to them. Problem or inveterate gamblers are always sure that they can beat those fixed odds and never seem to understand that old truism ‘you can’t beat the house’.
There are no fixed odds in poker. You are not playing against the house. Sure there are easily understood mathematical certainties concerning the strength of a given hand when pitted against another given hand. Those are the odds of winning a specific and individual hand, not the odds of winning at a session or tournament. Just as baseball is a game of 27 outs, not one swing of the bat, poker is a game of a myriad of hands played out over the course of the session or tournament. Your tournament life can revolve around one hand of poker and your cash game bankroll can also be lost on a single hand. If you allow that to happen, it is your choice, not the odds being stacked against you.
Categorizing poker in with other forms of gambling is, then, an inaccuracy and affront to those of us who consider poker as the ultimate game of skill. We believe that such contests between consenting adults are much like sex, what you do when all present agree to the effort is your business and not the business of the State.
Poker Players Alliance Forums » State - CO
Poker Thoughts
(1 post)-
Posted 2 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.