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1. Skallagrim
   State Director & Moderator
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   An appeals Court in Sweden has ruled that a Poker tournament is primarily a contest of skill and thus not gambling under Swedish law. http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/sweden-reduces-illegal-poker-tourney-sentences--rules-tourney-uses-skill-31665.htm

   Unfortunately, the Court did not see that the same principle should apply to cash game poker, and upheld gambling charges for those. The rationale appears to be that you are guaranteed to play many hands in a tournament, but you may play very few hands at a cash game. Obviously they accept the "skill manifests over time" principle.

   Personally, I think they missed the point regarding cash games as skill can manifest in those just as easy as in a tournament. But when you have thousands of players going around saying "luck in the short run, skill in the long run" this is the result you get.

   Still, legal tournament poker is better than no poker at all!

   Skallagrim

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. matt asay
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   Maybe they should watch a tournament and interview the players who go out on the first hand...

   It really makes no sense if you get beat in a cash game you have the option to rebuy verses a tourny. I would argue that a tourny is more luck vs skill as the blinds can kill even the best players who remain card dead for long periods of time. Large blinds and antes in the late stages force luck into the game by forcing players to act with not so great hands. Cash games with no increasing blinds mean more skill is needed to win pots as the blinds are not the betting factor.

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. Skallagrim
   State Director & Moderator
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   Its 6 of one, 1/2 dozen of the other, IMHO. While its true that the increasing blinds make reliance on the cards more of a factor in a tournament's late stages, getting to the late stage and adapting to it requires significant skill to succeed. Plus playing more hands for a single amount does tend to help minimize the variance. In cash games, you are more in control of your fate in the sense that you can wait a very long time for cards if that is what you want to do, but doing that opens up your play to being very predictable, not a smart move usually.

   This Swedish court recognized an important fact, strategic play pays off. But then it failed to realize that that is always the case with poker, in tournaments and cash games. Any one hand can be won or lost by any number of factors, including chance. But if the chance factor is, say 25%, its 25% EVERY HAND THATS PLAYED. The value of playing more hands is NOT that the skill factor increases, its just that the "law of large numbers" makes it more likely that the actual skill/chance ratio will equal the theoretical skill/chance ratio.

   Skallagrim

   Posted 2 years ago #

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