What Makes A Great Poker Player
Harvard Law Professor Charles Nelson recently held an all day Harvard Faculty Club strategy session bringing together poker pros like Howard “The Professor” Lederer, game theorists, statisticians, law students and gambling lobbyists to analyze whether poker is a game of luck or one of skill. The skill debate has been a preoccupation in poker circles since September, when Congress barred the use of credit cards for online wagers. Horse racing and stock trading were exempt, but otherwise the new law hit any “game predominantly subject to chance.”
In a decision entered on May 1st, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the decision of a lower court regarding poker in North Carolina, stating that “while skillful players can reduce the chance factor, they cannot control the turn of a card.” Thus, poker will remain illegal in North Carolina unless situations arise to potentially change it.
Most of the legal wrangling centered on determining the preponderance of skill or luck in poker. In my opinion, determining skill versus luck is not a function of looking at any given hand, but one of bounding the issue. In other words, how long does a game of poker take?
If you were to conclude that each hand constitutes a “game,” then poker is surely a game where luck predominates. But if a “game” is construed as lasting a year, or five years, or ten years, or even a lifetime, then skill prevails. In the long run, a player’s results tend to mirror his or her expectation — for better or for worse.
In other words, if you play poker long enough, you figure to reap what you sow. In the short run, anything can happen.
