Is Poker Luck or Skill?

All poker players go through runs of bad or good luck at some point. Times when your Aces get cracked over and over again, or times when you seem to flop a monster just about every hand.

These runs of luck can lead people to believe that winning at poker isn’t based on skill at all. The truth however is that even though luck will make a big difference to the results of a single hand or a single session, skill is much more important over a larger timeframe. In the long run, a player who consistently plays well will always end up ahead of someone who gets luck sporadically.

On any given day, a complete donkey can get lucky and beat the best player in the world. If those same players play against each other time after time however, the professional player will always win back his money, and probably all of the donkey’s money too.

While there isn’t really anything you can do to increase the chances of getting lucky, there are certainly some ways to reduce the impact that being unlucky has on your game. The most important of these is having a good bankroll management strategy.

A solid bankroll reduces the swings that luck can cause, and lets you better weather the downswing if you get unlucky for several sessions in a row. Make sure that you are only playing with a small percentage of your bankroll at any given point in time, that way you will still have money to play with even if you get extremely unlucky.

Remember though: If you are losing time after time, it could be because you are playing incorrectly. Make sure you can be honest with yourself. Evaluate your plays to see whether if really was just “luck”, or whether there is a way you could have played the big hands differently to lose less money.

Luck has a role to play in poker over the short-term, but over the long grind, it’s going to be the most skilled player that ends up with the money.

Good luck at the tables, but more importantly, play well!