POKER is mostly LUCK

Anyone who thinks poker is a game of skill, clearly doesn't take into account the factors of success in poker, luck, which is ambiguous in the sense of comprehension and its role in poker. Comparing to sports (golf, baaseball ect) or even chess, to poker, is a complete misconception.

All these pros are trying to convince the public that its mostly or all skill. People who are connected to poker sites have to preach that in order to get more members(suckers) to join and gamble their money away and many theories and facts(anedoctes) have been posted all over the internet that expose the practices of these poker sites.

Poker is a card game, that has a predominant factor that determines the winner, luck! Sure, you can bluff or semi-bluff to a showdown and win that hand and increase your stack, but you need the oppurtunity to do so. Bluffing is possible when your opponent is weak or chasing and missing, you have to be lucky to for your opponent to miss or get into the situation to make that move. Same can be said of semi-bluffing, which is betting and commiting your opponent in hoping to make your winning hand. There are other scenarios that lead to luck. Coolers, AA vs KK or QQ, you have to be lucky to win those hands, being the underdog, but you also you have to be lucky to be in position of getting the favorite hand and hope it holds up. Trapping is probably the closest to being considered skill in poker, but who can't learn that, just pretend you don't have a strong hand, and you successfully trapped. But you can also trap by over-betting your hand making your opponent think that you're weak and force an over the top bet and get em commited, if your opponent is aggressive. You still need to be in that position to make such a move, by luck, you cannot create it or use your will to do so and control the action. Its not something you can practice, like sports.

Real sports that require skill, talent, hard work, and physical attributes have very little luck. Baseball games for example rarely are decided by luck, but poker is. Golf may have luck involved(lucky bounce, the wind assisstance etc) but without the ability to swing the club in the slot and make great contact or sweet spot, you cannot be successful. In poker anyone with basic understanding and a little bit of experience can beat anyone, however in golf, you can have basic understanding and experience and still be horrible at the game. Have you ever heard of anybody being a great success in golf with little experience, no, but talent may provide the path to it, provided you work hard and practice. Poker has so many new comers who are winning tournaments and leaving the pros in the dust and that will never happen in golf or baseball or any sport for that matter because luck is not a significant factor. Now chess, which compared to poker, moronic if you ask me, is not even close the constitution of poker. Chess players win because of higher intelligence, strategy, the ability to see several moves ahead and there has never been instances where somebody has won by luck, cause its all skill, there isn't even a term for chess that the result was based on luck, mistake by an player, but luck, never!

Poker has various forms of play(cash poker, tounament poker, live poker ,online poker). Cash poker is more methodical poker, i mean noone is going to chase to the river or even push all in on a draw, unless they're aggressive and don't care about losing their money and if they are behind post-flop than they need luck to win it and even the other player needs luck to hold up. On most occasions most players play deliberately in cash games as oppose to tournament poker. Tournament poker is only about increasing your stack and to do it is mainly luck, very rarely people win multiple tournaments without luck, in fact, never. The so called pros who have won multiple bracelets done it with luck its not like if they decide one day i am going to win this tournament with my talent and skill. What talent? and what skill? However, skill may play a part in live poker, being able to read your opponent(body language, facial expression, sense weakness or stength), but other than that its mainly luck, getting the cards , getting into positions to semi-bluff, trap, win a race, suck out, cooler, but bluff only when you sense weakness, but you better project strength to the other player, but if they're good readers they can sense your bluff and bust you. Reading people is a common thing that is actually seperate from poker, swining a golf club is exclusive to golf, swinging a bat or throwing a baseball is exclusive to baseball, kicking a soccer ball is exclusive to soccer, etc...you get my point. If you strip the reading the opponent from poker, its all luck. Online poker is mainly that, you cannot read a player , except their betting patterns, even then you require luck to win. Online poker is very mysterious, you cant see the deck being shuffled and dealt, there are no burn cards, a dealer software deals to all the tables versus live poker, one dealer with a deck to every table.

Poker is mainly luck, the people who tell you otherwise have something to gain, being gaining members for their site, pass gambling laws or protect their idea they are skilled players because they won money live or online. But there are rational people who understand they won but it was mainly due to luck, they are not delusional and try to justify to themselves and others its all skill. There are odds that assist one to make proper desicions, but you will always become a victim of bad luck to a lucky person and has that ever happen in chess, a resounding no!. Sports require skill, talent, practice to succeed and luck is just a minor insignificant factor. Poker is the exact opposite, skill (reading people) is not exclusive to poker and to win you need luck and when it comes to luck in poker its very ambiguous.

I may have missed some points to substantiate my premise. I welcome any questions, arguments, crude comments, theories on poker and anything relevant to what has been posted. I anticipate propounding my elicitaions.