This is Why We make Money- Poker is Gambling
Read on
What is Poker? It's a game of incomplete information, and as any such phenomenon in the real world there's a luck aspect involved.
The respective player within this game will be dealt a hand; in the long run the luck of the hand portion will be evened out. The community cards that fall out are going to be indiscriminate of which players are on the tables. That in itself is the luck portion which in the long-run evens out itself.
Variance
This in itself is going to be something that will affect all players regardless of if you're Daniel Negreneau or Tom Dwan. This is merely a simple way of explaining and describing what happens when a negative result is unavoidable despite the assumption of optimal play.
You can and will lose money making good plays in the short-run.
But here's the Caveat. With the same respect, poor-players can subsequently "Make Money" whilst making unconsciously "bad-plays". "chasing draws, poor equity, poor range construction".
The Perspectives
To a winning player that's losing money; he knows that his long-run will be profitable and is able to distribute his results accordingly to variance or bad play. This is a result of of his/her experience and understanding of skill.
To a recreational player that's losing money; He's getting unlucky, when he's winning money he's getting lucky. A skill evaluation of himself is not present.
A winning player can evaluate his skill level, because he understands what a skill level is. Whether a play is good or bad in the long run.
A recreational player cannot evaluate his skill level since he either A) does not understand there is a such thing as skill-level in poker B) unable to determine whether a play is good or bad.
So Why Does this Matter?
Poker is gambling and luck.
If it was a game of 100% skill and it was transparent as such. Think to yourself:
Would a recreational player engage in a game that he has no skill advantage in?
Would a recreational player knowingly put money in a game that he has 0% in getting back?
The notion that Poker is Gambling is what keeps Professional Poker Players alive.
If the world is to accept Poker is a game of skill, this would drive the recreational players out. They would understand that in the long-run they're being taken in for a ride and hustled into bankruptcy.
If the world is to accept Poker is a game of skill, all those that would pursue it would actively increase their skill edge.
Consider This:
A Boxing tournament has a registration of 100$. 100 entrants. Top prize is $5500 Second $2000, Third $1500 Fourth $1000.
- If boxing were a game of luck; there's no money to be made or lost, and it's a break-even gamble in the long run.
-Given that boxing is not a game of "entirely luck". Do you think there would be a lot of "Recreational contestants".
Hopefully I've been able to clear up some things to the strangeness of this "profession". So the next time variance hits you hard; understand that it is Variance itself that keeps the games Profitable.
Embrace Variance, Embrace Tilt.
Love this aspect of the game.
So the next time someone comes up to you and say isn't Poker Gambling?
This is the most +EV reply:
It sure is! You have an equal chance as winning as me; Let's Play =).
This month was was most certainly a success in my books; hitting Supernova Elite yesterday for the first time ever! Overall win rate for the month was around 2.7bb/100 running a bit above ev. It was most certainly a rough challenge for me chasing Supernova Elite at 100nl. I've had ups- and downs grinding massive amount of volume facing all kinds of downswings and variance but none the less I was more than satisfied with my results for this month.
