How to Play Poker Videos

Professional Poker players are no better/no worse than the rest of us who play? Discuss?

Ok, basically I'm looking for discussion as to how good these guys/girls are? Yes, they appear on tv betting obscene amounts of money but they have money to do so! Poker is more luck than skill neways and anybody who trys to tell me different...is wrong! :-)

Public Comments

1. derren brown got a little old lady - who had never played poker beofre - into a major poker tournament she came second (would have come first, but, as always, it was down to the luck of the draw)
2. Well most of the professional poker players have been playing for years and most understand the game better then your average poker player. Yes luck is involved but that only last for so long. Most professional have learned maximize profit while minimizing losses. Which as nothing to do with luck, but a lot to do with skill.
3. Yeah its mostly luck.
4. There is a lot of luck in poker of course, but also skill, specifically in : - Knowing the odds (eg what are the chances of making a straight with the cards I have / what are the chances of my oponent's hand being better than mine) - Knowing when to bluff, when to bet agressively, when to lead people on etc - Reading body language and maintaining a "neutral" countenance oneself Professional pokers players are experts at these three aspects of the game.
5. Because professional poker players are professional and the rest of you are not..!!!
6. YES and NO, Better than the rest of us, I shall take FISH out of this, So a 'Compitent' Player, Yep your right, on any given day a compitent player could win, (GIVEN THE CARDS). Same as anyone else, BUT..... Pros are pros for the same reason as sport pros. They have better paitence, dont make (as many) silly moves. Have better experience of situations. Put it this way, poker is built on the fact that playing, say 90% right will win in the end,over time, I.e Folding crap cards, starting hands, pot %, win % etc, etc, pro's have hit the level of 93% right (an example). That 3% (especially if we put up that high 90odd%) is A LOT OF DIFFERENCE. But weve all seen someone call a 2,7 off suit aginst AA and the 2,7 caught two pair.... Last thought, When you have $$ or ££ MILLIONS its easier to play higher stakes than the rest of us 9-5er's playing with what we call SPARE cash. Good Question, One i've thought of many times, Gl at the tables!
7. This is mostly a mental game. There are only 52 cards, so anyone can grasp the odds and concept of the game pretty quickly. But the game itself is more than just odds. Can you push all-in with nothing? Can you call someone else's all-in with only a pair? Should you fold pocket Ace when someone raises you? The answer to those questions are very situational and can only be obtained through experience. But at the end of day you still need luck to be on your side. You can even see this on TV. Just take a look of the WSOP champion for the past 4 years. Are these people professional poker players? If you have luck, you do not need skill.
8. let me try to tell you different...the cards always break even over time, and if so then how come people who have played for many years have won millions at the game? it's because of their skill as for the claim that they just have more money than the rest of us, how do you think the majority of them got that money? by playing smaller games and winning until they could afford to play the biggest games in the world so obviously then they have to be better than the rest of us to play for the money they play for and to win as often as they do
9. The advantage a pro poker player has over a decent poker player is minimal. For the sake of argument we will call it a 5% advantage. Everyone is at the mercy of the cards so in the long run luck is not a factor, it will even out for all players. So the professional poker player will only make better decisions than you 5% of the time. This means that 95% of the time you are just as good as a pro, it also means eventually you will lose 5 cents on ever dollar you bet against them.
10. This is partially true, but the difference between most of the pros on TV and the average joe is that the pros have studied pot odds and the math behind the game whereas most players just go into the game expecting to chase down hand regardless of how much money is in the pot or even know what chance they have. I do completely agree that many of the so called "pros" only have enough money in the first place to enter every tournament so of course they're going to win one here and there.
11. Then you are just going to hate me then, because poker is a game of great skill for sure. Now in the short run, or in one hand or one tourney it can be 100% luck, i have seen total fish at lots of final table before. But over the long run (1-2 years) it is more like 80% skill and 20% luck. You can't play bad hands out of position and hope to win. Pros don't get any better cards then you or i do, and they don't have any more luck then anyone else does, they just have a good understanding of how the game is played, so when you or i check, the pro bets, or when we would push all-in they would rather fold. So it is a skill game for sure, bad beats and suck-outs happen all the time, but the pro over comes this because when he does get a player all-in and he sucks out, it is the pro who has the other player covered, the pro will also not put in a ton of chips with-out a very big hand in most spots. The old saying that you can never go broke if the other player has less chips then you is true. Pros play position and pick on the middle stacks, they will not play a pot with another player who has then out-chipped unless they have a good hand. If it is all luck, then why do you see the same players at the final table all the time. It is not because of luck, it is because they have great skill. P.S i would like to invite you to play in my local cash game, you would be most welcome we can always use a few more fish in our game.
12. So, when was the last time we saw the same people at the final table. Check the stats...you don't. They play more tourney's and therefore are at more final tables. Not a bigger percentage, just more...
13. if poker is luck, why do the same players consistently make the final tables?