Skill or luck?
Yes.
The Supreme Court may decide whether it’s a federal crime to host a poker game. The legal argument will be that poker is a game of skill and not a game of luck.
Poker is both, honestly. There’s a quite a bit of skill involved in being successful at it. And there’s some luck to it. Ask any one who has ever lost to an unfortunate, low odds draw out. Or a, at the time, unskilled amateur who won the WSOP.
Be interesting to see how the court rules on luck v. skill.
February 19th, 2014 at 7:18 pm
Why not Zoidberg?
February 19th, 2014 at 7:20 pm
Maybe. From what the article says, they haven’t decided to take the case yet. Still talking about it amongst themselves. I’m not betting they will.
February 19th, 2014 at 7:23 pm
You can’t bet, that’s illegal!
February 19th, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Of course, a better outcome would be the Supreme Court deciding what right the federal government has to say about what consenting adults do in their own homes in private. Sadly, since you can’t parade poker players through the media with tragic stories about how they were prevented from being by their loved one’s bedside in their final moments, it likely wouldn’t get much traction. More’s the pity, but hopefully someone will figure out a way to tie the gay marriage “consenting adults in private” argument to other forms of overbearing government.
February 19th, 2014 at 11:28 pm
Wyatt: I thought you said gambling is an honest trade.
Doc: I said poker was an honest trade.
As long as the game’s honest, poker is mostly skill with enough luck involved to break your heart.
February 19th, 2014 at 11:48 pm
Well, that description of skill/chance could be applied to all games, football, baseball, basketball, etc. It takes skill but for all the effort, chance controls the outcome.
Decide the wrong way and high school football may be subject to federal criminal law. That’d pretty much be a declaration of war on Texas.
February 20th, 2014 at 4:42 am
I won’t play poker for money because I’ve seen how easy it is to cheat the rube (that would be me) at the table with the smallest ability in quick fingering the deck.
February 20th, 2014 at 7:55 am
Time was, the justices would meet over a game of poker. With cigars. And bourbon.
Give me a minute here, I think I can get Roger Taney’s poker cigar being lit by a slave, and spoil the argument.
Oliver Holmes demonstrably saved the “Constitution,” but seriously, did anybody ever yell Fire in a crowded theatre before he started squawking about it?
February 20th, 2014 at 9:39 am
“You can’t bet, that’s illegal!”
Which is why I said “I’m NOT betting they will”, instead of “I’m betting they won’t”. 😉
February 20th, 2014 at 11:22 am
If it is illegal to gamble, then why do they sell us lottery tickets? When we do it, it’s illegal. When they do it, it’s OK.
February 20th, 2014 at 12:38 pm
Doesn’t every game of skill have a “luck factor”? Just because luck plays a part it doesn’t mean its not a game of skill.
February 20th, 2014 at 12:41 pm
Onlooker: Is this a game of chance?
W.C. Fields: Not the way *I* play!
February 20th, 2014 at 2:37 pm
Online poker is neither skill nor luck. It is six wolves sitting down to carve up a sheep.
Professional “players” all instant message each other the contents of their hands at each deal, and discuss the best way to fleece the sucker at the table. They have perfect information regarding the contents of six hands, and only one of them needs to win each deal.
They then re-divide their pot after the sucker is completely fleeced, and look for another victim.
February 20th, 2014 at 3:49 pm
The hands you get are largely determined by luck (some minor skill involved in draw poker).
However, playing poker for money is a game of skill. Successful professional poker players don’t actually get any better hands, over all — the skill is knowing when, how, and how much to bet on any given hand. You can win a lot of money by betting on a slim minority of hands, and folding or going small on all the rest.
I DON’T play cards for money (anymore), since I know that, statistically speaking, at least one guy in any game I’m in is likely to be ever so much better than I am at that key componant of the game, and everyone else at the table is likely to just be there to hand him money. 🙂
February 20th, 2014 at 6:13 pm
“…interesting to see how the court rules on luck v. skill.”
Doesn’t matter. It’s like being interested in seeing how a court comes down on whether a Jew was properly beaten for having a dirty yellow arm band, because you’re personally interested in their exact definition of “dirty”. Gambling is properly none of their business and so it’s just a kangaroo court. A sham. A dog and pony show. It doesn’t matter which way they “rule”. The only crime here is that they think it’s any of their fucking business.
February 21st, 2014 at 2:43 pm
Poker is for pikers! If you want a real game of chance try DAY TRADING!!!