Is Poker The Only Game That Requires Skill?
To understand how weak is the argument that poker is a game of skill in this whole frame of thought just look at other casino games. Blackjack, for example.
Blackjack is clearly a skill game. Casinos, to ensure benefits at their blackjack tables have to resort to techniques such as increasing the number of decks, not to speak directly about something as little tangible as prohibiting people from playing cards.
This game contains several fundamental mechanics that clearly favor the most skillful players, such as the possibility to stand or fold letters, which allow the creation of strategies, tables and other tools of study of the game.
In fact, the real art of governing a casino is to reduce the influence of skill on the games that require it without client realizing that he has crossed the line where it is no longer possible to win the bank and sell the False sense that skill can influence pure gambling like roulette.
A show for public opinion
For all these reasons we continue to listen and read statements denying the undeniable: that poker is a game of skill.
We, locked in our bubble, react to this type of statement as a personal attack, as a contempt for the hours we have dedicated to improving our game. And to our pride, which is based on our assurance that there are many players that we exceed in terms of knowledge of the game.
But Adelson, and all those who deny the skill factor required by poker in public, do not speak for us. They talk to public opinion, who cares about such a small cucumber and just wants to know if that what your children play on the computer is dangerous or not; For judges, who must interpret poorly drafted laws; And for their coreligionists, who demand arguments that satisfy their convictions, as twisted and contrary to the truth as they may be.
That is why I understand and, to a certain extent, see compelling reactions to the statements made by people like Sheldon Adelson. We must respond to this twisted view of poker because it is a lie that can germinate in minds ignorant of the true nature of poker, but have a real influence on the rules that we are going to impose.
