A game of skill?
By Al Alvarez
How long, O Lord, how long until poker is officially classified as a game of skill? It didn’t happen in 1960 when Parliament passed the Gaming Act which legalised casinos in the UK, thereby putting out of business not only all those sleazy basements in Gerrard Street where Greek hard men played stripped-deck five-card stud, but also the posher, though equally sleazy, drawing rooms in Belgravia where Aspinall first fleeced the aristocracy. Although Terence Reece, who played bridge for England, had said there was nothing to choose between the two games in terms of skill, the bureaucrats who control these things thought differently and classified poker as a game of chance, along with bingo, craps and roulette, and that’s how it’s stayed.
Bureaucrats, of course, are good on administration and bad on practical experience. About 25 years ago, a man I’d known at Oxford became head of the Gaming Board. He was a nice, intelligent guy, the son of a bishop, who played a little bridge but had never played poker or even placed a bet on anything. His only qualification for the job was that he was a high-flying civil servant and the post was vacant. Dark and lonely work, but somebody has to do it, as Joseph Heller said of cunnilingus.
I know why the bureaucrats were confused. Poker looks like gambling – and at a low level of skill it is gambling – because it has to be played for money. Money is the language of the game. How and when you bet or check or raise is a form of communication, a way of telling the other players the cards you have – or pretend to have. There may not often be much chitchat at the poker table, but in a good game you can have hours of interesting conversation with no more than four words: “Check”, “Bet,“ Raise,” “Fold.” Handling your chips – knowing when to bet and when not to – is as much a skill as handling your cards and it takes a lifetime to learn it.
Poker at its best is like chess. It’s about thinking and psychology and intuition. So why the prejudice against it, especially now gambling is a government-sponsored activity, a voluntary tax on the poor that keeps the Treasury’s coffers full? Maybe the politicians tell themselves that that kind of mindless gambling is just fun. Also classless, since a 14 million to one shot makes everyone equal and equality is a political issue. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that schools got rid of competitive sports and sold off their playing fields on the principle that one child being better at something than another was politically incorrect.
For others, it’s a moral issue. Twenty-odd years ago, three of us now involved in this web site – Tony Holden, Hugh Howard and myself, along with Eric Drache, a well-known Vegas professional – tried to sell the idea of televised poker to production companies on both sides of the Atlantic. None of them would even consider it. In those days there were no mini-cams under the tables, but the problem, for them, was not technical. They turned us down because poker, they said, is gambling and gambling is immoral.
Since then, poker has become a global craze and the TV channels are scrambling to air it. Even so, the prejudice remains. In London recently, the Gutshot poker club has been forced out of business because a jury has decided that poker is just a game of chance. If that’s what those twelve good men and true believe, wouldn’t you love to sit down and play a little cards with them – not for the money, of course, just show them how far mere chance will get them.
It simply doesn’t make sense. Gamble on the Stock Exchange and, if you have the skill, you become a pillar of society, as well as rich. Do it with cards and, no matter how skilful you are, it’s a criminal activity. When will it ever end?
Posted by Al Alvarez on April 26th, 2007 in Poker.
Comments: 4
Play Poker
Play Poker Against Al Alvarez - sign up now to play in the monthly tournament with all Bigger Deal's writers
Comments
Comment from G Bell
Time: April 26, 2007, 5:02 pm
The Gutshot is still going and even ‘raking’ the pots. You have to sign a voluntary donation form to say that you are happily giving up your dosh and it’s not really a rake at all. I assume they will keep going until they lose their appeal, which they surely will.
Contrary to what was reported, the Gutshot case wasn’t really about whether poker was a game of skill or not. The club argued that was what the case should be about but in fact the jury was being asked to decide whether under the Gaming Act poker was defined as a game of skill. Since the Act clearly states that only bridge (as a card game) is considered a game of skill they were a million to one to ever win this case.
The law may be stupid and illogical but it’s there and sooner rather than later we’ll be back to casino only games and spielers, in my opinion.
Comment from Big Al Weinrib
Time: May 7, 2007, 10:50 am
Hi Al good tyo met you in the Loose Cannon at the booklaunch and to see you looking so well and stillplaying a mean game of poker i fulley agree with your artical on poker being a gane of skill hope to bump into you again soon
Regards,
Big Al.
Comment from Andrew Thiele
Time: July 14, 2007, 9:40 am
I am genuinely not sure there is anyone who believes poker is a game of mere chance.
Probably the reason poker is sometimes illegal is because it involves cunning to win. Often the kind of cunning that C. S. Lewis’ greengrocer had.This makes it more dangerous for the simpletons than roulette. To repeat myself: I do not know of any valid argument demonstrating that poker is not a game of chance. The only arguments I have encounteres are those trying to persuade me that poker has a lot of skill involved. But this skill is two edged. Lives can be ruined by it. Any intelligent legislator must keep this truth in the mix. There are some things more important than personal pleasure.
I am working on developing my opinions further. I am a poker player and have played baccarat for a living. I consider baccarat to involve less chance than poker. Heads up, poker is baccarat. You may think this makes me an idiot. But I assure you I am not. Sometimes I wonder if the advocates of “poker is skill” really care about the truth of the matter. And as Mike Matusow stated on television: reading people is a skill that cannot be taught. This in itself seems to be a reason to forbid the legalization of poker! Unless perhaps the freedom of those who have this gift/ability/skill are cruelly restricted from making a living at something they hold a patent to!!
I make money at poker and baccarat. And I am able to look at these things dispassionately. I would dearly love to read your thought(s) on what I have written.
With the deepest sincerity,
Andrew Thiele
P. S. I enjoyed your books.
Comment from Dale
Time: October 12, 2007, 5:42 pm
Al let say first that it was a real honour to meet you and Tony Holden at the Loose Cannon on the Freeroll opening night, I only wish I’d have had my camera.
The poker being skill / luck thing interests me. My view is that it’s 50/50, as skill gets me a certain way in a tournament then I usually end up going out on an even money shot when my chip position dictates a gamble.
There will always be luck involved so the government will always see it as gambling. The sooner we admit we all love a gamble and get on with it the better!
Kindest Regards
Dale




Write a comment
Al checks these comments and will reply to them on a regular basis.