What the courts are saying and the Steve Martin story

The courts in very recent cases are coming down on the side of poker is a skill game and the player's skill will make a difference over time.  Consistent poker winners are very skillful and do not just depend on luck to win.  These players want to take as much of the gamble out of a played hand as possible.  By doing this they let the poor player depend on luck to win and they have the edge in the game. Like casinos know, having the edge over time will make you a winner.  The more skilled the player, will lead to more winning sessions.

The comedian Steve Martin tells a great poker story.  When he was still playing online he decided to quit playing one night and experienced an Ambien event.   He took the sleeping pill and continued to play.  When he awoke in the morning, he checked his poker account.  He discovered that he had $1500 dollars in his account.  He remembered only having $500 in his account when he took the pill.

He called the online casino to report the extra thousand dollars in his account and was told that he had played all night and into the early morning.  The extra thousand was not a mistake.  As he told the story on Letterman, he stated he had no recollection of playing and winning the extra grand.  This makes other poker players scratch their heads with how he did it when he was supposedly asleep.

Every player that gambles online would like to awake with an extra thousand in his or her account.  Maybe this is what is happening to some of us when some idiot makes a call against us and then catches the miracle card the beats us and wins the pot.  Most players have had this experience playing online in the middle of the night.  Maybe this story accounts for some of the plays that we see happen to us and to other players at the table. We all have questioned the sanity of some player that lays a bad beat on us during a game.  At least, we now have something to blame the play on.

Remember though that as the judges in the court cases have stated, poker is a game of skill.  This statement could take the sting out of the next bad beat by the river card.

Tagsgamble, online casino, online poker, poker player, poker story, Steve Martin

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