Luck and poker
Courts all over the nation have repeatedly ruled in favor of poker being considered a game of skill rather one of chance, but there is no denial: there’s a very potent element of luck involved in the game. One may as well say that the skill element is used to maneuver the luck element favorably. What that means is that through skill, you’re the artisan of your own luck. While luck won’t always side with you, if you do everything according to the book, it will favor you over your opponents in the long run.
How do you create your luck at the table though? Do you just sit around looking pretty, waiting for Lady Luck to develop a fancy on you, or do you go out there and get busy?
The first thing you can do to entice luck to your side is to take all reasonable off-table factors into account and to act on all of them. Take rakeback for instance. It has nothing to do with skill or with actual play. Being informed and just taking the time to register for a rakeback deal (like the ones offered at rakemeback) is all it takes. Rakeback will give you a more than welcome edge at the table. At certain popular limits (like $1/$2) beating the rake is what makes the difference for good players. A rakeback deal will pretty much beat the rake for you single handedly.
Table selection is another such factor, one that doesn’t call upon your actual poker skills. Some of the best players in the industry have said that how successful you are over a certain skill level depends on one thing and one thing only: table selection. Playing against players who are more than willing to give up their chips to you is not the same as playing against a bunch of skilled guys hell bent on wringing some juice out of you. These factors which are not directly related to actual play will make you much luckier at the table.
Once you take your seat at the green felt though, poker skill takes over. One of the most basic ways to make yourself luckier than your opponents are, is to exploit your table image.
You don’t actually have to cultivate a given table image (although you could do that too) however, you need to be aware of your table image at all times. The success or failure when exploiting your image doesn’t hinge on the type of table image you have. Take Chris Ferguson and Ilari Sahamies for instance. One of them plays a math-based analytic style of poker, the other one is a loose cannon. Both of them are successful though, because they’re aware of their table images and they know exactly how to exploit them too.
Being aware of your own table image is not that simple to achieve though. While you have a general table image (by which people who play against you often will recognize you) you also have a micro table image, which changes constantly as you play. While your general table image remains relatively stable, your micro table image changes all the time, depending on your actions. It is your micro table image that decides how your opponents will play against you on any given hand. For players with loose-aggressive general table images that may not be good news, for those with a solid tight-aggressive image though, it is a blessing in disguise. Because their general image prompts opponents to play cautiously against them, they’ll be forced to resort to the use of micro table images anyway.
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