Every word on the street , in the casino and online have it that poker is more a game of luck than skill. It may seem unnecessary to query that, especially as poker is played alongside other luck-determined games like blackjack, slot machines and so on in the casino.

However, if you are a pro in poker, you would know the narrative is quite different. No doubt, luck plays a significant role in getting you wins, nonetheless, those are only short term chances. To be able to stake you odds rightly and get the pot most of the time, you need 99.99% skill and 0.1% luck.

Poker is based on a mathematical rule. No matter how you try to manipulate them, the rule still stands and you have to be patient enough to earn the results. The rule is that, the lower the ways of probing a particular holding, the higher it’s rank.

Your skills come in here by knowing the various possibilities of five card hands that you can deal and the benefits of each hand. There are about 2,598,960 possible hands from the 52 card pack. It is easier to understand this theoretically, but what determines who is the pro or not is the one who can differentiate between a poor, fair and good hand.

It is recommended that unless you have the best hands, you have no business staying in the pot. You add more money into the pot when you’re at an advantage or when you think the odds of you drawing the best hands are smaller compared to the odds already in the pot. If it is otherwise, it means you are at a disadvantage, then, you can make a fold or bet a smaller amount. Away from this, the importance of placing bets at top online betting sites, including www.novibet.ie/sports, cannot be stressed enough.

Another reason we say that poker is not a game of luck is that in poker, you’re playing againt people like you unlike playing against the house. Everyone knows that the house would almost always win. It is in fact in very few cases that they don’t win. Would you want to think that the house is always lucky, and the millions of people playing against them are unlucky? Well, I guess not.

Sources have it that some casino houses hire the best mathematics graduates in the country in order to keep up. Having said that, as a poker player one of the skills you’d need and use most is your observation skill. You need to know your opponents and be able to interpret their body gestures and facial expressions.

The gestures most times give you a correct picture of the hands of your opponents. Playing against amateurs can give you a higher hand, because, most times, amateurs try to bluff and disguise that they have the best hands just to maintain a steady and an „in-control“ appearance before their opponent, expecting you to either call or raise.

When you recognize this, you can capitalize on this mistake and make them fold a better hand, then like a predator waiting catch, you get your portion of the pot and even beyond!