A small percentage of people can find themselves addicted to playing poker. If you find playing poker is taking over your life in a negative way, you are losing money you cannot afford to lose, or you think you may have a gambling problem, you should seek professional help.

Online poker sites are always willing to help anyone that feels they have any issues relating to playing poker. You can place limits on deposit amounts and playing time on your account, restrict access to your account for set periods of time, or even permanently close your account.

Skill or Luck – Is Poker Gambling?

The debate about whether poker is a game of skill or just gambling is as old as the act of playing cards. Is poker skill or luck, or is it a combination of the two? How much poker luck is involved? PokerNews answers these questions and more.

Skill vs Luck – Is Poker Just Down to Luck?

Poker has a gambling element to it, which leads some players to question if poker is just down to luck. Although there is a serious amount of luck involved in poker, the fact the same big names regularly win in cash games and tournaments shows that there is skill involved. Otherwise, are you claiming these elite-level players are simply luckier than their rivals?

Luck in Poker – Is There Luck Involved in Poker?

Poker is a game with mathematics at its core, which is where the luck element of poker comes into play. If you tossed a coin one billion times, you would expect that coin to land on heads or tails 50% of the time. While it would essentially be 50/50 by the time you reached one billion coin tosses, there would be spells where it landed on heads dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times in a row. The bumpy road towards that true 50/50 figure is known as variance.

Variance plays a significant role in all poker formats and variants. For example, pocket aces beat a random hand approximately 85% of the time over a large sample size. Yet there will be times when it seems like your pocket aces continually lose. This short-term poker luck is what players focus on instead of the much longer-term when thevariance eventually evens out.

Skill in Poker – Is There Skill Involved in Poker?

There are some poker players that do not believe in poker skill, yet fail to answer why professional poker players exist. Do they believe that poker pros are just luckier than anyone else? There is a skill element to playing poker, which starts with you having control over which cards to play and which to fold.

In addition, poker skill is required to put opponents on a range of hands, to bet the correct amount of chips to induce a call or fold, and more. The best poker players study the game in-depth, from learning the odds and probabilities of every aspect of the game to learning all about Game Theory Optimal plays that are mathematically perfect.

There would only be luck involved without the skill element, making the game poker gambling where the luckiest player won. An unskillful poker player will win some pots and even triumph in tournaments because of the variance or luck factor. However, a skilful, knowledgeable player will always have an edge in the long run.

Charlie Carrel: “It Doesn’t Hurt To Be Lucky”

Is Poker Gambling?

You have read about luck and skill in poker, but no answer to the question is poker gambling. Non-poker players will argue the game is gambling, while actual poker players will state poker is not pure gambling, although there is some gambling involved. So what is poker?

What is Gambling?

Most dictionaries state that gambling is when someone wagers something of value on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value. Someone gambling on an NFL game wagers money, hoping that their predictions come true in the random football game and they win money from the bookmaker.

Using that description, poker has gambling in it because you bet chips on the random outcome of the next card or cards, hoping to win more chips. Where a sports bettor can only research a team’s form and injuries etc., a poker player can, in some way, influence the outcome of a hand they play.

Elements of Gambling in Poker

• When you are on a flush or straight draw – Gambling comes into poker whenever you bet, raise, or call an opponent, knowing that you must catch a card to improve your hand to a straight or flush. This is out of your control, so is considered gambling.
• Whenever you bluff an opponent – Bluffing in poker is arguably a pure form of gambling because you are betting chips with the sole intention of making your opponent fold their hand, resulting in you winning the current pot.
• When you move all-in preflop – Moving all-in preflop, usually when short-stacked in a tournament, is gambling because you are usually hoping everyone folds, and you win the blinds and antes.
• When putting opponents on ranges of cards – You could consider it gambling when deducing what range of hands an opponent has because you are working with incomplete information on which you base your decisions.

Am I Bad or Unlucky? Addressing a Commonly Asked Poker Question

Why Poker Isn’t Gambling

Although there is some gambling in poker, it is not gambling in the same way as betting on sports or placing wagers on the roulette wheel. A knowledgeable poker player that has worked and studied hard to improve their skills will always come out as a winner eventually, even if the mathematical variance in the short-term results in them losing.

Can Muslims Play Poker?

Islam frowns upon all forms of gambling, whether it is a game of chance or skill and whether or not there is money involved. PokerNews suggests speaking to your Iman if you are a Muslim that is considering playing poker.

Is Poker Haram?

Many Muslims question if poker is haram, and some scholars disagree with one another. Most scholars agree that any form of gambling, especially when money is involved, is haram. Again, speak to your Iman if you are questioning if poker is haram.

Poker Gambling FAQs

The popular World Poker Tour Prime series journeyed to the Dutch capital of Amsterdam for a week of poker action. Over the weekend, the festival’s $1,100 Main Event played out at the Holland Casino, which saw Philip Hollederer walk away as the champion.

Hollederer topped the 1,000-entry field to capture the €161,552 first-place prize as well as the winner’s €10,400 package to play in the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

The WPT Prime Amsterdam Main Event generated a €1,000,000 prize pool, resulting in the top 125 players securing the €1,782 min-cash. Samuel Ju (43rd), Tobias Peters (89th) and Antoine Vranken (91st) were just some of the notable names to finish in the money.

WPT Prime Amsterdam Main Event Final Table Results

_{*Includes winner’s €10,400 package to play in the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
** Payouts have been converted using a rate of €1.00 = US $1.08273.}

Hollederer Holds Out to Win WPT Prime Amsterdam Main Event

Just ten players remained going into the final day of the Main Event, with Hollederer having the chip lead, and it didn’t take too long for the tournament to reach its final table. Bart Driessen exited in tenth place after his pocket aces were flushed away by the suited ace-nine of Stephan van den Berg.

On the sixth hand of the final table, Vache Zakaryan headed to the payout desk as his king-nine could not leapfrog Floris ten Cate’s king-queen following an all-in preflop encounter. Cate then secured another knockout after he flopped the nut-flush against Clyde Tjauw Foe. The eliminated Foe also had a flush but was drawing dead after all the chips went in on the turn.

Short stack Willem Roebroek then fell in seventh place after his ten-five was beaten by the king-eight held by Joey Sint.

Cate secured his hattrick of final table scalps after ousting Van Den Berg. Cate opened to 500,000 and called when Van Den Berg moved all in for 750,000. Cate had ace-four and held out to secure the elimination as Van Den Berg could not connect on the runout with his suited seven-five.

Hollederer then bagged his first FT casualty after his ace-ten won a flip against Carlos Da Costa Dias, who had pocket eights. Hollederer retook the chip lead from Ten Cate after getting two streets of value with his ace-nine. Ten Cate check-called bets of 900,000 and 1,100,000 on a nine-high board until both players checked the river through to showdown.

Champagne sipping Joey Sint was the next player sent to the rail after he ran his pocket tens into the pocket kings held by Eli Fisz. Fisz then ejected Ten Cate from the Main Event as the former’s pair of sixes remained best against his opponent’s king-ten.

The final two players exchanged the chip lead several times in the early stages of heads-up play, but Hollederer secured the victory after he rivered a flush with his suited nine-four. On the board, Hollederer moved all in as the bigger stack and was called by Fisz, who had ace-eight for a pair. The completed the runout and confirmed Hollederer’s Main Event coronation.

Win a WPT Prime Passport on WPT Global

On WPT Global, you can start trying to win your way to WPT Live Events thanks to the $110 Passport Qualifiers that take place every Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET and again at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday.

At least one $1,500 WPT Prime Passport is guaranteed, which you can use for any of the following events:

• Bratislava, Slovakia – May 11-15
• Hanoi, Vietnam – May 25-29
• San Remo, Italy – June 1-11
• Aix-en-Provence, France – August 3-6
• Liechtenstein – September 8-11
• Madrid, Spain – September 28-October 1

Satellites for the $110 Passport Qualifiers start at $5, giving every WPT Global player a chance to win a potentially life-changing live poker package.

Stephen Kehoe Turns WPT Global Satellite Win Into $269,900

Join WPT Global Today

The launch of WPT Global means that poker players around the world now have the chance to win their way to WPT events, win prizes and enjoy exciting games such as Poker Flips. As one of the world’s largest cash game poker networks, WPT Global is available in over 50 countries and territories worldwide.

WPT Global offers a large deposit match bonus: 100% on deposits up to $1,200 (using any payment method). New players depositing a minimum of $20 automatically receive this match bonus which is unlocked in $5 increments (credited straight to the cashier) for every $20 of rake contribution.

Both tournaments and cash games count towards bonus unlocking; new players have 90 days from the date of first deposit to unlock and claim their full bonus amount.

Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.

Brazil’s Felipe “ketzerfelipe” Ketzer has plenty of reasons to spend Monday celebrating after he took down the $5,200 Titans Event online at PokerStars for a cool $82,009. Ketzer’s prize would have been even larger had he not struck a heads-up deal with his fellow countryman Rodrigo “SELOUAN1991” Selouan.

Sixty-eight players bought into the Titans Event this week, and created a $340,000 prize pool. Such a prize pool meant all nine finalists more than doubled their investment. Ole “wizowizo” Schemion was the first to fall before Team PokerStars Pro Sam “SamSquid” Grafton bowed out in eighth.

Oliver “Sk2ll_m0dR” Weis and David “MissOracle” Yan fell by the wayside, and left only five players in the hunt for the title. Greek grinder “dimiangelako” busted in fifth, with “Grozzorg” of Austria seeing their tournament end in a fourth-place finish. Heads-up was set when Mexico-base Russian “hello_totti” ran out of steam.

The Brazilian duo of Ketzer and Selouan agreed upon a deal that ultimately saw Selouan finish second for $78,495 and Ketzer clinch the title, which came with $82,009 reasons to be delighted with his performance.

$5,200 Titans Event Final Table Results

*reflects a heads-up deal

Nitsche Nicks the $1,050 Sunday Cooldown Top Honors

Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitsche overcame a tough field to become the $1,050 Sunday Cooldown champion this week. A compact yet stellar field of 47 entrants fought tooth and nail to be the last player standing.

Only seven of the finalists won some prize money from the main prize pool. Andrey “Anjeyyy” Novak being the first of those seven to find themselves with no betting tokens in front of them.

“Gogac sniper” was shot down, “Ebaaa11” was relieved of their stack, then Leon “RUMUKULUS” Sturm saw his participation ended earlier than he would have like, leaving a trio of players in contention to become the tournament’s champion.

Kazakhstan’s “Hofr” was sent packing in third, leaving two Goliath’s of the poker world head-to-head. Nitsche defeated Preben “prebz” Stokkan heads-up and received $16,668 in total, with Stokkan heading into the night with a $9,668 consolation prize.

$1,050 Sunday Cooldown Final Table Results

2023 Irish Open Events Are Included in the UKIPT Leaderboards; £15K Package to be Won

Other PokerStars Results

Ketzer’s fellow Brazilians Fellipe “FellipeD” Drapichinski and Daniel “Dan.Almeida” Ameida helped themselves to PokerStars Sunday majors this weekend. The former took down the $109 Sunday Fenomeno for $22,351, with the latter capturing the $109 Bounty Builder title for $12,174.

*includes bounty payments

“zavor4ik” Warms Up For The Festival Online Main Event With High Roller Victory

The Festival Online Main Event kicks off at 888poker from April 6, and Austrian “zavor4ik” warmed up for it in style by triumphing in the $40,000 guaranteed Sunday High Roller. Some 81 players bought in for $525, and each of the nine finalists more than doubled their money.

“Ydavidy77” and “matokr” were the first players to be eliminated from the final table. “QdEqTeCalaz” joined those busted players in the role of a spectator before the exits of “wacko90” and 888poker regular “xFink_Ploydx” left four players contesting the tournament.

Ireland’s “9salute46” and “ukrLaci” of Ukraine fell in the latter stages, before zavor4ik defeated “Sickslick” in the one-on-one battle, and reeled in the tournament’s only five-figure prize, namely $11,340.

$40,000 The Festival Online Sunday High Roller Final Table Results

888poker: Ask Yourself These Questions Before Calling A River Bet!

Other 888poker Results

Shout-out to “01100” who become the champion of the $109 Sunday PKO Rumble, a result worth $2,921.

Sunday also saw almost 1,000 players in the $100,000 Sunday Big Shot 109 whittled to the final table of nine. One of those nine heroes will walk away with an impressive $15,480 when the final table plays out on April 3 under the watchful eyes of the 888poker Twitch streamers.

*includes bounty payments

Lam Denies Odeen in the PartyPoker Grand

The $1,050 Grand is PartyPoker‘s largest buy-in tournament of the week, and this latest edition saw 70 players enter. $75,000 was up for grabs, but British star Tom Hall narrowly missed out on some prize money because he fell in 14th place and popped the money bubble.

$2,890 was the least anyone at the final table could win, and that sum went to Boris Angelov of Bulgaria. Anton Blondal, Euan Baxter, and Jonathan Proudfoot were eliminated, before a trio of Malta-based grinders made their way to the exits. Alberto Cigliano was the first, followed by Alan Goasdoue, and finally four-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy.

Gathy’s untimely demise left Jason lam heads-up against Jerry Odeen, and it was Lam that came out of that particular battle unscathed. Lam reeled in $18,816, resigning Odeen to the $12,344 consolation prize.

The Grand Final Table Results

RL-t1Nd3R-> Shines in the Super $55

It may have only cost $55 to enter, but the PartyPoker Super $55 paid out an impressive $63,000, some $3,000 more than the advertised $60,000 guarantee. That chunky prize pool was created by 1,260 players buying in, and it was “RL-t1Nd3R->” that outlasted them all.

RL-t1Nd3R-> saw their $55 investment swell to $6,970 and the title of champion. That prize was made up from $3,651 from the main prize pool and $3,319 worth of bounties, including the price on their head, as happens in PKO tournaments.

“VIKINGBoss” was the runner-up, and although disappointed not to get a win under their belts, the $5,547 they collected for their second-place finish will go some way to numbing the pain of defeat.

The Super $55 Final Table Results

Give Your Bankroll a Boost with the PokerNews-Exclusive PartyPoker Freerolls

Other PartyPoker Results

“Lizard1104” was a big winner at PartyPoker over the weekend thanks to taking down the $530 Great Game Pot-Limit Omaha tournament for $7,530.

There will be some impressive prizes awarded on April 3, with the Grand Prix Spring Main Events crowning their champions. Of course, as always, PokerNews will have recaps of those tournaments for you on April 4.

*includes bounty payments

The character of Don Jose in Georges Bizet’s classic opera Carmen is a tragic figure, seduced by the eponymous gypsy as he abandons his career and childhood sweetheart before getting overcome by jealousy and rage.

Maxime Chilaud was not a tragic figure in the Merit Poker Carmen Series $3,300 Main Event. He was more like the dashing toreador Escamillo, acclaimed by the crowds and getting everything he wanted. Chilaud wanted chips and made it a mission to get every single one of them over the last three days.

Chilaud ended Days 2 and 3 as the chip leader, and he ended the tournament with every chip in play after beating Michael Magalashvili in heads-up to win the Merit Poker trophy and $376,800 top prize, his largest career score.

“It was really crazy. I doubled my stack on Day 1 after ten minutes, and after that, I was always a top stack until the final table or right before. I had a really good three days. I had to be lucky a few times,” Chilaud said following his victory.

Success here at the exotic Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino along the Mediterranean shore of North Cyprus is nothing new to Chilaud. He won the High Roller at the Merit Poker Vintage Series in November for $184,000, the first six-figure cash in a career that dates back to 2013. He keeps returning here, and it paid off today when he bested the 765-player field to add another trophy to his collection.

“It means a lot because it’s my biggest win in a tournament live after ten years. It was already my biggest four months ago in the High Roller. Cyprus is really good for me,” Chilaud said. “I don’t do many live tournaments, but I always go to Cyprus. There are really good tournaments here. It’s really fun to be here. I always have a good time in Cyprus. It’s nice to play, and I feel lucky.”

Final Table Results

Day 4 action

Day 4 began with 19 players remaining chasing the title. Boris Smuskevicius (17th), Davut Aydemir (16th), Roman Kolotiuk (15th), Nariman Yaghmai (12th), and Maroun Jazzar (11th) were all eliminated short of making the official nine-handed final table.

Chilaud went into the final table in fourth place, part of a tight bunch at the top of the leaderboard that saw five players separated by less than 2,000,000. He began his ascension back to the top early, flopping a set of queens to win a pot against Fausto Tantillo’s ace-king.

Eduard Barsegian, making his third final table appearance at the Merit Poker Carmen Series, earned a massive double up when his jacks survived against Walter Treccarichi’s ace-king of hearts, dodging overcards and the nut flush draw on the turn and river. Denis Kapustin was the first bustout at the final table, losing a race with eights to Tantillo’s ace-queen.

Treccarichi, who would’ve become chip leader if he won the pot against Barsegian, instead exited in eighth place after running king-queen into Atanas Pavlov’s ace-king. Chilaud won another big pot off Tantillo when he flopped trip threes and Tantillo called a bet of 2,200,000 on the turn with just ace-high before folding to a shove on the river.

Tantillo, who began the final table as chip leader, defended his big blind with ten-seven and flopped top pair. Yuksel Savsa, though, had ace-ten to bust him in seventh place. Soon after, Magalashvili made the nut flush to beat Pavlov’s two sevens to bring the tournament to its final five players.

Barsegian enjoyed a moment as chip leader before tangling in a pot against Chilaud, who overbet the pot on the river with two pair and Barsegian called with just a pair of sixes to drop to less than ten big blinds. Barsegian then moved all in with queen-jack, Magalashvili called with ace-three, and the flop gave Magalashvili two pair.

Barsegian finished in fifth place in the Warmup earlier in this festival. He was fifth in the High Roller and was fifth in January’s Merit Poker Western Series Main Event. Not to buck the trend, he was fifth here again today, making it an incredible four consecutive fifth-place finishes in Merit Poker Main Event vents.

The remaining four players then took a break, with Magalashvili and Chilaud separating from Simeon Spasov and Savsa. On the first hand back, Chilaud won a race with ace-king against nines to bust Spasov in fourth place. He then collided with Magalashvili in what was the biggest pot of the tournament so far, flopping trip aces as Magalashvili called a bet of 9,000,000 on the river with two pair, aces and queens.

Chilaud then busted Savsa in third place with ace-ten to ace-nine, leading 64,100,000 to 12,300,000 at the start of heads-up play. Magalashvili won most pots early in the heads-up match to narrow the gap before he jammed the flop for 23,800,000 with a flush draw. Chilaud called with a higher flush draw and spiked a king on the turn to make a pair and leave Magalashvili drawing dead.

The two opponents enjoyed a friendly rapport during the match. Magalashvili even posed for a picture with the new champion afterwards as his impressive run ended in second place.

Chilaud was the last man standing. He wrote his own grand symphony here in North Cyprus and ended it with him as the conquering hero.