Online Poker

What is wrong with the legal system? The Pennsylvanian case that saw poker legally ruled a game of skill has been overturned on appeal, with poker now ruled to be a game of chance. I'd like to know how President Judge Kate Ford Elliot and Senior Judge Robert Freedberg came to their decision in the face of all the statistical evidence, while their colleague Senior Judge Robert Colville believed that the prosecution had failed to prove that poker is a game of chance in the initial hearing.

Diane Dent and Walter Watkins, the couple at the center of this case, can still appeal to the state Supreme Court. That will take quite some time, of course, and until then we will all have to deal with the ramifications of this decision. What is most frustrating is that this judgment has apparently been made based on court opinion in other cases, not on the statistical evidence provided that led to the initial decision that poker is a game of skill. The most compelling evidence that poker is a skill game has come from fairly recent studies, which wouldn't have come into consideration in prior cases.

I understand the need to follow precedent, but I just cannot see how any meaningful precedent could have been established when serious studies into poker statistics had not yet been performed. I think far too many people when deciding whether poker is mostly chance or skill rely on their own basic experience of the game and take it as self-evident that it is a game of chance. Well, analysis of hundreds of thousands of poker hands suggests otherwise, and you can't just wave away statistics based on your own anecdotal evidence.

Poker is a skill game with elements of chance, not a game of chance with elements of skill. Blackjack is a game of chance with elements of skill, as the very best player has a negative expected value regardless of whether or not they play perfect strategy. Sic Bo is a pure game of chance, with the only hint of skill in choosing to play the bets with the lowest house edge. Poker just cannot sensibly be considered primarily a game of chance when it involves skilled players. The statistics show that the more skillful a player is, the more success they experience when against players with less skill, and they can have a consistent level of success while up against those lesser players.

Here's hoping that the case is taken to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, and that the judges there will give the statistical evidence the weight it deserves.

What do you think about all this? Enraged? Unsurprised? Please vent in the comments, and consider playing at one of the poker rooms in our review pages, such as Full Tilt Poker or Bodog.

-Shad