Jack Averty: What a card! Play the hand you’re dealt

We know there’s luck involved, like seeing that gorgeous red ace peel off in snap, but we also know there’s skill involved, like being able to slam your hand down and scream the fateful word snap quicker than anyone else.

What’s the point of getting lucky and seeing the right card land if you don’t have the skill to take advantage of it?

In cheat (or bulls*** for the more blunt readers), you need the skill to be able to judge your opponents and pay careful attention to what has been discarded and what’s still floating around.

Sure you might get lucky and find yourself in the enviable position of not having to lie, but can you rely on this luck each and every time you play the game?

Given the clear skill element involved in card games, its baffling that people still have to go out to bat to defend poker.

The debate rears its head every summer as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) draws to a close and poker gets its time in the spotlight.

This year the headlines belonged to American John Cynn, who outlasted 7,873 players over 10 days to win a cool US$8.8 million in the WSOP Main Event.

Firstly you cannot play anything for 10 days straight and get lucky every single day.

Try picking up a tennis racket and playing a set against Roger Federer every day for 10 days and see how you get on. It wouldn’t be down to luck that you couldn’t take a single game off him.

Did John get lucky in places? Of course he did. Fortunes can change on the turn of a card in poker, but isn’t that kind of how life works?

Sometimes your best play is good enough, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes you’ll make a mistake and luck will help you get away with it, other times it won’t.

A quick Google will give you the incredibly cheesy and cliched quote: “Life is like a game of cards, the hand you are dealt is determinism but the way you play it is free will.”

And, really, however corny it is, it’s difficult to argue with that.

The reason poker is a skill game with an element of luck rather than the other way around is because you are in total control of how you play each and every hand you are dealt.

Sure you might get dealt pocket aces every hand but what do you do when four of a suit are on the board and you’re facing a big bet?

On the other hand you could be dealt an ugly looking two and a nine of different suits, and you need to decide whether to try and make something of the hand by coming out raising or passing and waiting for a better spot.

Isn’t the parallel with life obvious?

One morning you’ll wake up, be served breakfast in bed by the love of your life while remembering you have the day off work and there’s leftover pizza from the night before. There’s your pocket aces.

Other mornings you might wake up in smelly sheets, smash your phone on the bathroom floor and head into work to tackle a double shift. There’s your 2-7 offsuit.

One month it will feel like you’re being dealt more crap than usual, another month it’ll feel like more good hands are coming your way.

But whether your day is the equivalent to the best starting hand in poker, the worst, or somewhere inbetween, you’re still in control.

You chose how to play your starting hand, both in life and in poker.

If you want to just call with the pocket aces, that’s fine – just like accepting a day is as good as it’s going to get and not to push too hard for to get any better in case it comes crashing down.

Likewise you may wish to turn your crumby unsuited, unconnected starting hand in poker into something profitable – by coming out firing with big raises.

What’s the difference between that and coming out fighting on a bad day?

Other times you’ll just accept that bad days come around and are part of life and will suck it up and take it, just like folding that bad hand on the poker table.

The skill is to learn when to accept what you’ve been dealt – both in life and poker – and when not to.

You wouldn’t put success in life down to luck, so don’t do the same in poker.