Daniel Negreanu tops the all-time list in live tournament earnings with $36.15 million - so he too could have a rightful claim to the number one title, but as we learned from his interview with Ross Jarvis for the PokerStars School, he thinks currently the world’s best is someone else. Nov 15, 2012 Ross Jarvis I'm a 26-year-old online poker pro and poker journalist living in Chiswick, west London but originally from Chesterfield, Derbyshire. I worked for PokerPlayer magazine full-time for two years before leaving to play online cash games one year ago.

• Ross Jarvis Poker Game

According to a survey conducted by Poker Players research in 2009, 3.2% of all adults in the UK play poker for money. This figure indicates that around 1.5 million adults in the UK play or have played some form of poker. But whether or not poker is simply a game of chance or if it does indeed require a great amount of skill to play is a question which divides opinion.

So on a sunny but cold Saturday afternoon in Leeds I decided to ask the question to the public; Do you think poker is a game of luck or a game of skill? Due to the fact that Leeds in the sun is such a hospitable city compared to Leeds in the rain people were only too willing to give me their opinion. Whilst for most people a simple reply of “Luck” sufficed a small number of people declared to me a confident answer of “skill” with the majority of people who gave this answer then dictating to me an explanation into why they absolutely knew poker was a game of skill. But the people of Leeds had voted and 78% of them had declared poker a game of luck.

The result of the survey in Leeds was not unexpected, although poker has evolved so that it is just a click away for everyone with an internet connection many people still see it as a game played in a dank damp basement or garage or somewhere excluded to inner city casinos.

Sam Grafton, a British professional poker player says that there are so many different elements to poker which makes the game unique: “We do a lot of work on the math, there’s a psychological element to the game as well and hand ranges, it can’t ever be boiled down to just pure luck.”

Similarly Ross Jarvis, another British poker professional who is also editor of Poker Player magazine, when asked whether poker was a luck game or a skill game said: “If you gave two players the same cards, the better player would win more (or lose less) then the other player over a large sample.”

Grafton, who has earned over £1million playing poker, agreed that whilst there is an element of luck to the game in the long run the superior player will win more (or lose less) then a less skilful player: “Poker is becoming more difficult as more people know what they should be doing if it was a game of luck then this wouldn’t matter”

He added: “If you think of it like a pub quiz a quiz with 10 questions would be easier to win as one question has more weight to it then say a quiz with 60 questions.”

It is clear that poker is a greatly polarizing topic. It seems that if you ask the professionals then they will tell you that the game does involve skill, so since these people are the poker ‘professionals’ then wouldn’t that mean that when it comes to poker; what they say is probably true? If we talk to say a professional fireman or a professional doctor who has practised and thoroughly learnt their profession then would we not take their word for the truth if they were to inform us on their profession?

The consensus seems to be that for poker professionals who put hours of their lives each and every day into playing and studying poker then there is skill involved. But for the average player who enjoys playing poker but does not thoroughly study the game to the extent the professionals do then it is luck based.

Joel Cavney, a 22-year-old student and recreational poker player is of the belief that any form of gambling requires luck and poker is no different, he said: “When I play poker I know I’m not going to win all the time because I’m going to be unlucky some of the time, even the best players are going to lose because they can’t be lucky all the time.”

The argument asking whether poker is a skill game or a game of luck seems to be irrelevant as peoples opinion on the subject differ from one another. However it does seem fair to say that it is neither one nor the other, to be a successful poker player a player needs to be skilful at the game and lucky at the same time.

Ross Jarvis Poker Game

The author R.A. Salvatore’s description of luck is very apt: “Luck? Perhaps. But more often, I dare to say, luck is simply the advantage a true warrior gains in executing the correct course of action.”