“The Court finds that Texas hold’em poker is a game where skill predominates over chance. Thus, is it not ‘unlawful gambling’ under the Pennsylvania Code.”
A Pennsylvania judge has dismissed a case against a resident who ran a small-stakes poker game out of his garage on the basis that poker is a game of skill and can’t be governed under the Commonwealth’s gambling laws.
Columbia County Judge Thomas James couldn’t be clearer in the last paragraph summing up his ruling: “The Court finds that Texas hold’em poker is a game where skill predominates over chance. Thus, is it not ‘unlawful gambling’ under the Pennsylvania Code.”
The ruling only covers the judge’s jurisdiction, which is Columbia and Montour counties, located north-East Pennsylvania.
The Commonwealth charged two people with unlawful gambling for hosting a $1-$2 no-limit game in their garage. No rake was charged, but players were encouraged to tip the dealer. State police got wind of the game and sent an undercover officer to it around 20 different times to investigate, and charges were filed.
Pennsylvania’s laws governing gambling specifically define gambling games as games that rely predominantly on chance.
Pete Campana, the attorney representing the two defendants and a life-long poker player, knows that poker is not a game of chance.
“I’ve seen poker players of all calibers; there’s no question in my mind that skill controls poker more than luck of the draw,” he said.
Campana referenced a wide-range of texts, including “Caro’s Secrets of Winning Poker,” and noted that there are more than 600 books on improving poker play. The entire ruling can be found on the Poker Player Alliance’s webpage.
“The judge in this case issued a well-researched and reasoned decision which supports arguments the PPA and others have made about poker being a game of predominant skill,” said John Pappas, executive director for the PPA. “The decision does not have legal precedent outside the two rural counties in Pennsylvania, however, it is a significant victory in the overall battle to demonstrate that poker is not pure chance gambling. The PPA hopes to leverage this win in other trials in other states where we have an opportunity to argue the skill of poker.”
Campana does believe that the ruling may force legislators to either expand Pennsylvania’s unlawful gambling law to include poker or change the law to regulate the game of skill.
Question 139: You say the importance of poker odds is overestimated. But
aren’t you the guy who’s spent a good share of his life calculating those odds?I’m that guy. In the 1970s, I calculated lots of poker odds, and I’ve been doing
so ever since. When Doyle Brunson’s Super/System—A Course in Power Poker was
published in 1978, I contributed 50 statistical table covering various forms of
poker. Up until then, no truly comprehensive set of poker odds was available—at
least none that I’ve ever seen. Poker books in those days were basically
homespun wisdom, and the math included was frequently wrong and not very
encompassing.Hopefully, I corrected that shortcoming. But I did something more than
that—something worse. I became obsessed with poker odds and with calculating new
ones. You don’t need to share this obsession to play excellent poker. In fact,
you don’t need to calculate odds at all, because mine and other sets of
excellent statistics are easy to come by. You can even memorize them, if you
want. But you don’t need to. You’d be surprised how small your extra edge is
after you’ve memorized the exact odds.What mostly sets great poker players apart from ordinary ones is an
understanding of opponents and a good feel for what decisions to make at the
moment. Sure, you need to know approximately what your chances are—and the
closer you come to the exact number, the better you’ll fare. But the difference
between knowing approximately and knowing exactly is small in terms of profit.Question 140: Are there any poker odds that are important enough to memorize?
Yes. Those are usually ones that come up repeatedly in your game. In hold ’em,
you’ll average a starting pair once in 17 hands. If you begin with a pair, on
average you’ll flop at least one more of that rank twice in 17 hands. A pair of
aces shows up once in 221 deals, on average. That gives you good perspective and
teaches you patience.Those are the kind of statistics that it’s good to know. But even if you don’t,
you’ll still probably make money, as long as you have a good understanding of
situational and psychological poker, seek out weaker opponents, and play a
disciplined game.Question 141: How do you use pot odds?
You count the chips in the pot and measure them against what it will cost you to
call or bet. Then you equate that to the chances of your hand winning. For
instance, if there’s one card to come in hold’em and you’re trying for an
unbeatable flush, you’ll figure that there are six cards you know about (two in
your hand and four on the board). Of these, four cards of your suit are
accounted for. Among the 46 unknown cards are nine remaining members of your
suit. Divide 46 by 9 and you see that you’ll connect once in 5.1 times, so the
odds are a bit more than 4-to-1 against you. If the pot is more than four times
as large as your bet, you’re getting an overlay. If it’s less, you aren’t.
Unfortunately, it isn’t quite that simple.Question 142: Are pot odds always a good measurement when deciding what to
do?No. I just said it wasn’t quite that simple. You need to factor in the amount of
additional money you might win or lose from that point on. Many experts call
this “implied odds”—and I think David Sklansky was the first to coin that term.
If not, I’m giving him credit anyway, because he’s contributed vastly to poker
theory and understanding.
"Do Poker Dealers Make Good Poker Players?
I have always wondered why most poker dealers are poor poker players. Nothing seems to make a game better than a dealer who just finished working and then hops into the game. I don’t know if it is because they are tired from work but they always seem to play poorly and immediately start to gamble it up. You would think that a dealer would become a better player simply by watching all that poker while working. They certainly should become better at reading hands from seeing a couple hundred hands a day. Dealers could also imitate things that the winning players do and incorporate it into there own games.
So why do most dealers play poorly? Maybe they see 2 3 off-suit crack aces for a big pot and they figure they can do it too. If approximately 90 percent of poker players are losing players, then your average poker dealer is watching primarily poor play and then do it themselves. It seems that most dealers know how to play good poker but choose not too most of the time. They seem to want to blow off steam and “gamble with the boys” instead of playing good, fundamentally sound poker. Maybe that’s the reason they are dealing in the first place; because they couldn’t make it playing and are now trying to rebuild their bankroll by dealing.
On the other hand, there is a long list of successful professional poker players that started out dealing poker. Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Scott Fischman, Ted Forrest, and Scotty Nguyen top the list of dealers that have had success on the other side of the table. Most of them attribute their good card reading sense to the countless hours they spent in the box dealing cards. I think anyone who spends 40 hours a week watching poker should quickly become an expert at reading hands. A dealer should certainly be aware of the pitfalls of playing professional poker such as playing out of your bankroll, gambling in the pit, and going on tilt. They see it ruin poker players every day!
I think that any poker dealer who wants to become a good poker player certainly has the opportunity to become one. It comes down to deciding to play your best game all the time and having the discipline to play good solid poker. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more dealers make it “big” and reach professional status as a result of the poker boom. There are certainly more people dealing poker at casinos around the country than ever before and just on strictly a numbers basis, some of them will climb to the top of the poker ladder."
