Tim Robinson, manager of poker at Grosvenor casino in Leeds is set to welcome more poker players to the casino in the months leading up to summer.
When asked whether poker player attendance at the Grosvenor casino is likely to decline or rise within the next few months Tim responded with enthusiasm stating that due to upcoming tournaments, he expects to see a rise in numbers, he said:
“It will probably start picking up a bit, usually around summer it starts picking up a bit yeah.”
Gala casino in Leeds is another casino that is excited about the possibility of more poker players being drawn into their poker rooms.
Mark Graham, the duty manager at Gala Casino is adamant that “it’s all competition” and when asked about competing with other casino’s to attract punters, he said:
Gala casino, Leeds
Poker is important, it’s a big part of the casino business, it’s always important to bring people through the door.”
You can listen to the short interviews with Tim Robinson and Mark Graham below. Also feel free to take part in the poll question below!
For many pubs around the Leeds area, poker has been a fantastic way to attract customers during week days when pubs are usually quieter compared to weekends.
The Old Ball pub, Horsforth.
According to Tracey Marper, who is the manager of the Old Ball pub in Horsforth, having poker nights during week days has meant that the pub has been able to attract customers on nights where there isn’t a big football game or a weekend to look forward to. This has meant an increase in the pub’s revenue thanks to poker.
Similarly, poker is helping pubs across the city of Leeds. The Station pub in Guiseley also opens up its doors to a poker night on both Sunday and Monday nights. Manager Tony McCaul stated that the pub attracts around 20 more people per night on Sundays and Mondays due to the promise of poker and more customers can only be a good thing for the pub.
Mark Hamblin, a 22 year old from the Guiseley area regularly attends the poker night at The Station pub and says that it’s a “really good way to round off the weekend.”
The Station pub, Guiseley.
On the other hand, poker in pubs has not always been a good way to draw customers in. Although the Old Kings Arms pub in Horsforth decided to host a night dedicated to poker once per week, the lure of poker did not attract any more people to the pub other than the ‘regulars’ that already attended. According to Andrew Turpin, who works behind the bar at the pub, they eventually scrapped the poker nights because they were not helping the pub become more profitable
in anyway.
The Old Kings Arms Pub, Horsforth.
You can listen my short interviews with workers at each of the pubs via the links below. Also take part in the poll below, if your local pub or bar had a poker night would you attend?
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.”
Sam Grafton at the poker table
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.
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.”
Poker Planet 