• HOME
• ABOUT
• PRIVACY
• RESOURCES

There are many thousands of games in the pantheon of games, and by "games," all games are included: Everything from hide and seek, to soccer, to Monopoly to poker. And there two types of games.

There are games like blackjack that involve chance but can work to a player's advantage if they have a little bit of skill in counting cards. There are games like "war," that rely only on chance (the object being to throw your card down at the same time as your opponent, and if your card is higher that his or hers, you win both cards. No skill involved whatsoever.).

There are also government sanctioned games that involve no skill at all such as state and national lotteries and scratch off tickets. In consideration of scratch-offs, for example, all a person has to do is use a coin or other rough-edged device to scrape off wax coverings on a card to reveal either a won prize or no won prize. It's really that simple, and there's no way to incorporate skill into these types of games unless you have a special x-ray device, in which case, you are not skilled in winning scratch-off games, you are simply a cheater.

In the gambling world, the game of roulette is one that counts itself as having no element of skill in the play of it. All one must do is bet on a color or number labeled on a spinning wheel. The wheel is then spun, and a ball is rolled by a proctor in the opposite direction of the spinning wheel along its outer perimeter. Once the ball loses momentum, it randomly lands in a rivet signified by a number and color. There is no possibility to manipulate the game, thus making roulette purely a game of chance.

There are games like football and soccer that rely much more heavily on skill than chance. In fact, the only real elements of chance for these games occur if, say, a key player gets injured, thus throwing off the power structure of the team.

Then there are games that involve both skill and chance. These are the games that can break even the most skilled players due to their built in elements of chance, but that skilled players can win more often than not. One of the most popular games that involves the elements of both skill and chance is poker. One thing that differentiates poker from other games of chance and skill is that though it can be played in a casino, it is played against other players. Unlike in blackjack, the dealer only deals the cards. He or she is not playing against the player.

There are many reasons why skills factors so heavily in poker. Though there is no way to know what cards you and the people you are playing will be dealt, once you know what you have, you can use that information to assess the probability of what other players might be playing with, especially when you factor in how they are betting, how they have bet in the past, and what their tells are.

All of these factors, including psychological elements, are skills that a player develops over time and that help them to become better players in games of skill and chance.

Chance and Skill is an independent, free-hosted Website. All content, except where noted, is Copyright © ChanceAndSkill.itgo.com. All Rights Reserved. Any trademarked or copyrighted materials used on this site remain the properties of their respective owners. No infringement is intended.