As any serious DailyStar.co.uk poker player at will tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than playing a hand to perfection, watching another player make a bad call, then seeing them catch a lucky card to win.

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Times like these have often left me wondering if it is worth dedicating the hours to become skilled at this game, but then that is the way poker has always been. Players get lucky, in equal measure over the long run, and we just have to persevere it when fortune is against us.

In my opinion, if you were to find a way to take the luck out of online poker, the game wouldn’t be anywhere near as exciting, but there are ways in which we can even luck out. Leagues which run over several games are a good way to allow the best players to excel, and are a smaller representation of the way luck evens out over the long run regardless. This is why I think leagues are a good idea, although you have to still have prize money for tournaments on the individual evenings, otherwise the weaker players wouldn’t turn up.

I suppose the short answer to the question is that no, we cannot take the luck out of poker even if we wanted to, not entirely at least. What we must do as serious poker players though, is what we do in everyday poker anyway, and that is to trust the odds. If you get your money in while you are in front more often then you don’t, over time, you will make money. It’s hard to keep that fact in sight sometimes when the worst happens, but luck inevitably evens out, so it is important not to lose your cool and play poorly if one big hand goes against you.