Poker is ultimately a skill game. Yes, there is luck involved but that luck is mathematically based. For example, how many times do you hear a bad beat story (because I have TONS of them) where villian hit a two outter on the river? With those two outs, villian had approximately a 5% chance of winning (a little less but I am making the math easy), so out of 100 times, villian should win about 5 of them and hero should win 95. So, while in that circumstance the villian got "lucky" and hero got "unlucky", the reality is that hero is probably a better player than villian and over the course of many hands will be able to outplay villian. This same principal applies to pretty much all aspects of poker (except for physical
tells, betting patterns, experience, intelligence and a few other things). Each player will get roughly the same distribution of cards over a long period so it really comes down to how skillfully each player plays his hand, how well he judges his opponents and adapts his game to optimally play against them. So, while getting "lucky" or "unlucky" here and there happens, don't let it affect your game. Study, practice and get better.
