Why poker feels like more luck than skills online?

I always have so much bad beats that it makes me feel like poker is just luck or gambling while playing online. Hate to admit it but after 4 5 good runs a setup hand is dealt and flop is also so good that it's hard to fold if you're getting a playable hand after waiting for too long how to get away with situations like this? Either I lose cuz I don't get playable hands and lose chips or get dealt a premium hand where everyone limps to a 10 15BB raise and someone lucky dominates people are just playing any hands and winning more often than a regular player who's studying poker I guess it all depends on table but in tournaments you don't choose tables

Online tables do attract a lot of bingo players, especially in freerolls and low stakes, and it does seem like these players do tend to get lucky much more often than they deserve to. One thing to keep in mind is that we tend to remember the bad beat hands much more than the hands where we were on the winning side. There is some element of luck in poker, which is why its played for money and chess isn't.

Control of tilt is critical in these situations - even the pros go on massive downswings where they will be hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole and being tilted will guarantee that those funds are never going to be won back.

Because you can play without thinking, at random.

Because poker is a game that involves mathematics, the more situations you have, the closer your winnings will be to your expected ev.

CompulsiveGambl said:

and someone lucky dominates people are just playing any hands and winning more often than a regular player who's studying poker

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You might feel this way, but its totally untrue. People playing poorly have poor long term results. But of course in the short term anything can happen, which is bad, the bad players keep playing. Or at least keep playing for longer, than they would, if they never got lucky and won.

Sometimes the hand is on our side for a while, and we get consecutive winning hands, albeit weak or strong. For me, this isn't luck; it's simply a small opportunity that should be exploited wisely. Often, this opportunity passes to another opponent, or the hand goes against our wishes, or we get hands that are traps. Here, poker strategies and skills become more important than luck in achieving a good result.

fundiver199 said:

You might feel this way, but its totally untrue. People playing poorly have poor long term results. But of course in the short term anything can happen, which is bad, the bad players keep playing. Or at least keep playing for longer, than they would, if they never got lucky and won.

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All good points by fundiver. @CompulsiveGambl the long term fundiver speaks of can be much longer than people expect. Sub sets of MTT players can take "bad beats" for greater than 10K MTT played-- It is difficult when you are part of that group however we want to make sure that we are playing optimally to remove errors on our part

Keep the spirit up!! Lots of variance in poker... this is over 2 month... i didnt feel like playing poker so my volume suffered. I focused more on reading and studying the game tho.

Couple of hands in this period, many could have been avoided but when you are in a downswing nothing seems to go right. I have tons of information about my opponents and many plays seems bad and some are but poker is like this. It will always go in waves of heaters and coolers.


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You can't see your opponent online, you have all kind of players - if you're good at reading people, they would tell you with their behavior almost all - live...

To piggyback on earlier comments: there is an element of chance in each hand and this means that weaker hands do have a chance of winning the pot. Having the mindset that you deserve to win the pot every time you're in a hand with a player that you perceive as weaker or less skilled than you is probably one of the most destructive things you can do to your game, it's no different than thinking you're entitled to win the pot every single time you're dealt AA.

Poker is at its core a game of probability and statistics, this is why we have odds calculators. However, one of the core principles in probability and statistics is having a sufficiently large sample size to analyze, because sample sizes that are too small are more likely to show a greater deviation from expected results.

Again - mindset: see how many bad beat threads get posted where people state absolutes such as "I never win with AA" or "I always lose to donkey idiots mashing buttons." No, over a very long period of time you will win and lose in specific situations according to the probabilities that are already known. Short term variations such as getting AA cracked four times in a row are just meaningless noise - no different than flipping a coin ten times and having heads come up nine times.

The difference between winning players and losing players is that winning players have a greater ability to place themselves in situations where they are more likely to win, and remove themselves from situations where they are more likely to lose. The more often you get it in with a better hand, the more likely it is that you will come out ahead in the long run.

...in the micro stacks there are many recreational players...after a while you will learn how to exploit these players and be profitable in the long run...

I find all poker is a combination of skill and luck to be successful

I think there are different days. Sometimes you are more lucky, sometimes less. There are days when you are just unlucky all the time. But that shouldn't affect your long-term goals and your ability to improve and become a better player. Just focus on your long-term goals and ignore the results of one day or one week.

CompulsiveGambl said:

I always have so much bad beats that it makes me feel like poker is just luck or gambling while playing online. Hate to admit it but after 4 5 good runs a setup hand is dealt and flop is also so good that it's hard to fold if you're getting a playable hand after waiting for too long how to get away with situations like this? Either I lose cuz I don't get playable hands and lose chips or get dealt a premium hand where everyone limps to a 10 15BB raise and someone lucky dominates people are just playing any hands and winning more often than a regular player who's studying poker I guess it all depends on table but in tournaments you don't choose tables

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Man, I feel this so hard. online poker really can feel like pure luck sometimes, especially after a string of brutal bad beats. You finally get that premium hand after folding garbage for ages, flop looks dreamy… then boom — setup city. It’s like the RNG gods are trolling you on purpose.

Truth is, variance online is just way more noticeable — hands come faster, players are looser, and because you're seeing way more action in a shorter time, the bad beats feel stacked. And yeah, it’s really hard to fold when you’ve been card-dead forever. Your brain’s like, “I deserve this one,” and bam, you’re trapped.

How to get away? Easier said than done, but reminding yourself that even good hands are trash in bad spots helps. Also: focus on stack sizes, position, and player tendencies more than the actual cards. And hey, if someone’s winning playing garbage — they’re just feeding the pot in the long run.

Online poker is skill-based, but damn, luck sure knows how to make an entrance.

I have no idead, but probably in reality there is a lot less bad beats XD
This does not make sense considering that online poker should be perfectly like in reality, but probably in reality luck is less required.
God bless

You need to pay more attention to the aspects of poker that you can control. Yes, bad beats are very unpleasant, but that's the part of poker that doesn't depend on our skills. So I would advise you to pay more attention to your position at the table, the psychology of your rivals, especially those who are sitting near you, because more often their chips are the main source of your success.

Really, its all luck...
your dealt 2 random cards, amongst 1 to 9 other players who are dealt random cards and your position at that time is random..
flop... random , turn random, river random....

its really just a game of chance disguised as a game with skill,

really its a game of patience.

Because it is not just a system of random numbers, but more complex and logical program that takes into account many factors.

I think you don't haved played so much hands live

Luck is a component of poker; there are days when it doesn't come. Out of luck, turn to chess

Because you can't see your opponents and you will play significantly more hands than in a live casino in a short time.

Hope that helped ✌️

Try to play more hands, if you wait to get only premium hands you will end up with few BB and where you always have to play push and fold

Because it will be right? 😅🤔

I think such moments are simply better remembered. When you win with a good hand, you think it is normal and do not pay attention to it.