Quote:
Originally Posted by Third Eye
There are countless ways to mark cards. More than likely he was probably doing something simple like nicking 10-valued cards with his fingernail. This could pay dividends in blackjack. It's doubtful that he was cheating at poker though. You would need a much more robust method that would not only identify the value of the card but also the suit to really be effective.
For what it's worth, there really is no such thing as a good gambler. Rather there are good cheaters and lucky gamblers. Cheaters get caught though, and the law of large numbers usually limits how lucky people are in the long run.
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That's not really correct. Just take the game of Texas Hold'em for example. A skilled player can greatly improve his odds of winning, a skilled player can win some hands by bluffing, and a skilled player can minimize his losses by correctly reading the other players and folding when he should fold. However, Texas Hold'Em is a game that combines skill and luck.
Phil Helmuth has won more World Series of Poker bracelets than anyone else, yet he often finishes out of the money. I suppose you can argue that he simply plays better in some tournaments than others. After all, Tiger Woods misses the cut on the PGA tour sometimes, and nobody says that golf is gambling.
However, you can also make a pretty convincing argument that a run of bad cards knocks Phil Hellmuth out of tournaments on a regular basis, even when he plays his hands perfectly. That's just part of the game, and that's the gambling aspect of it. There's a degree of luck involved because the player has absolutely no control over the cards that are dealt. A player can make a horrible bet or a horrible call, and then get lucky because against all odds, he got the exact card he needed. That's luck. That doesn't happen in sports where the winners and losers are determined strictly by who plays the best.
If you don't have the requisite skill you can't depend on good luck to carry you in poker. You can be the best player in the world and lose to a lesser player, not because he outplayed you, but because the cards fell in his favor.
To say that there is no such thing as a good gambler is just silly. Ask the best poker players in the world whether or not they are gamblers and whether or not an element of luck is involved. They will tell you that they are, and that there is. They'll also tell you that an element of skill is involved, and they are the best at it.