I always have a good chuckle when friends, family or whoever mention poker and gambling in the same breath.  I would hazard a guess that those who think poker is gambling have not played the game.

If you go to a casino games like black jack, roulette, craps and many more are all played against the house.  In poker you play other players your not playing against the house.  This is a big difference.  In the other games the odds are stacked against you.  In poker, when you play a hand you can have the odds in your favor.  Most of the time they are not so you fold.  You have the power to play when the %'s favor you.  That's not an option in , say, roulette.

Much more skill is needed to play poker and win.  Yes, luck is involved but you can very much limit the amount of luck you actually need by taking full advantage of the few opportunities you get during a tournament.

Once in awhile I come across players who are ‘gamblers' at the poker table.  They are more liable to play junk hands and hope to hit the flop.  They usually play more than 30% of the hands dealt and are chasing any draws.

Below is a good example of  just such a gambler.  I had noticed that he had been playing a lot of hands with suspect cards going in.  He was raising pots with 2^nd best pair or worse.

The match is just approaching the middle stage as the blinds are still relatively low.  It folds around to him and he 2 bets the bb.  I add another 3 bets and it folds around the table to him.  He thinks for a moment and goes all in.  Funny part was I did put him on ace rag.  I instacall and you see what the results are.

When I come across players like this I write a quick note in the players note box, ‘gambler'.  That tells me all I need to know about this player.

I went on to place 2^nd in this $10 match because with this double up I was able to sit back and play only premium hands.

Tony has mention how good a hand like AJ actually is.  Here we had a player playing it in early position.  When you play a hand like that in early position there are just to many others yet to act.  Your increasing your risk because the chances of a player yet to act having a better hand are greater.  In other words you are gambling!

I'm actually getting use to throwing away hands like this in early or middle position and depending on the situation, in late position also.  Actually a few hands later I folded a pair of tens in middle position.  A player in early position had limped.  It folded to me and I thought, "hmmm, why is this player, who is 2^nd last in chips limping in early position and not raising or pushing ?"  So I folded my tens.  The small blind raised it up, the limper went all in and was called.  The sb had AK and the limper had KK.  My hmmm was correct!

Poker is all about capitalizing on your opportunities.  There should be little or no gambling in your game!