[Pokerlogist]

Just because the World Chess Championship is 21 games doesn't mean that winner was solely determined by skill alone. Games that we think are soley skill actually have some luck invloved and those we think of as solely luck have some skill involved. I was once a lowly tournament chess player and got a draw against a grandmaster. The chances of me doing that was maybe 1 in 100 but he was unlucky enough fall into a pet opening trap. A lottery seems total luck but it still requires you have enough brains to not lose the winning ticket and not to forget to check the lottery results or to misread them. Real coin tossing seems all chance, but even here, a knowledgeable person can get an edge in this game.

The idea that "only in games of skill can a player guarantee that he will quickly lose" is true in a very limited sense. It only means that there is some small element of skill involved in the game. Sure, in poker someone can guarantee losing money by always folding. But a person can quarantee losing a lottery too, just by throwing away his ticket. Poker requires a great amount of skill but this may not be the best way to define skill.