[El_Hombre_Grande]

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i remember sklansky making a couple posts pointing out that in poker, if you want to lose, you can do so very quickly. that alone suggests a non-trivial level of skill is involved.

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this is actually the best proof that poker is a game of skill, not chance. In a game of chance, you cannot lose deliberately. Coinflipping, the lotto, roulette.... if you play the game, you could never "throw' a game because you cannot "play" bad. If its heads, you win. In poker, you could easily deliberately lose, and in a tournament you could deliberately go busto in the space of a few hands if you were throwing the game.

Thus if you can play bad you must be able to play well.
But then again all poker players know this; the proof is for those who have never played the game or are so ignorant of whats happening at the table that it all appears random.