Editing Luck (section)

===Games===
{{seemain|Game of chance}}
The philosopher Nicholas Rescher has proposed that the luck of someone's result in a situation of uncertainty is measured by the difference between this party's yield and expectation: λ = Y - E. Thus skill enhances expectation and reduces luck. The extent to which different [[game]]s will [[Game#Skill, strategy, and chance|depend on luck]], rather than skill or effort, varies considerably. For example, [[chess]] does not involve any random factors (beyond the determination of which player moves first), while the outcome of [[Snakes and Ladders]] is entirely based on random dice rolls. In [[poker]], especially games with a communal board, pure luck may decide a winning hand. Luck in games involving chance is defined as the change in a player's equity after a random event such as a die roll or card draw.<ref>{{cite web|last=Zare|first=Douglas|title=A Measure of Luck|url=http://www.bkgm.com/articles/Zare/AMeasureOfLuck.html|access-date=12 June 2013}}</ref> Luck is positive (good luck) if the player's position is improved and negative (bad luck) if it is worsened. A poker player who is doing well (playing successfully, winning) is said to be "running good".<ref>{{cite web|last=Miller|first=Ed|title=The Pitfalls of Running Good|url=http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer-poker-magazines/65765-mike-sexton-22-23/articles/18863-the-pitfalls-of-running-good|work=CardPlayer.com|access-date=11 April 2014|date=Nov 27, 2009|quote=I've always thought that one of the worst things that can happen to new poker players is for them to run really good right out of the gate. If they rack up a number of big wins early on, a couple of bad things can happen.}}</ref>

Almost all sports contain elements of luck. A statistical analysis in the book ''[[The Success Equation]]'' attempted to elucidate the differing balance between skill and luck with respect to how teams finished in the [[Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada|major North American sports leagues]]. This analysis concluded that, on a luck-skill continuum, the [[National Basketball Association|NBA]] had the most skill-dependant result while that of the [[National Hockey League|NHL]] was most luck-dependant.<ref>{{Citation|last=Vox|title=Why underdogs do better in hockey than basketball|date=2017-06-05|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNlgISa9Giw| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211029/HNlgISa9Giw| archive-date=2021-10-29|access-date=2018-07-02}}{{cbignore}}</ref>