Many of them are near the top of the list thanks to just one big run. Look at some of the biggest winners in terms of cash in the history of the World Series of Poker. Without a sound sample size, your tournament resume will mean next to nothing. The one factor that is ever present is the need for a lot of history. The types of tournaments that you play and your actual skill level will both play a decidedly large role in deciphering just how much of your wins are skill and how much of it is luck. This is not something that would ever happen to a cash game or sit and go player because one random win does not effect the bottom line in a noticeable way. If you take one single win out of a player’s history, the chances are that their overall ROI will drop by a noticeable margin. Since tournaments are inherently full of variance, the actual rate at which any given player wins is near impossible to decipher. The biggest obstacle for tournament players is being able to pin down an actual win rate. Long term tourney winners will only be able to maintain a profit if they are able to play well on a consistent basis.
When it comes down to it, there is no disputing that MTTs require skill.
The argument doesn’t revolve so much around whether there is more skill than luck, but instead whether they luck is outweighed by a wide margin. One of the oldest debates in poker is whether tournaments are more skill than luck.
