You may have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, but poker is mostly a game of chance, a Greensburg jury ruled yesterday in the trial of a Derry Township man who ran Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

Lawrence R. Burns, 65, admitted that he organized, advertised and profited from the tournaments in Westmoreland County, his lawyer, David Millstein, said at the start of the trial Tuesday. But Mr. Millstein argued that Mr. Burns was not guilty of illegal gambling charges because Texas Hold 'em is a game of skill, rather than chance.

"Any game is predominated by skill if by the application of learned techniques you can win significantly more than you can lose," he said. Poker is like golf in that there are repeated winners because the highly skilled are victorious more often, he said.

The defense focused on the question of chance, since the commonwealth's definition of gambling required three elements -- payment of money or other con sideration, possibility of reward, and that the outcome of the wager is determined by chance, rather than skill.

Mr. Millstein backed his argument by calling as a witness a University of Denver professor and gaming theory expert who testified about a computer simulation of 1 billion hands of poker between skilled and unskilled players. In the simulation, the skilled player won 960 million times out of a billion, Mr. Millstein reminded the jury in his closing arguments yesterday. Many academic studies and published books point to the game of Texas Hold 'em being predominately a game of skill, he said.

The jury of seven men and five women disagreed with Mr. Millstein and, after two hours of deliberation, found Mr. Burns guilty of allowing people to assemble to gamble, inviting others to gamble and allowing gambling on a premises under his control in Seward and Adamsburg, Westmoreland County.

The investigation began in the late spring of 2007, when police were informed that Texas Hold 'em tournaments were being held in the Seward and Adamsburg fire halls several times a week. Mr. Burns paid rent to the fire halls. The tournaments were widely advertised, on the Internet and on outdoor signs.

Undercover troopers attended four tournaments and played their hands.

Mr. Burns, himself an attorney, testified that he researched the legality of Texas Hold 'em tournaments before hosting them and believed the law allowed them. He said he was disappointed in the verdict and planned to appeal. Sentencing has not been scheduled.