Regarding poker, of course there is a lot of luck involved but the best players win money in the long run even though with any given tournament they are more likely to bust out with no money than to actually win money.
It is also true that with age--my poker abilities have become less but I won the tournament the very last day I played at the casino in Illinois!?
nirav it is true that when you give the starting position to a chess engine it will show White with a slight advantage. But the slight advantage is not near enough to win. Also I have noticed the longer a strong chess engine looks at the starting position--this slight advantage becomes less.