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CommentsPoker is not so much a game of chance but skill, according to a study by software consultancy company Cigital. The study, released March 2009, concludes that skill determines the outcomes of Texas Hold ‘Em poker games more often than chance.
Called the “Statistical Analysis of Texas Hold ‘Em,” the study scrutinized 103 million hand histories of PokerStars games played throughout December 2008. Seventy-five percent of the time, every hand was determined with no player seeing beyond the community cards and the hole cards.
Half of the remaining 25% that reached showdown was won by the one who could hold the best 5-card hand. The one with a losing 5-card hand won the rest, because the player with the winning hand folded before showdown.
Sean McCulloch, the professor at Ohio Wesleyan University who co-authors the study, suspects that luck plays a small part in winning Texas Hold’em. Right decision-making then, rather than luck, had more to do with winning a game.
His findings may have important ramifications on American laws, which variably set parameters on the word “gambling.” In the US, a game is categorized under gambling if a “dominance test” considers its outcome as determined by chance. For many poker advocates, the study comes as an important triumph on the road to fully legalizing the game.
Senator Alfonse D’Amato, who chairs the Poker Players Alliance, praised the study for amply vindicating the game. “This study provides the raw data to back up the compelling arguments…that it’s skill, not pure luck, that determines the outcome of the game,” he said.
“This study uses an unprecedented amount of real data to demonstrate what players have long known,” said Paco Hope, the study’s other author.
Hope is technical manager for Cigital, reportedly America’s largest software consulting company. Based in Washington, D.C., with offices in India, Cigital was founded in 1992.
Post Author: guest