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<blockquote>Is Texas Hold ‘Em poker more a game of chance or of skill? That question has figured in several legal tests of playing the card game for money: Games of chance are considered gambling under U.S. law. Now a major poker Web site has sponsored a study it claims demonstrates that it takes skill to win — which would help the site’s legal standing. But several poker experts question that claim.<blockquote>
<blockquote>Is Texas Hold ‘Em poker more a game of chance or of skill? That question has figured in several legal tests of playing the card game for money: Games of chance are considered gambling under U.S. law. Now a major poker Web site has sponsored a study it claims demonstrates that it takes skill to win — which would help the site’s legal standing. But several poker experts question that claim.<blockquote>


We have discussed this problem in previus issues of Chance news [http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Chance_News_29#Is_Poker_predominantly_skill_or_luck.3F here] and [http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Chance_News_30#Is_poker_predomately_a_game_of_skill_or_luck.3F_revisited here] As we said here
We have discussed this problem in previus issues of Chance news [http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Chance_News_29#Is_Poker_predominantly_skill_or_luck.3F here] and [http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Chance_News_30#Is_poker_predomately_a_game_of_skill_or_luck.3F_revisited here]  


The skill debate has been a preoccupation in poker circles since September (2006), when Congress barred the use of credit cards for online wagers. Horse racing and stock trading were exempt, but otherwise the new law hit any game "predominantly subject to chance". Included among such games was poker, which is increasingly played on Internet sites hosting players from all over the world.
PokerStars paid Cigital, a software consulting firm, to analyze 103,273,484 hands played on the site last December, for real money — usually at least $1 blind bets. Three quarters of the hands analyzed ended without a showdown, meaning that the winner never had to show his or her cards — everyone else eventually folded during the rounds of betting. And half the time that hands did end in a showdown, a player who would have won had already folded.

Revision as of 20:27, 9 April 2009

Poker Showdown Between Luck and Skill

Carl Bialik write a column called "The Numbers Guy" for the Wall Street Journal and keeps his column on the internet here

He writes

Is Texas Hold ‘Em poker more a game of chance or of skill? That question has figured in several legal tests of playing the card game for money: Games of chance are considered gambling under U.S. law. Now a major poker Web site has sponsored a study it claims demonstrates that it takes skill to win — which would help the site’s legal standing. But several poker experts question that claim.

We have discussed this problem in previus issues of Chance news here and here

PokerStars paid Cigital, a software consulting firm, to analyze 103,273,484 hands played on the site last December, for real money — usually at least $1 blind bets. Three quarters of the hands analyzed ended without a showdown, meaning that the winner never had to show his or her cards — everyone else eventually folded during the rounds of betting. And half the time that hands did end in a showdown, a player who would have won had already folded.