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Is it Luck?
- 3-25-2008
It took several years and numerous statistical studies to
demonstrate that skill is the most important factor in poker and now, Michael
DeDonno, a post grade student of The first study conducted by DeDonno had 41 individuals playing eight games to complete a total of 200 hands. The majority of the individuals who took part in the study had some experience playing poker, said DeDonno.. The experiment consisted of a computer simulated Texas Hold'em poker game in where every player was dealt two cards in the first round, then the player had to decide to play or fold based on the cards dealt. If the player chooses to keep going then the game continues as normal. The experiment was intended to measure if the decisions taken by the players on every betting round have any effect on the results. During the experiment, the individuals were separated in two groups; one of them received a quick training and information. They also learned that professional poker players usually play only 15% of the hands during a game. The second group received general info about history of the game, but didn’t receive any information about poker strategies.
DeDonno found that the individuals who receive the quick training did better than those who didn’t receive any info about certain strategies. At the beginning of the study a total of 65% of the players expressed that luck plays an important roll in poker.
"If it had been pure luck in winning, then the strategies would not have made a difference for the two groups," DeDonno said.
To verify the statistical data gathered during the first study, he conducted a second experiment in where the individuals had to play a total of 720 hands. They were again divided in two groups and were given the same exact info once again. While they all improved their results after a large number of hands, the group that received the quick tutorial continued did better than the other group.