Facts, Arguments and Evidence of Poker as a Game of Skills!

Poker is a game of skill and expertise? This is a very old discussion with a few years now, but with more studies and court decisions it seems that we are getting nowhere! There seems to be a general difficulty in understanding this subject, much generated by prejudice that exists around the game that is poker!

As opposed to casino games and sports betting poker is not a game of luck but skill and expertise, and as such should not be judged and cataloged or even regulated like other games!

The easiest way to demonstrate this is by following chronology that shows decisions in courts around the world as well as scientific studies in order to prove that the game of poker has nothing to do with luck!

Court decisions in favor of poker as a game of skill:

 

Sweden May 22, 2009:

 

A Swedish court declared poker as a game of skill and ability, in a case where it was judged to be a saying "illegal tournament." This tournament had gathered 700 participants and thanks to the CONCLUSION Court that poker was a game of skill tournament organizers saw his sentence reduced because they are promoting an illegal gambling. In this situation if the Court had not declared the Poker as a game where the players' decisions are more important than the cards they receive, thus making it a game of skill, by this the individuals who organized the tournament would have been accused of illegal gambling seriously.

Brazil August 3, 2010:

 

The court of Santa Catarina in Brazil recognized poker as a game of skill, a process that arose due to not permit the Latin America Poker Tour - LAPT Brazil, the decision of the Chief Judge Sonia Maria Schmit Substitute follows in full below:

"As pertine the relevance of the plea, the Decree. 3.688/41, in his art. 50, § 3 considers gambling, among others, 'the game in which the gain and loss depend solely or primarily on luck.' The questions, perhaps about the illegality of the existing poker game emanate from the lack of objective criteria that allow inclluir mode in activity of that nature - gambling. features of this kind of game, that is, skill versus luck, are barriers that commonly prevent the authorization of their practice.

Anyway, the opinion prepared by lawyer Miguel Reale Júnior (pages 122-152) we can infer that their rules depend on 'mathematical probabilities, knowledge of the rules and strategies of the game, ability to grasp the psychological reactions of opponents, possible conceal his cards and letters to predict the other '(p. 142), entremostram aspects that, at this preliminary stage, the prominence of skill over luck.

So much so that several events have been held in the country, including recently in this capital that hosted the 11th Floripa Open Poker, between days 16 and July 18 pp at Majestic Palace Hotel, which can be seen in the website http://www.deolhonailha.com.br, accessed 30/07/10.

Vale reinforce the International Association of Sports Mind (IMSA) accepted the International Federation of Poker (IFP) in his paintings because, in practice, the entity considers poker (Texas Hold'em rules) at the same level of sports board like chess, backgammon and lady, which require complexity, sophistication, knowledge and high level of concentration.

Even in the UK in 2012, poker will enter the calendar of World Games Sports Mind (Available at: http://www.educacaofisica.com.br/noticias. Accessed on 30/07/2010). And there's more, in correspondence to insert fl. 38, the Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Sport of the State expresses its commitment to making its efforts to promote the success of the event. "

France August 3, 2011:

 

The court of great Instance of Toulouse decided on a case involving Jean-Pierre Gleizes accused of organizing private poker competitions in public places without a permit, which the Texas Hold'em poker in the shed is not a game of luck but skill. The decision was made by the court after hearing several witnesses as champions of bridge, chess, a math teacher and a professional poker player.

U.S.A. August 22, 2012:

 

The federal judge in New York declared poker as game of skill, not being contemplated by the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA), through 120 pages, Judge Jack Weinsteinde released that poker is not considered gambling by federal law united states as it is not a game of luck. The decision by Weinstein follows the excerpt below:

"It is unclear from the text and history of the Legislative Illegal Gambling Business Act, every state Whether gambling offense would permit the federal Conviction," Weinstein said. "It is uncertain Whether Equally, in enacting the statute, Congress foresaw That would be prosecutable poker businesses under it."

Italy 18 October 2012:

 

Administrators Association of Poker Altopascio were acquitted by an alleged offense of organizing poker games with a buy in of € 30 in the town of Lucca in the Tuscany region in Italy. The judge did not consider "crime" on charges of "exercise game", the Prosecutor Marco Ripamonti has acquittal based on the defense that "Texas Hold'em is not a game of chance but of skill."

Scientific studies declare that the poker as a game of Skill:

 

Study of Case in the Western Reserve University in Cleveland by Detterman and DeDonno in 2008:

 

In this article (PDF, 61.9 Mb), co-written with Dr. Douglas Detterman, DeDonno chose 40 students with little or no knowledge of poker and had to play 200 hands between them and Wilson Software Turbo Texas Hold ' at.

Half of the students were informed of the basic strategies of poker, including selection of starting hands and logic of professionals to play only 15% of the hands.

The other half only received information about the history of the game, but without any statistical data or analítico.No end of the experiment, both researchers concluded that students who had received lessons in strategy, performed better than the other half.

To confirm the discovery DeDonno Detterman and repeated the experiment, except that the amount of hands played rose to 700.

The conclusion was that all the students (of both groups) improved their results thanks to the previous practice but the strategic lessons that have outperformed those taking decisions without support.

Article of Otávio de Queiroga in 2009:

 

According to the article of Otávio Queiroga of a game of chance the player can not interfere with his abilities in the final result of the match. In the poker game the skilled player can change the course of the "lucky" and win the race. In the championship system, no cash bets.

The bidder paid a subscription and receive a number of tokens whose value is symbolic effect of the dispute. What's running is a prize at the end of the competition. But the inscription is also intended to afford the championship. This also happens in sports like golf and tennis among others, "Man sentenced Carvalho.

The mathematician Oswald de Souza teaches in the article "Gambling or Luck?" BNLData posted on the differences between games of chance and games of skill. "To not be considered" gambling "or" lucky "players must have knowledge and skill on how to dispute, as in blackjack, poker , biriba, pif-paf, lock, jockey and sports lottery, "said Oswald.

I would add that there is already an expert report OFFICIAL Institute of Criminology of the Secretariat of Public Security of the State of São Paulo, signed by William experts do Amaral Freitas Jr. and Karla Horti where the experts concluded:

"This is a game of skill, it was found that the ability of the player who participates in this type of game depends on memorization, the characteristics (number and size) of the figures presented in the game and knowledge of rules and strategy depending on these factors, being however, the final result of this game modalities random. "

Study of Freakonomics and Steven Levitt in 2011:

 

In this study, several players were classified as "more capable" in view of the results when compared with the results of other players.

They considered the 57 events of the World Series of Poker 2010 and found that the players "more capable" achieved 30% return on investment in the events while the rest suffered losses of about 15%.

The paper highlights that this difference in ROI is higher than the observed difference in different traders in financial markets, suggesting that skill is a factor in poker more prevalent than in the very Wall Sreet. Levitt also presents another line of thinking by comparing poker with other sports.

By analyzing the positions in which players "more capable" finished the tournament, he proves that a player more capable of 54.9% is more likely to finish ahead of a player with less skill.

Study at the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands by Rogier van Loon JD Potter, Dennie van Dolder and Martijn J. van den Assemn in 2012:

 

In short the article says:

"On average, players who rank higher (lower) in profitability over the previous subperiod perform better (worse) During the current subperiod. For example, players from the best decile over the first six months of our sample period earn about 30 to 40 big blinds per 100 hands more During the next six months than players from the worst decile. "

It also came to conclusion that: "A player who is in the top ten percent in the six-month period Given is more than two times the Likely the other players to rank among the top ten percent in the next period. A top one percent player is more than 12 times the Likely to end up in the top one percent the next period.

Players who are Characterized by a tight and aggressive playing style Generally perform better than loose and passive Their Opponents. Also performance is related to the number of hands That subjects have played over the previous period: more frequent or experienced players Achieve better results. "This finding Indicate That better players can choose to play more and learn from That players playing. Differences between players explain an important share of the differences in Their performance."

Conclusion:

 

Having said all that there remains no doubt that poker is a game of skill in which the good or bad luck has no place, all these studies and court decisions must be taken into account, the category in which poker is classified should be rapidly changed since poker has nothing to do with luck.