Skill Poker Index, a concrete science-based contribution to the live Texas Hold’em poker regulatory theme

What if Poker needed new rules?

I tried to give this answer with my research study, presented in May 2021 on the occasion of my Thesis, at the eCampus University of Novedrate (Co), entitled: ‘From Game to Sport. Enhancement of poker skills in the cultural change of live poker.

The research goal

Since the dawn of the 1971 World Series of Poker, the “sport tournament” mode has legitimized the discipline. At the same time, competitive dynamics have evolved, requiring greater involvement and commitment from participants to be able to excel on opponents. From casino game, over time has become more and more a skill game. The ethnographic observation described in my scientific paper shows that today’s competitions, compared to the past, show a massive presence of skilled players  compared to neophytes. Starting from an autochthonous analysis of the regulation state of the poker discipline, I realized a tournament model led by the Skill Poker Index (SPI), as my concrete science-based contribution to the live Texas Hold’em poker regulatory process.

The research path

The research path I have chosen to undertake is organized in two areas:

• detailed presentation of the theoretical framework and logic behind live Texas Hold’em tournaments poker;
• propose a definition and application of the Skill Poker Index, as modulators of the components padia and ludos of Roger Caillois – in favor of the ludos one – intrinsic to every game or sport that we know.

In my paper I demonstrated how the Padia component greatly influences the outcome of a spot even in a live poker tournament. Skill Poker Index, applied to live Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, can offer competent decision-makers a universalistic-deterministic reference that can measure the degree of skill involved in the critical pre-river All-in phases.

Go to the next article to find out more about the Skill Poker Index

Pietro Semeraro

Transl. by Margherita Basile