Pietro Semeraro, CEO at All In Channel Entertainement & Communication srl, since long time is working for the recognition by the CONI of the discipline of live Texas Hold’em Tournament poker. What is the road to?
Hi Jack and hello to all the readers. For their respect and to be clear from the beginning, it’s important to warn everyone that our conversation will exclusively talk about live Texas Hold’em tournament poker. So, what is the road to? If there was a simple answer, I think the problem would had been already solved. However, I believe for sure, at least from the scientific point of view, I’ve figured out a solution, which could give an answer to those needs.
Most deeply inside, my research has tried to give an answer and get a solution to the following question: if the poker game is based on the exploitation of a few of smaller advantages, how is it so possible, in spite of the masterful use of those skills, the outcome of the performance remains still compromised? In other words, Is it possible to invest own time and money in studying, research, analysis, transfers, etc., for the live professional activity, without even being considered in an economic contest, which allows the live professional sport/business activity with outbuildings and connected, letting the variance taken undisturbed its effects on the outcome of the performance?
Personally, and in the while I answer to your question, my study offers a new competitive model, specifically designed on the new needs of the live professional Texas Hold’em poker competitions. The new model introduces the The Skill Poker Index concept, able to break down the variance, that’s to say, able to break down the random component in live Texas Hold’em tournament poker, binding the players to the possession and ability to the specifics skills needed for the positive outcome of the performance. At the same time, the Skill Poker Index model allows the tournament poker discipline to overcome the juridical-encyclopaedic obstacle of the “Sport” definition, aligning the discipline to the core requirements and values required for the recognition of poker as sport game, as well as the other sports disciplines.
It’s usually think of winning players as lucky ones, but in real life, in the long term, the winning player is the skilled one. The random component, someway, still keeps alive the game in the while, but it prevents the recognition of the discipline as a sport game.
Your point of view arises from an excessively macro prospective in order to get a clear and exhaustive answer. And, please, let me say that thing, it considers the discipline for what it is: a casino game.
Unfortunately, this kind of game (we’re still speaking about tournament mode) is meant to be confined into casinos and the allowed private clubs, according to the rules governing gambling category, due to the intrinsic presence of the random component, as saw before. Let’s be clear though, the tournament mode goes over some aspect of the gambling definition, but the random component still forces the discipline in a too tight category. So, in my opinion, the first step to do is, like prof . Crismani teaches, to isolate the singles disciplines and analyse them individually.
Talking about sport recognition of the poker discipline cannot bring someone to think of recognition could include the cash game mode too. Simply impossible. The cash game mode is and will ever be a gambling game as definition. I think that, against the apparent vicious circle prospected by your opinion, the discipline has evolved over time and with it the needs of the players who decide to join the live poker player career. Through the Skill Poker Index model it will be possible to create many different levels of professional championships, in many different professional levels, in many different categories, with daily events, that would allow professional develop for any actor involved.
Everybody us in the company, as you know, already have a new organisational model named “Poker Social Enterprise”, which allows to professionalise the employees beyond the simple task of the dealer, making them an active part of the events production.
I’d like to know something more about the Skill Poker Index use in a live Texas Hold’em tournament poker. How they break down the random component?
Skill Poker Index are the modulators of the “Padia” and “Ludus” components. intrinsic present in every game and sport we know. They are the result of the “Theory of Poker” by David Slansky rereading, in according to the “Information” definition by Bateson, and the help of “Chip Utility” concept by Arnold. Snyder.
They are expressed in percentage indices and they work exclusively in the only critic phase of the “All-In” condition (or “show-down” if you’d rather it) before the “river”. They’re applied through a partial distribution of the pot in favour of the best hand at the moment of the showdown, before the river, following an incremental order from the “Pre-flop” to the “Turn”. Shortly, the Skill Poker Index, in an universalistic-deterministic way, express the component ludus’ influence value in each single phase of the spot, regardless of the real skills of the players involved. In this way, Skill Poker Index can be the guiding lighthouse for the institutional bodies, to guarantee the outcome of the performance in favour of the skills. Furthermore, this process promotes the cognitive development in according to the “Empowerment” logic, as described by prof. Bruscaglioni. This new model isn’t going to replace the previous one. Texas Hold’em poker is and will be the “Cadillac of Poker” as Brunson said, for ever. It will always remain the aggregative instrument, as the other sport’s amateur associations are, which in turn, become the springboard for everyone who is going to join then poker player career. Now, not everyone can compete in the A category, but everyone, someway, in according to own level can play soccer. Furthermore, in my opinion, awaiting for the regulatory process, the Skill Poker Index model allows a live professional poker player right away to optimise own efforts, investments and commitment in according to an economic framework as ever, or as much as ever, stable and predictable.
Is it true that All In Channel Entertainment & Communication srl is going to make a demonstrative event, with which it will show everyone how Skill Poker Index work? Can you tell us how it will be set up?
It won’t be about a demonstrative event, but a real scientific experiment. Through it, in fact, it will demonstrate the Skill Poker Index’s empiric validity. It will be about a free roll event, with a guaranteed prize pool. The tournament will be characterised by a maximum cap, composed by 50% PPPs, and the rest 50% by occasional players. The experimental event will be accompanied by a large high stakes turbo tournaments, with about 6 daily events per day for the whole time of the kermises, with which we try to to get the mission to satisfy the PPPs’ bankroll needs, for a total of 60 tournaments. To close the kermises, there will be a Main Event, with which we try to get the
second mission, that’s to say, to satisfy the Brand Identity and Brand Reputation strategies of the same PPPs. Unfortunately I can’t anticipate anything else at the moment, but I promise, Ukraine crisis permitting, in the next week more information will be available. I’d like to take advantage of this brief space left to retake a topic you touched before in your second question. Talking about the skilled players, you mentioned the long period results. The paradigm exchange I spoke about in my research resides precisely in that dimension. I’m referring to the long period’s analysis and strategies elaborations, homogeneously used by all the PPPs, based on the quantitative analysis and the probabilistic calculation. If with my study I’ve applied the Communication Theories from a structural point of view, they are also extremely effective, contrariwise the Maths doctrines, at the strategic level to compete in live poker event. That’s the reason why you’ll often hear me to say that in a live tournament poker, where a player is going to start a calculation process, likewise, I’m going to start a signification process. The micro-communication Theories allow to investigate the “here and now”, allowing the qualitative analysis of the situation in real time, and define it with extreme precision, depending on the individual signification poker skills. There will be very interesting contents in the future, that will start to show some descriptions of the strategic practical appliance of that theories in the live events.
Leggi anche:
- Beyond GTO: The Communicative Method to Dominate Live Texas Hold’em Poker
- Press Release dated 18.03.2025 – EMPOKERMENT
- Bad Beat at the River in Live Texas Hold’em Poker: The Importance of Skills and in game Strategies
- The New Paradigm in Live Poker Tournaments: Skill Poker Index and Strategies
- Poker Texas Hold’em: Skills, Luck, and the Path to Sports Recognition
