TY  - JOUR
AU  - Levitt,Steven D.
AU  - Miles,Thomas J.
TI  - The Role of Skill Versus Luck in Poker: Evidence from the World Series of Poker
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17023
PY  - 2011
Y2  - May 2011
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17023
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17023.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven D. Levitt
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/834-1862
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: slevitt@midway.uchicago.edu

Thomas Miles
University of Chicago
E-Mail: tmiles@law.uchicago.edu
AB  - In determining the legality of online poker – a multibillion dollar industry – courts have relied heavily on the issue of whether or not poker is a game of skill.  Using newly available data, we analyze that question by examining the performance in the 2010 World Series of Poker of a group of poker players identified as being highly skilled prior to the start of the events.   Those players identified a priori as being highly skilled achieved an average return on investment of over 30 percent, compared to a -15 percent for all other players.  This large gap in returns is strong evidence in support of the idea that poker is a game of skill.
ER  -