5 Minutes of Your Time...

[Hutcho]

Hello all.

I am a student in my final year of University, and the topic for my dissertation (essay) is related to poker.

I would therefore sincerely appreciate 5 minutes of your time, to fill out this short questionnaire I have compiled.

All information collected will remain strictly confidential and not shared with anyone else. Although, the questions don't really ask you anything that could pose as a danger anyway.

Many thanks in advance.

Link to questionnaire: http://www.surveypirate.com/Survey.aspx?surveyid=16312&sp.mac=/QsFGZpnrXh8pHZX7AkbeQ==


Note: Please could you also inform me if you come across technical difficulties / discrepancies with the survey.

 

[Pascal-lf]

Link doesn't work

 

[Hutcho]

Thanks Pascal. Fixed....I hope

 

[Stick66]

Link doesn't work

Works for me. I took it.

 

[Hutcho]

Thanks Stick, appreciated.

10,000 words I've gotta write for it lol....

 

[DawgBones]

All done. Do I get a lollipop?

 

[sharkyo01]

Done my bit

 

[rollnutilt]

All done mate gl with your paper.

 

[Stu_Ungar]

"You are over-stimulated and therefore play non-skill based gambling games"

I had to stop when I read this!!!

 

[Makwa]

Another BS survey that equates poker with gambling. Simplistic and naive. Took it anyway WTF...

 

[Hutcho]

Thanks to all for taking the questionnaire.

Stu..what made you have to stop when you read the over-stimulated part lol? That was taken from existing literature theory that someone conducted about gambling...


Makwa, go easy on me lad, I don't think that at all. It's just the topic I decided to do for my essay, as it's an interest of mine. I may find some interesting results, I may find f**k all lol.

Nevertheless, thanks.

 

[Poof]

Thanks to all for taking the questionnaire.

Stu..what made you have to stop when you read the over-stimulated part lol? That was taken from existing literature theory that someone conducted about gambling...

I think it was more the non-skilled based gambling games
I will take it tonight when I get home, gl.

 

[Rabidus]

Did my part. I found it a bit simplistic with pre-drawn conclusions. Would have been nice if it was a bit more open ended.

Also, hard to measure addiction when you don't ask how often we play vs. other forms of entertainment etc.

Good luck on your paper.

 

[Stu_Ungar]

Thanks to all for taking the questionnaire.

Stu..what made you have to stop when you read the over-stimulated part lol? That was taken from existing literature theory that someone conducted about gambling...


Makwa, go easy on me lad, I don't think that at all. It's just the topic I decided to do for my essay, as it's an interest of mine. I may find some interesting results, I may find f**k all lol.

Nevertheless, thanks.

Poker is a game of skill rather than simply gambling. The questionnaire has a huge bias towards gambling rather than playing a game of skill.

Therefore I concluded at that point that you had designed a questionnaire for a game you didn't really understand.

I think its going to be difficult for you to draw accurate conclusions from your questionnaire if you don't understand the fundamentals of the game being played.

This is not to say that there are no poker players who are pure gamblers but as this is an internet forum which people use to improve their skill at poker you are aiming a questionnaire used to examine gambling habits at a group of people, the majority of whom, are playing a game of skill.

 

[Hutcho]

Thanks Pooffy.

Rabidus - I wanted to include more open ended questions, but my personal tutor, who is overseeing this dissertation, told me not to.

By no means is this just a random set of questions, I have thrown together out of no where. I have spent time on them.

Current theories already exist about:
Internet Addiction
General Gambling Addiction
Online Gambling Addiction

However, nothing, or scare information is dedicated to specific "Internet Poker Addiction".

Hence the nature of some of the questions. Thanks though, some of your comments will certainly be included in my evaluation. :cheers:

 

[Stu_Ungar]

Thanks Pooffy.

Rabidus - I wanted to include more open ended questions, but my personal tutor, who is overseeing this dissertation, told me not to.

By no means is this just a random set of questions, I have thrown together out of no where. I have spent time on them.

Current theories already exist about:
Internet Addiction
General Gambling Addiction
Online Gambling Addiction

However, nothing, or scare information is dedicated to specific "Internet Poker Addiction".

Hence the nature of some of the questions. Thanks though, some of your comments will certainly be included in my evaluation. :cheers:

There you have it.

There is no provision within your questionnaire for games of skill.

 

[Egon Towst]

Sorry, I gave up on the survey in frustration. I found that, in many cases, none of the possible answers represented an idea with which I could agree. Stu is correct. The survey is flawed because it starts from the highly dubious assumption that poker is gambling and the questions do not allow for the fact that respondents might hold a contrary view.

 

[Stu_Ungar]

Hence the nature of some of the questions. Thanks though, some of your comments will certainly be included in my evaluation. :cheers:

I will try and give you some idea as to why poker is different from other gambling activities.

The biggest problem with trying to explain why poker is a game of skill to a non-poker player is that in order for them to understand that that its a game of skill, you have to explain how to win at poker, and this is difficult to do because its a game that takes so long to learn, its impossible to sum it up into a single 1 hr lecture.

However, Dusty Schmit, in his book came up with a really neat way of showing the presence of skill. Rather than talking about winning, he turns the situation around and talks about losing!

If I put a gun to your head and told you that you must lose the next hand of poker, could you do it? Even if you held AA could you find a way to lose?... I think you could.. you might make a bad fold or something, but you could find a way.

What about a game like roulette? Could you find a way to lose there? Are you as a player able to influence the times that you lose? In this case no, you cannot do anything to make yourself more likely to lose than the odds dictate.

So when playing a game that you cannot increase the chances of losing you are purely gambling, but when playing a game where you can increase the chances of losing, you are playing a game of skill.

Then consider the flip side, if you can increase the chances of losing, you can also increase the chances of winning.

 

[Wes747]

Completed....although I agree with Stu and Egon....poker is not gambling. There is a high amount of skill involved and over time a better player will ALWAYS beat a worse player. This is not true in other forms of gambling, because it is based off of complete luck.

 

[atlantafalcons0]

"If I put a gun to your head and told you that you must lose the next hand of poker, could you do it? Even if you held AA could you find a way to lose?... I think you could.. you might make a bad fold or something, but you could find a way."




I'm in the BB and everyone folded.

I'm dead.

 

[Egon Towst]

However, Dusty Schmit, in his book came up with a really neat way of showing the presence of skill. Rather than talking about winning, he turns the situation around and talks about losing!

If I put a gun to your head and told you that you must lose the next hand of poker, could you do it? Even if you held AA could you find a way to lose?... I think you could.. you might make a bad fold or something, but you could find a way.

What about a game like roulette? Could you find a way to lose there? Are you as a player able to influence the times that you lose? In this case no, you cannot do anything to make yourself more likely to lose than the odds dictate.

So when playing a game that you cannot increase the chances of losing you are purely gambling, but when playing a game where you can increase the chances of losing, you are playing a game of skill.

Then consider the flip side, if you can increase the chances of losing, you can also increase the chances of winning.

I haven`t heard that before. That`s an elegant explanation.

 

[Stu_Ungar]

"If I put a gun to your head and told you that you must lose the next hand of poker, could you do it? Even if you held AA could you find a way to lose?... I think you could.. you might make a bad fold or something, but you could find a way."




I'm in the BB and everyone folded.

I'm dead.

LOL

Well you get the idea, you can increase your chances of losing.

 

[Hutcho]

Thanks for your input Egon.

Stu - very well said, and I completely understand and agree with you. I even had similar talks with my tutor about how elements of skill are needed in poker.

However, he insisted that this was the questionnaire that I should post out. I think it was more a sense of "I can't be bothered any more" from his side.

As he will be the one marking my work, I can always refer back to his insistence of sending this specific questionnaire, should he mark me lower than what I expect to get.

Thanks Wes also.

 

[Mortis]

I don't want to click on the link for fear that it may be a virus....

Oh wait, I'm on my roommate's computer.. I'll take the survey.

 

[Egon Towst]

As a matter of curiousity, what are you reading Hutch ? You must be close to graduating. Do you have a career in mind ?