The four stages of a poker hand: preflop, flop, turn and river
A hand of Texas Hold’em is played in four stages: preflop, flop, turn and river. The Skill Poker Index measure three of them. This is not an oversight: it follows from how the model works, and understanding why the river is left out is the quickest way to understand what the other three do. Because […]
The deck of cards as an alphabet: how much a single card informs
The deck of cards as an alphabet is not a literary image: it is the technical step by which the study arrives at a measurement. A card on its own says very little — exactly like a letter. And like a letter, it acquires sense only by combining with the others. From here comes the […]
How many card combinations in poker: 1,326, and why they matter
How many card combinations in poker can a player be dealt at the start of a hand? There are 1,326. The number matters less than two of its properties: it is finite, and every combination inside it means one thing only. These are exactly the two conditions a linguistic model requires to be applied to […]
How many cards a poker player sees: seven out of fifty-two
How many cards a poker player sees in a hand is seven out of fifty-two: two pocket cards plus the five on the board. The other forty-five are never seen — and they weigh all the same, because the way they lie shapes the possible combinations and the texture of the board. That number is […]
Measuring skill in poker: the Theory of Information Completeness
Measuring skill in poker sounds like an overreach. And yet, once you have established what information is and reread the fundamental theorem in structural terms, the step becomes possible. The study takes it by formulating the Theory of Information Completeness: not a calculation technique, but the conceptual instrument that establishes the condition under which a […]
Fundamental theorem of poker: Sklansky reread in structural terms
The fundamental theorem of poker is the most quoted formulation in poker literature, and it has always been read as a rule of strategy. But the moment you take seriously the definition of information we arrived at in the previous article, that same formulation can be reread in structural terms: no longer advice on how […]
Information in Poker: What It Is and Why It Can Be Measured
What exactly is information in poker? We are not talking about tells, or about how to read your opponents: the question comes before that. A hundred things happen in a single spot — cards being revealed, bets, reaction times, attitudes — and before asking how much information a player holds, you have to establish what […]
Chip Utility: How Many Big Blinds You Need to Play Your Skills
How many big blinds do you really need? The short answer: sixty; the long one is called chip utility, and it is how you measure the extent to which your stack supports the skills you have. Here you will find the table that defines it and, above all, the reasoning behind it. How many big […]
Variance in Poker: How to Reduce It Without Changing the Rules
Variance in poker is the word every player uses to explain their defeats. You will not find bankroll management tips or swing charts here: you will find where variance actually concentrates in a live tournament, how much of it is left when a hand is played all the way, and how it can be reduced […]