IIT Delhi professor Tapan K. Gandhi, cadence chair professor of Artificial Intelligence and Automation along with his team recently conducted an extensive study affirming that Poker and Rummy are games of skill. The study was based on “Online Poker and Rummy- Game of Skill or Chance?”.
The study concluded that there is no difference in online and offline versions of rummy and poker from the perspective of requirement of skills and in rummy and poker, there is preponderance of skills over chance to succeed.
Commenting on the report, Tapan K. Gandhi, associate professor in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi said, “Amidst ongoing conversations around online gaming and biased perception terming it as a taboo owing to preconceived notions, the exhaustive study examines the gameplay of various players to understand if the game in reality focuses on skill or element of luck prevails."
He further said that throughout the research, they were presented with compelling cases that made it clear that these sports indeed require a level of innate understanding that aided in building the cognitive abilities of the players. Not just limiting the skill aspect to the sport, they also noticed that the player’s softer skills like that of understanding social cues, taking decisions under high pressure situations, memory retention amongst others advancing throughout the time they were playing consistently.
The IIT study used mathematical tools to quantitatively analyze whether long-term success in online poker and rummy can be attributed to skill. They analyzed a larger dataset of users who played between 30 to 100 games in 2-player, 3-player, and 6-player formats.
The findings showed that in both poker and rummy, skill variables improved as users played more games. The correlation between users' win rates was strong at 0.904, emphasizing the persistent influence of skill over chance in shaping outcomes over time. This underscores the importance of mastering the game's strategies and nuances, as players who invest time and effort in understanding these aspects have better chances of maintaining a higher win rate.
