You are invited to complete a brief online survey as part of a psychology study exploring characteristics of poker players who participate in online poker forums. The study is being conducted by Dr. Will Shead, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The purpose of this study is to gather descriptive information about poker players, particularly those who participate in online poker forums. The survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

If you reside in Canada and you are at least 19 years of age or if you reside outside of Canada and you are at least 21 years of age, you are welcome to participate in this study. If you wish to participate, please follow the link below which will take you to an external website where the survey is located. Potential participants must read the informed consent page providing detailed information on the study.

Click here to participate in the survey

The University Research Ethics Board (UREB) of MSVU has reviewed the proposal for this study and confirms that it respects the Tri-Council Policy Statement regarding the ethics of research involving human participants (MSVU UREB File #: 2010-028).

Hi 2+2,

I previously posted this in the Internet Poker forum and it received a fairly good response (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...forums-876956/) so I thought I would post it here given that the Psychology forum seems relevant.

I’m conducting the above study which aims to gather descriptive information about poker players. I’m particularly interested in examining poker players who participate in online poker forums such as twoplustwo.

If you would like more details about the study not contained in the informed consent page before you choose to participate, or if you have any questions or comments about the study, you may contact me at will.shead@msvu.ca. Alternatively you can post your comments in this thread and I will respond to them as soon as possible.

A summary of the final data will be posted in this thread at the conclusion of the study. Thank you in advance for your participation and contributions to this study. I believe the findings will provide new and valuable insights into poker players.

Regards,

Will

Is this for UIGEA or something?

I didn't lie.

No.

Just for shiz and giggles? or apart of a school project? I'm just curious how the data will be applied.

Nvm just read the debriefing.

******ed question, yes i went back next day to win money because i have an edge in the game. What is my answer? if your question is, do you chase losses in a degenerate way, then my answer is no. However i have to answer yes to your question because yes i do go back next day to win money if i lost the day before. However the fact i lost the day before has no effect on my decision to play.

But how much did you lose? might be a more ignorant question imo.

Hi Quinn,
Thanks for your input. This item is addressed in the other thread as well (I posted the link to the study in the zoo as well). Many posters in that thread had similar issues with this item and I agree that it is not a good question for poker players. That particular item is part of a standardized questionnaire so I am unable to change the wording to be more suitable for poker players. I hope that some of the results of this study will highlight the importance of developing new measures that specifically target poker players.
Will

Hmmm. I almost posted this question, but before I did, I took it literally and answered no. I never go to try to "win the money I lost" I just try to push my edge.
In other words I don't go in there thinking "ok I'm down XXX from yesterday so I need to make it back today."
So I think we can answer "never" to this question as poker players unless we are the type of player stupid enough try to reach a daily quota.

This

Mainly we try to set volume goals, and then we try to make the best decisions within that chosen volume. Our perceived edge over that volume will give us an expected long term result. Daily fluctuations within that longer term are simultaneously integral to the game while being utterly irrelevant to our long term trend.

The approach of a serious poker player should probably be that we play just one session but it lasts our whole lifetime. Who cares what the ups and downs are on a sample as insignificantly small as 1 day?



So if your survey is about poker then what's the point of asking questions that are inappropriate? No offence, but it seems pretty stupid that you can't make the questionnaire relevant to the subject matter. Kind of devalues the survey imo, no matter what it's about.

TT

Obviously a valid concern. A major reason is that when it comes time to report the results and submitting a manuscript for publication, the first question that will be asked is, "Why didn't you administer a problem gambling severity measure?" And if such a measure is administered but the items are reworded, the first comment would be - "These results are invalid because the reworded measure is not standardized." So it's a bit of a catch 22. By including the severity measure as is it gives the study a better chance of being published and accepted as legitimate by gambling researchers (I know, the whole peer review process can be ridiculous at times). Meanwhile, I hope that I can use the results to highlight how inappropriate these items are for poker players. Again, hopefully that will lead to the development of a severity measure that's suitable for poker players. Thanks for your input and participation TT.
Regards,
Will

DrYGI,

I think you are hitting on something here that is lost on other researchers.

About a month ago a Phd candidate from Australia or NZ posted a simliar questionaire. It became obvious by the questions the underlying assumption was if you gamble you have a problem of some varying degree. Questions related to "lucky" items (numbers, colors, etc), complusion to gamble, etc.

Generally these things don't relate well to poker players, though they can. An addict is an addict no matter what game he plays. Those are generally rare among posters on these sites.

I would be interested in the results.

Any findings to report?