Poker Thesis

RoadSweeper

okay, this might be a crap idea but no harm in asking.

I am in my finaly year of college in a Business Degree and have to write a thesis. Now as some of ye who have done one already will know that doing it on an area of interest is always better.

Now i was looking to maybe do it on online poker. Or maybe poker in general? To be honest i dont know of any area of poker that would be worth investigating, maybe the advertising strategies employed? I would like to hear if anyone has any ideas they'd like to throw at me, or anything as im clueless atm.


Thanks for reading!

jimmii

I'm pretty sure i've heard of people using poker as a basis for a thesis before i'm sure a google search might turn something up.

ditpoker

BRAG: My thesis submission date was today!! wooo! finished!

REPLY: try and be specific, i.e. attracting high rollers to a site, or advertising to students, or the corporate social responsibility of a poker/gambling site, merits of player sponsorship, motivators (i.e software playability, or graphics, or sponsored pro's, or rakeback, or sign up bonuses) etc

ronanp

Take a look at press releases, particularly quarterly financial reports etc, from major listed poker sites. As well as figures they give detailed information as to their planned growth, market conditions, etc.

e.g

PartyPoker - http://www.partygaming.com/images/docs/072908__2007_Interim_Results.pdf

dK1NG

Do your thesis on the IPO - all the information you need is right here on boards!!!:)

RoadSweeper

thanks for replies guys,

any one with any more comments?

sumoward

I have done Theses for both my Masters(the relation between Roman law and Canon Law of Marriage, the Role of the Library in Evidence Based Medicine.

The best advice you have received on this thread is to be more specific, its all about knowing more and more about less and less. I would also suggest being future orientated. How about:

the possibilities for poker on Mobile networks
the next generation of poker sites
the demographics of poker and online gambling and the strategy to attract more female participants,
the correlation between computer gaming and online poker and the possibility of expanding customer base from one to the other. How do you get Worlds of Warcrafts 8 million player base playing online poker?

And don't leave it until the last 3 weeks.


....oh a good bibliography and extensive footnotes are essential

ditpoker

sumoward wrote:

I have done thesis's for Both my Masters(the relation between Roman law and Canon Law of Marriage, the Tole of the Library in Evidence Based Medicine,.

The best advice you have received on this thread is to be more specific, its all about knowing more and more about less and less. I would also suggest being future orientated. How about:

the possibilities for poker on Mobile networks
the next generation of poker sites
the demographics of poker and online gambling and the strategy to attract more female participants,
the correlation between computer gaming and online poker and the possibility of expanding customer base from one to the other. How do you get Worlds of Warcrafts 8 million player base playing online poker?

And don't leave it until the last 3 weeks.


....oh a good bibliography and extensive footnotes are essential

if you can crack how to get more and more women playing online poker you can walk into any marketing job with any of the major websites!

pok3rplaya

relate poker strategy to investment theory. Sharap (sp?) ratio and all that jazz.

DeadMoney

I met a final year psychology student at a tounament once who was carrying out his thesis on the psychology of poker. He was trying to analyse how different personalities reflected on different styles of play. Seemed quite interesting actually. He should have interviewed a few scandies.

hotspur

sumoward wrote:

I have done thesis's
....oh a good bibliography and extensive footnotes are essential

As is a good dictionary so you don't think the plural of thesis is "thesis's".

I'm not a business guy so I'm not sure what kinds of theses are appropriate for your degree but I'd love to read a good case analysis of how Everest Poker launched only in 2005 and as a stand alone managed to grow and thrive in such a competitive marketplace. They won the online poker operator of the year award last week at the eGaming Awards.

When you pick your subject you can fire me a pm, I've helped a couple of people in Ireland do an undergrad thesis on poker.

sumoward

hotspur wrote:

As is a good dictionary so you don't think the plural of thesis is "thesis's".

I do love the spelling police.

Why don't you also give us 500 words on the possessive apostrophe while your at it.

RoadSweeper

hotspur wrote:

As is a good dictionary so you don't think the plural of thesis is "thesis's".

I'm not a business guy so I'm not sure what kinds of theses are appropriate for your degree but I'd love to read a good case analysis of how Everest Poker launched only in 2005 and as a stand alone managed to grow and thrive in such a competitive marketplace. They won the online poker operator of the year award last week at the eGaming Awards.

When you pick your subject you can fire me a pm, I've helped a couple of people in Ireland do an undergrad thesis on poker.

Great idea, ty i'll be in touch

BigCityBanker

pok3rplaya wrote:

relate poker strategy to investment theory. Sharap (sp?) ratio and all that jazz.

what has the shape ratio to do with poker strategy?

RoundTower

sumoward wrote:

And don't leave it until the last 3 weeks.


....oh a good bibliography and extensive footnotes are essential

sumoward's post is best, especially this.

HiCloy

BigCityBanker wrote:

what has the shape ratio to do with poker strategy?

Not to do with strategy, with assessing returns by adjusting them for risk. For the same expected return lower variance (say of daily/hourly earnings) is better. I suppose a lower Sharpe ratio would indicate you need a smaller bankroll and can use money more efficiently

The one on Everest sounds interesting. Party would be a good one too. Its graph reads uglier (Click for 5 years) than my last few days playing poker :eek:

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

You should start by searching through some of the online journal databases (e.g. Sciencedirect, ssrn.com, google scholar). These will give you a list of some relevant prior publications in this area.

The key to a successful thesis is to build on research that has already been accepted as 'okay'.

For a final year thesis at undergrad, it would be okay to simply replicate other research that has been done using new data or slightly different methodologies.

As long as you base your study on previously published research then you can always use this as justification for your own approach (e.g. 'this methodology is supported by Smith (2000)').

I would stay away from any ideas that are 'too different', as it could lead to your thesis being too time consuming and thus a distraction from the other subjects you are doing this year.