IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oxf/wpaper/590.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Bluffing as a Mixed Strategy

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Norman

Abstract

In von Neumann and Morgenstern's sample model of poker, equilibrium has the first player bet with high and low hands, and check with intermediate hands. The second player then calls if his hand is sufficiently high. Betting by the low hands is interpreted as bluffing, and is a pure strategy. Here we show that this equilibrium is nongeneric, in the sense that it ceases to exist if the first player is allowed to choose among many possible bets, rather than just one. Moreover, Newman's solution for this case - which also has pure-strategy bluffing - is shown not to be a sequential equilibrium. However, a modified solution - where low hands bluff using mixed strategies - is a sequential equilbrium.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Norman, 2012. "Bluffing as a Mixed Strategy," Economics Series Working Papers 590, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:590
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:33b4d993-b563-42bf-b38a-8b8a1951396b
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcel Dreef & Peter Borm & Ben van der Genugten, 2003. "On Strategy and Relative Skill in Poker," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(02), pages 83-103.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hendrickx, R.L.P. & Borm, P.E.M. & van der Genugten, B.B. & Hilbers, P., 2008. "Measuring Skill in More-Person Games with Applications to Poker," Other publications TiSEM 2f1019be-50f8-4155-9592-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Lambrecht, Marco, 2020. "Measuring skill and chance in different versions of Poker," Working Papers 0687, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    3. Duersch, Peter & Lambrecht, Marco & Oechssler, Joerg, 2020. "Measuring skill and chance in games," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    4. van der Genugten, B.B. & Borm, P.E.M., 2014. "Texas Hold’em : A Game of Skill," Other publications TiSEM e5edc6e2-5cad-4e87-8158-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Marcel Dreef & Peter Borm & Ben van der Genugten, 2004. "Measuring skill in games: several approaches discussed," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 59(3), pages 375-391, July.
    6. van der Genugten, B.B. & Borm, P.E.M., 2014. "Cash and Tournament Poker : Games of Skill?," Other publications TiSEM edc02e9c-cda1-4531-b320-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Rogier J D Potter van Loon & Martijn J van den Assem & Dennie van Dolder, 2015. "Beyond Chance? The Persistence of Performance in Online Poker," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Poker; Game theory; Mixed strategies; Perfect Bayesian equilibrium; Sequential equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:590. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anne Pouliquen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfeixuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.