Moving Up in Stakes in Tournament Poker: A k-means Analysis of Latent Subgroups of Online Poker Players.

In tournament poker, skilled and profitable players can increase their stakes (e.g., enter tournaments with higher entry fees) in mathematically logical attempts to win more money faster. There are open questions about what types of players move up in stakes, and if those who move up in stakes are more likely to experience gambling-related problems. The current study addresses this issue by examining the actual tournament player records of a large European online gambling operator. For 1,603 players, we documented instances of moving up in stakes over a 66-month study period (February 2015 to July 2020). A k-means cluster analysis suggested four groups of players. Three groups were roughly defined by increasing levels of poker tournament involvement and ROI: Group A, least involved, worst ROI, n = 775; Group B, in the middle, n = 724; Group C, most involved, best (though still negative) ROI, n = 102. The last group, Group D, contained outliers (n = 2). Members of more involved groups were more likely than members of less involved groups to move up in stakes at least once. Members of Groups A and C were less likely to have a responsible gambling (RG) related account closure (either a temporary "cool-off" period preventing gambling on the website or a self- or operator-initiated account closure) than members of Group B. Moving up had no observable association with having an RG-related account closure within groups. Among less and moderately involved players, moving up in stakes is likely associated with increased poker tournament participation, but not with RG-related account closures.