Thursday, June 30, 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

World Series of Poker 2011

I am making a trip to play in the World Series of Poker this year again (I played there in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2010). Given online poker is (at least temporarily) gone; this may be the last time I play the WSOP. Further, this trip will probably be the last time I think of myself as a semi-professional poker player, an identity I have had for the past half-dozen years. After this trip, I will still play some poker – but only occasionally (maybe monthly, maybe less).


Since this may be my last shot at WSOP glory, I better make it count. I’m playing the $1,500 NL holdem event on Saturday, June 18th, and (if I bust from that) the $1,000 NL holdem event on Sunday, June 19th. I will post updates on my facebook account regularly, if you want to follow my progress. I will likely post less-frequent updates on my blog and/or on the ITH forums.

Good luck me!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Recently Published Papers

As an academic, I am an active researcher. Here are links to a few of my recently published papers along with short descriptions:


Are Experimental Auctions Demand Revealing when Values are Affiliated? (with Jay Corrigan). Published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

We examine whether bids in experimental auctions are demand revealing in practice when a participant’s values for a product are correlated with other participants’ value for the product. We find no statistically significant evidence that this happens. Instead we find that using repeated trial auctions with price feedback leads participants to bid higher than what theory would predict.



Does perceived unfairness affect charitable giving? Evidence from the dictator game. (With Sara Baublitz). Published in the Journal of Socio-Economics

We use a modified version of the dictator game to study whether perceived unfairness affects giving. To earn money, dictators first had to take a test. Our treatment group had participants taking tests of different difficulty levels while the control group had all participants taking a test of the same difficulty level. We found that participants who were in an environment where everyone faced the same challenge to earn money were less generous than participants in an environment where some people had an advantage while others had a disadvantage. One note: this is the first, but hopefully not the last, research I co-authored with a (now-former) student of Susquehanna University.



“What Impacts a Poker Player’s Earnings? Evidence from a Survey of Online Poker Players.” (With Michael Smith). Published in Gaming Law Review and Economics.

We surveyed 194 online poker players to examine what affected a player's earnings from poker. One key finding was that increased hours studying poker increased earnings. Further, the effect was stronger among those who had some higher education.  It seems the study, analytic, and information-gathering skills developed in higher education helped increase the effectiveness of studying. We found no evidence that age or experience affected earnings from poker.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Why is the economy still struggling?

Slides by Noble Prize winning economist Robert Lucas

The uncertainty surrounding businesses, along the demonization and crazy restrictions of them, was a huge reason the Great Depression was "Great". I thought with Republicans taking the house in November, things would get a bit better as there could be gridlock. It may still get better soon, but the economy is quick to turn around. With businesses sitting on lots of cash, once they start feeling confident that hiring new workers is a profitable move, the economy could turn around quickly. When that happens, however, is the million dollar question.