Poker ELO/PSR Description

Who is the best poker player?

“The player who owns most chips” is often the naive answer. But wait! Lost chips can simply be rebought at most tournaments and online poker games. So the chips balance by itself is not a suitable indicator of the players skill. It is not all just about chips!

Chips are not the whole story!

At sports and in many games there are precise criteria for the participants abilities. For sprint athletes it is the runtime per distance (Olympic champion Usain Bolt: 9,58 s for 100 m).

Chess players have been ranked according to their so called Elo number for about half a century already. The Elo chess world ranking is headed by the current world champion Magnus Carlson.

Rheia Games is the first provider who has developed a similar rating method for the game of poker.

To achieve this a rating number (ELO/Poker Skill Rating) is computed by considering the wins and losses of each player. The number indicates how fast and steady a player can win against his opponents. Thus it is not import how many chips somebody owns but how well he can play with them.

Poker ELO / Poker Skill Rating

Each PWT-Poker World Tour player gets a Poker Skill Rating (ELO/PSR number) based on which his rank in the PWT poker world ranking is determined.

New players start with a rating of 1,100 ELO/PSR points and obtain more points by winning games. The higher the poker skill rating the better the player. Recreational players may reach up to 1,250 points. Only the most professional poker players have a chance to exceed the magical barrier of 2,000 points.

In honor of Arpad Emrick Elos accomplishment of inventing the Elo system for chess, Rheia named its rating system the “ELO/Poker Skill Rating“. It was developed in 2012-2013 and became accessible to all PWT players in April 2014.

Principles of the ELO/PSR system

The ELO/PSR system adheres to the basic rules of fairness and transparency:

• Each ELO/PSR point that a player wins originates from some losing opponent. As a consequence the sum of all ELO/PSR wins always matches the sum of losses at that table.
• Who wins chips against a player obtains some of his points, who loses has to give points away.
• Better players are given a handicap. This requires them to win more than half of the games against the weaker opponent. The larger the difference in the ELO/PSR rating the larger is the handicap of the better player.

Are you the best poker player in PWT?

The players with the best ELO/PSR rating are currently:

The first place in the PWT-Poker World Tour Ranking is especially competitive. Are you able to compete? Then get started here: Play PWT Poker World Tour now.

The rules can be found here: Poker Rules.