Card Player Magazine and Bluff Magazine issue rankings for poker players each month. They are based on accumulated points scored by each player. The more and bigger (in both prize money and number of entrants) that a tournament offers, added to the place that a player finishes, determine the total points for the month for each player and thus his ranking for that month. This culminates at year’s end when the 12 monthly totals are added together for each player and a “Player of the Year” and national rankings are determined by each magazine.
Although these rankings are often similar, there is usually a controversy over which tournaments are used and how they are weighed in determining the top player each month and year. Although skill is the primary asset in the rankings, since the players play different hands each tournament, luck often determines the outcome when the races are close.
Using an approach as is used in duplicate bridge, would take out the luck factor. This approach would require an initial session where the top players (say the top 100) would be divided into ten groups of 10. And then play one against one (heads up) matches against the other nine players in their group. Each group of ten would play the same cards.
Players in each group would be ranked from 1 to 10 based on the number of chips accumulated. Then the 10 players ranked the same number in each of the 10 groups would form new groups of 10 and play each player in their new group in a heads up match. Players would again be ranked from 1 to 10 in each group based on chips accumulated.
The two sessions would be used to create original rankings based objectively on cumulative results. For instance, if player A rated one in his first group and five in his second group, he would be rated 15th overall. If another player rated seven in the first group and eight in the second group, he would be rated 78th overall.
This would give you initial rankings that are more objective and depend less on luck than the two magazines’ systems. Tournaments could also be conducted similarly. A challenge system could also be designed to give players a chance to improve their ranking.
