A research team from Lancaster University and the University of Finland studying online poker players establish that the late 15th Century Italian political advisor Niccolo Machiavelli would have bluffed big and got a tad angry when the victim of slow play.

Niccolo Machiavelli was a late 15th Century political consultant born in Florence, who achieved notoriety and angered the Christian church, over his thoughts on what makes a good leader as waxed lyrical in his two most prominent pieces of literature: The Prince and The Discourses.

And it seems he might also have been an excellent poker player.

Dr Jeff Yan of Lancaster University and post-doc researcher Jussi Palomäki came to that conclusion after research based on the behaviour of online poker players led to the publication of the paper: ‘Machiavelli as a poker mate – a naturalistic behavioural study on strategic deception.’