How Stupid Are They ????

[RydenStoompala]

I'm not sure this is a psychology post. It's more of an emerging social behavior phenomenom, one that I have noticed.

With the explosive growth of poker, and poker literature, I would have thought that more players would know the difference between logical explanation and urban legend. What I am seeing on online games and hearing in cardrooms, more than I was a year or so ago, is borderline mental retardation. I've heard two adults openly discussing the frequency of bad hands dealt by female versus male dealrs, and coming to an agreement that the women deal better cards. I've seen people online having a three way conversation about the frequency of receiving AK in the hole at one site versus another, and agreeing that such-and-such a site is "definitely the best." The examples are endless. It is mind-numbing stupidity on a scale that I thought could only exist on the Simpsons. I am seeing/hearing it a lot more now than previously.

Is it me, or has society been administered a gigantic STUPID pill? I'm not talking about micro-limit newbies, I'm talking about people who should know better...intuitively. Is there a bad drug problem I have not read about? This is like listening to people argue the influence of whitchcraft over zoning laws. It's starting to freak me out.

[fnord_too]

Perhaps you are just a better observer now than in the past.

[SeanSkill]

You did know that all that money ending up in your account had to come from somewhere right?

[Mike]

When I used to play BJ, there was a silly belief that you should not play against a female dealer who wore a lot of jewelry. That never made sense to me as she probably got that jewelry from big tips from winning players....

I think it is the population explosion in general. I can find many more people these days who can talk about more than just ESPN stats and how the ____ are doing, but in reality there are many many more of those people who can't.

It is everywhere, more people are driving safer, but the numbers of people who are truely dangerous on the roads has increased too and they get more exposure than ever before due to sheer volume.

[other1]

Most of society is stupid. Think about how dumb the average person is. By definition half of the people in the world are dumber. I think you are just noticing it now because more average people are playing poker.

[tek]

When I used to play blackjack (back when there was a +V in counting), I wouldn't play against asian female dealers.

Not superstitious--they just looked evil to me... [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[pokerswami]

These people probably have been thinking, reasoning and deducing illogically their entire lives. Their lives now include poker, and they bring their habits with them. You just happen to be in a position now to hear what they say and see what they do.

This is why we have the very important rule not to give poker lessons at the table. Giving lessons about the rules of the cardroom is okay, just don't let anyone teach these players how to think and play any better than they already do. I need their poor play to support my learning curve.

[andyfox]

The worst poker player I ever saw played every day with me in the early 1980s. He lost virtually every day. We were playing 15-30 draw and he lsot $50,000 a year. He played stupid.

But he was a bright man. He was paying $10,000 a week in income taxes in those days, so he had a pretty good income. He also did well in the stock market and invested in real estate in Santa Barbara. He just couldn't get the hang of poker.

We're all stupid about some things. Lots of intelligent people believe in angels, or ghosts, or Martians, or luck, or women dealers. Lots of intelligent people don't understand the Bill of Rights or gravity or geometry or photosynthesis or how the Xerox machine works and, therefore, might have peculiar ideas on those subjects.

There were, apparently, 45,000 people playing poker one night on Party. You're going to hear some unusual things from a few people whenever 45,000 people get together.

[lu_hawk]

Even smart people just can't understand some basic concepts in probability, and it's usually the concept of independent events. There is a guy I work with who did Ivy League undergrad and then got his MBA from Harvard. Yesterday he was trying to explain to me how the casino would have a much bigger advantage in blackjack if the dealer only dealt himself one card initially instead of 2. And his reasoning had something to do with the "fact" that his odds of getting blackjack increase because he hasn't seen his second card until after you have acted.

[Rudbaeck]

"No peek" or "european hole card rules" drastically increase the house edge in BJ. (Though it doesn't matter if the card is dealt before or after the players finish, all that matters is that the house doesn't peek for BJ.)