Why bad players don't know they are bad

[baggins]

while i generally agree with the ideas in the original post, and article, and the ideas in the thread a few weeks back about the same thing, i have thing to add.

the people you see playing that are horrible are the bottom of the barrel.

there are how many people in the world that are horrible at poker? too many to count. some of them have no idea that it is even a game that requires skill to win.

but most of the people who are horrible at poker DON'T play. they know they won't win, or at worst don't think they're lucky enough to win.

but the people you see playing and losing miserably, those guys are so dumb as to not even realize how bad they are at the game.

seems like common sense, but it also seems like an important distinction.

[Gamblor]

So I guess I should not be surprised, when I walk into a casino in Las Vegas, to see thousands of people spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars on negative EV games that can only make the house money in the long run -- Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Slots.

And for poor poker players who don't know how bad they are,add poker to the list of negative EV games that they shouldn't play, but which they do play.


For some, the utility gained by merely sitting down (in the case of poker), or the mere prospect of having a single lucky night is worth the house edge at blackjack or craps, and whatever edge they are giving their opponents.

Gamblers are the opposite from the rest of the population - they are not risk averse. They are risk loving. The edge they give up is compensated in utility by the risk-attraction.

[umdpoker]

i wish i could outsmart those damn dandelions...stupid allergies

[umdpoker]

How easy do you think it would be to outsmart a charging grizzly?

Pretty easy. You just ask him the odds when drawing to an inside straight with a backdoor flush when high spade splits the pot and you hold Qs. He'll then sit down to ponder the problem (bears think better when they sit) and you can quietly slip away.

hahaha. i almost fell out of my chair.

[lefty rosen]

My favorite thing to watch is the ultra aggressive bad player transforming from an unlimited shark(in his mind) to a weak passive female type calling station. As the chips dwindle the maniacal play lessens, it's like watching a juicer come off steroids.......

[Tommy Angelo]

"From an evolutionary standpoint, it should be obvious why there are so many unintelligent people. Look at our competition. The average human only needs to be smart enough to outwit dogs, earthworms, and dandelions to be a successful species."

You are exactly wrong. If we (individuals or species) were in competition with earthworms and dandelions for resources, you would be exactly right, except then the situation you are trying to explain would not exist.

The most relevant fact regarding intelligence that comes from evolutionary biology is that variation in intelligence within human populations must be genetically caused at least in part, and it must have existed for a long time. Otherwise, natural selection would have had no options to choose from.



Tommy

[CCass]

I don't have any WSOP bracelets, so what the heck do I know. Having said that, here are my thoughts about bad players and poker.

A lot of players know a good/winning hand when they see one. A good player knows a good/losing hand when they see one, and they lay it down.

Also, someone commented about all the millions of people in a Casino playing games that have a +EV for the house. Actually, if you can count cards and understand the correct plays mathematically, the player has a +EV in blackjack. Fortunately for the Casinos, few people fall into this category.

[StoneAge]