Superstition and Poker Players
See the guy across the table? He has a little green frog figure sitting next to his chip stack. About as tall as two dice placed on top of each other. Another fellow has a Marlboro box sized metal Buddha strategically placed beside his chips. At other tables I see a bear’s tooth, a silver dollar, a penny encrusted in clear plastic with “MY LUCKY PENNY” imprinted on it. Scanning the room I see a medallion with a crucifix embedded in it, a statue of what looks like a small white dog, a four leaf clover in plastic, a little red devil figurine, a piece of iron looking material claimed to be a meteor….you get the idea? Are these items on the tables to bring them luck? Does the owner think that their “lucky piece” will have an effect on what cards they’ll receive? Do they think that there is some mysterious force or energy emanating from these trinkets? Might they think their amulet elicits divine intervention to help them win at poker? I had the opportunity to approach five of them, and ask about their trinkets. I’ll tell you what they said at the end of the story. But let me give you my take on “lucky pieces” first.
Believing that a lucky piece (or amulet) will bring you good fortune is a superstition. There are various types of superstitions used in gambling and poker. Some make sure to wear the same shirt they wore when they won their last tournament.
I know a player who picks his cards up only with his left hand, another makes sure he looks at only one card at a time. I’ve seen a fellow get up and walk around the table every time he won a hand. Overall, I think all superstitions are absurd, but today I’d like to focus on the absurdity regarding the trinkets and related paraphernalia that poker players bring to the table to bring them luck and fortune.
Let’s talk about the Laws of Nature, you know, laws of physics and such. If you drop a ball…it falls (Principle of Gravity), it does not float in the air. If someone claims that they possess the powers to make a ball levitate, that would be counter to the principle of gravity. If proven, then the laws and principles of nature would change. All the claimer would have to do is prove it under scientific conditions.
As for poker players and lucky pieces, if you REALLY think that your lucky piece effects the outcome of games, well, uh, please read more.
Physics shows us definite rules by which nature always operates…rules for establishing what is physically possible, and for eliminating the impossible. The scientific community has confidence in these laws due to observations and experiments.
A “lucky piece” (amulet/charm which brings good luck) on the poker table for the purpose of bringing the owner good luck needs to demonstrate its effectiveness via scientific observation and testing which can be replicated.. Without such validation it is just a superstition, a form a magical thinking.
There is a rock in Africa where people travel thousands of miles so they can sit on it to become fertile. Some have become pregnant and conclude that the rock had caused the pregnancy. A golfer wears a copper alloy bracelet. The next day he feels less pain, and concludes that the “energy” from the bracelet caused the reduction of pain. A poker player places his “lucky stone” on the table and places in the money in his last three tournaments. He believes the stone effects the cards he is dealt. All of these are examples of magical thinking.
One of the learning methods humans are programmed to use is to associate things and events that “go together”. We are born into this world not as critical thinkers, but as magical thinkers. The tooth fairies, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, were all very real for us when we were children. We learned automatically about “what goes with what” and then later interpreting those associations in terms of “what causes what.” It is this association of events that occur close together in time that underlies not only our intuitive learning about the world but also superstitious learning…seeing cause and effect relationships where none exist.
Gambling is truly an event of numbers, meaning that a mathematic probability exists for each situation. Take the following situation as an example. If a person flips a coin 10,000 times, no one expects it to be heads then tails then heads again, etc. for the entire 10,000 times. You will have streaks or runs where it might be heads ten or twenty times in a row then tails seven or thirty times in a row. No one calls that good or bad luck. It’s just the probability of events.
So when a person gambles, they are walking into the event and they have no idea if the event is coming up heads or tails, or in their case a winner or loser. If a person plays 10 hands of blackjack and loses nine hands, they might think they have bad luck but in reality if you played 10,000 hands taking into the consideration that the casino has a house advantage you will win your appropriate amount of hands. Unfortunately, most gamblers do not have enough money to sit around for thousands of hands until it is their turn to win. Therefore, those gamblers would call it bad luck if they lost and good luck when they won and all that really occurs is a mathematical experience.
Hold ‘em Poker is different from flipping a coin. There are skills involved. Bluffing, playing position, slow playing ,stealing blinds, calculating hand, pot and implied odds, and analyzing the “texture” of the table are skills of a seasoned poker player. If you play “correct” poker, the chance expectations of you winning is higher than one who plays like a maniac.
Leaving skill and abilities out of the equation, over the long run, the good hands and the bad hands even out. Statistically, you should be dealt pocket aces every 220 hands. The odds against flopping a flush are 118 to one. Completing a straight on the river is a 5 to 1 shot. Those are called chance expectations. Sometimes you will be dealt pocket aces twice in ten hands. It happens. But believing that your lucky charm has a cause/effect on you receiving those aces is just silly. Sorry, that is not the way life works. Having a card marker/protector is one thing, but believing that it has supernatural power…well, you’ll just have to prove it to me. You’ll probably win the Nobel prize as well….and receive phone calls from the US Department of Defense, CIA, and a dozen or two foreign governments.
In fact, there is an organization, The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), located in Ft. Lauderdale. The JREF, offers a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions under which a test will take place. All tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple preliminary test of the claim, which if successful, will be followed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually conducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the applicant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the "applicant" becomes a "claimant."
It costs nothing, and you can find the application for the prize at James Randi Educational Foundation. However, before you apply, I suggest you do some preliminary testing yourself. Make sure your lucky charm can actually do the things you will be claiming it can do. Don't lie to yourself.
Find someone you know who is a reasonable, scientific sort and talk to him about your lucky piece. Ask him to be candid. Then, demonstrate your proposed claim to him. This is the second big hurdle. If you can convince an honest friend that your lucky piece works then keep going. Otherwise, stop; you will have no chance convincing the JREF's investigators.
If you feel your lucky piece consistently brings you strong cards, you might want to keep a record of your cards with, and without, your charm on the table.
Maybe do a little research. You might start with Skeptic , or CSI. Review the literature. Make sure you are not fooling yourself with claims that just can’t be supported. If after this, you feel you have “the goods”, submit an application for the million dollars
At the beginning of this article I told you I had asked five of the “lucky piece” holders about the pieces they brought to the table. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by their answers. None of the five actually thought their trinkets brought them luck.
Regarding the fellow with the plastic encrusted “lucky penny”…it was just a novelty…a remembrance from Las Vegas. The owner of the meteor told me how his object stimulated discussion at the table. Nothing mystical involved here. The player with the Silver Dollar used it as a card protector. No powers, no influences. The response from the fellow with the piece of metal with a crucifix embedded in it, was a hearty laugh and definitive “no way”, when I asked if he brought his item for luck. Finally I got to talk with the person who brought the statue of the small white dog to the table. As soon as I asked her about it, she whipped out two photos of her much beloved dog, which looked much like the statue. A lucky piece???…no way, she just used it as a card guard.
It was good to see that superstitious behavior was not a prevalent as I had thought.
Tom Golabek is an award winning magician, and plays the poker tables of South Florida and Las Vegas. He has produced a step by step instructional DVD on how to perform a colorful collection of poker chip tricks, and card handling techniques. Please go to www.pokerchipdvd.com.
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