For this week’s critical play, I played poker online with five friends from home. This is something we do pretty regularly, with only a $10 to $25 buy-in, so it’s always pretty low stakes and just for fun. I noticed a few references towards luck in this play session. One of my friends won 8/10 hands in a row, and was completely wiping a few of my less experienced friends off the table. My friends who were getting destroyed said “Ryan is just getting insane hands, this is crazy luck” and “Oh my god, why have my cards been so bad this game”. These experiences of “luck” have one big factor in common; Ryan, my friend who was playing well, has a lot more poker experience than all of us, so knows how to move through a game of poker better than most. It makes sense that he would “get hot” for a few hands and play the table better than the inexperienced players more times than not. I also witnessed luck completely swing the other way, going against one of my friends. Max, a very inexperienced player, knew he lacked the poker knowledge compared to all of the other players at the table, and decided to go big almost every hand. He knew he did not stand a chance winning in the long game against skilled players, so decided to just throw big punches and go for the high risk high reward plays. He ended up losing his $25 after a quick 12 hands.
My experience playing the game was enjoyable because I was playing with friends from home, and we could engage in banter tailored to each other specifically while competing for (generally) low-stakes money. If not for the fact that this was with my friends, I would have been less engaged in the banter and more focused on the money aspect. I’ve never played poker with random people or at a casino, but I can see how in those settings, it can be really addictive. I only go into these friendly poker games if I’m 100% okay with losing my buy-in, and especially when it’s not too high, I’m never upset at the end of the day losing. But I can totally see how in certain atmospheres, and with the right amount of money at stake, poker is dangerously addictive. Even when playing with my friends, we sometimes have a hard time stopping the game and deciding when to call it quits because people want to keep playing to either win their money back or increase their winnings. We will often play late into the night because of this and stop playing only when someone has to go to bed. It’s easy to now see why casinos are basically 24/7 and can keep players at tables all day/night. This critical play has reminded me of video games involving loot boxes, and the controversy that brings up. In games like Star Wars Battlefront and Overwatch (targeted towards younger audiences), exposing kids to gambling and the feeling of winning/losing based on chance (all with real money at stake) is upsetting. The randomness makes players, and especially young children in this case, want to keep going until and even after they have received certain loot/prizes.
