The Pain One Endures as a Math Person.

I saw the poster below while checking into the Rio for the World Series of Poker. 

You do the math.  

So much for buying in bulk.


 

Live Poker?

I was in the Midwest over the weekend and excited to learn I was minutes away from a casino that had poker.

Well sort of.

Upon arrival I noticed there were no chips.  No cards.  There wasn't even a dealer.

10 players were seated around a table.  This I can confirm.

However the problem was the table looked exactly like this.

I guess this is the future.

Anyhow what inspired me to write about this experience was a particular hand where I floated a young aggressive player on the flop in hopes of bluffing him on the river.

We both checked the turn and my moment came on 5th street when I fired out a 66% of the pot bet to try and get him to fold.

The young aggressive kid asks me if the ace on the turn helped me.

I sat there in silence.

So what does he do to get a read?

He bets all in.

The way the game works each player must click a second time to "confirm" the action they have selected.

So "all in" doesn't really mean "all in" until you confirm.

This means you can pull back bets after seeing a reaction.  You can change your fold to call.  You can string bet all night long.

I quickly accepted that this maneuver was part of the strategy.  The game allows players to do this. The young kid was just using whatever resources were available to him to try and take me down.

He eventually cancelled his all in to fold.

Then confirmed.  

And if I was savvy enough to show my bluff I may have.

I just don't think this is what our founding fathers intended when they legalized poker in the declaration of independence.

So it turns out that electronic computerized poker against other human beings does exist in the USA.

You just have to go live to play it.