The G-Spot: Pleasure Your Poker Playing Profits
By Tony Guerrera
What is the Game Really About?
Lots of motivations exist for playing poker. When I write about poker, I always write from the perspective of making decisions that make the most money possible. But really, your goal in poker, as in everything else in life, is to maximize your utility. Utility is a term from economics referring to overall satisfaction; think of it as a variable that somehow combines money and happiness (because money and happiness are not the same thing). When I play poker, it just so happens that I maximize my utility by maximizing my expected profits. I'm a competitive son-of-a-gun who's addicted to the thrill of victory, and I like making as much money as possible. Competitive players like myself have a tough time understanding those without the same killer instincts. But I'm finally grasping the idea that some people actually maximize their utility when they don't maximize their expected wins. This is a huge step from simply saying I'll let my opponents make however many mistakes they want. For example, perhaps some player loves getting drunk and watching opponents' reactions to bad beats that he puts on them. The amount of money this player loses is more than compensated by the joy this person experiences from playing the way he does. And in this player's worldview, he's playing optimally by playing drunk and repeatedly getting his chips in with the worst of it, because optimal play is being measured in terms of utility instead of dollars and cents. It's amazing how people sitting down playing the same game can actually be playing different games. Poker is wonderful in so many ways, and this is just another one. On the surface, it appears to be a zero-sum game (well, before accounting for the rake). But actually, it's possible for the overall utility of the table to increase (or decrease). Maybe you're a pure money player who gets in a huge pot as a favorite against an action junkie who loves the ride regardless of the outcome. You get your positive monetary expectation, and the action junkie gets his adrenaline rush. Meanwhile, two skilled players get involved in a huge pot. The underdog wins, but is pissed off about making a mistake, and his opponent is mad about having lost the huge pot when he was way ahead. I know this article seems to be a huge departure from my usual make the most money possible material, but I think it was an important one. Understanding what poker can be to different players can only serve to help us in our quests to maximize our individual poker-playing utilities. And through this filter, maybe we can begin to think of poker as a game played by people, and give all players the respect and dignity they deserve“regardless of whether they play profitably.
Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers and coauthor of Killer Poker Shorthanded (with John Vorhaus). Visit him at www.killerev.com. |
