Poker Competition Essay -- Gambling Card Games Essays

Poker Competition If the appeal in competition is not just profit, but knowing that the profit came from another’s loss, then it is no surprise that certain â€Å"zero-sum games† dominate our world and culture. Poker is a perfect example of this American fascination with capitalism and despotic schadenfreude. This is because poker, just like any other zero-sum game, requires success and failure to be mutually inclusive. While poker is not quite in the realm of pure gambling and is not quite in the realm of pure skill, it successfully stands irresolute in the middle of it all with its ambiguous classification appealing to nearly every subset of our society. The diversity in its players is reflected in the innumerable Internet resources on the subject: sites that appeal to the gambler—downloadable interfaces to transform card room leisure into a domestic dalliance; sites that cater to mathematicians, economists and computer scientists in pursuit of new insights into AI programmi ng and game theory; as well as sites for the serious card player (whom should never be referred to as a gambler as this connotes a certain unacceptable level of skill!) covering the gambit of topics from poker psychology to personalized poker chips. Each poker-related website reflects this diversity of audience with respective varieties in style and information, but three specific sites aptly and obviously categorize players into the academic, the leisurely, and the professional. Respectively, they are: University of Alberta’s Poker Research Group, Yahoo! Games – Poker, and Two Plus Two Publishing. The University of Alberta has set out on the moderately ambitious task of designing a poker-playing computer that can beat the world’s best human player. T... ... card player and it is perfectly designed for that aim. It is not surprising that poker appeals to such a wide range of individuals or that poker sites have been created around their differences. This can be seen in all modes of competitive sport and poker is no exception. There is a contextual similarity in these sites that reflects a commonality in all poker players: win at all costs. The AI website clearly states that it exists with the intent of beating the world’s best player, visitors to Two Plus Two perpetually debate why his or her particular strategy is the most valuable, and even the novice player, when learning the rules of the game, is taught foremost to be a good bluffer (liar). These websites each uniquely capture the modus operandi of the poker player, the Machiavellian spirit of Vidal’s introductory quote, that simply winning is never enough.