The reason we lose at games














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Citation: The reason we lose at games (2013, January 7) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2013-01-games.html

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Jan 07, 2013
Interesting article, and there may be something to it; but I take issue with calling poker a 'skill based' game. Chess is very much a skill based game with no random factors. The only skill in poker is in knowing how to make the best use of the cards you're dealt. But the deal is random at the onset. Knowing the odds and the card count may help; but the overall game has nothing to do with skill at poker; more at human psychology and reading body language. But if you're dealt a lousy hand, no amount of skill will win the game. With a bad hand, if you win it is either extreme luck on your part, or you're up against a poor card player. There is always the chance you're being 'played' by a card sharp, setting you up to fleece you in later hands, of course.

Jan 07, 2013
Argiod, I believe you do not know a lot about poker.

There is a lot of skill involved, from knowing odds and potential outcomes, and hugely heavy on social and psychological strategy.

You just don't know the game well enough.

Yes, there is some luck involved, which is not the case with chess, but some poker players win, despite being dealt far unluckier hands than their opponents.

Jan 07, 2013
Doesn't chaos/network theory way cover some of this?

Jan 08, 2013
Cartesian Determinism only works with small perfectly-described systems. When the number of elements in a system becomes to large for deterministic models, stochastic models must be employed. For these statistically-based models the best descriptions come not from theory but from historical data. Statistical mechanics is the root of thermodynamics - the physics of the properties of a system containing a very large number of elements. Thermodynamics also has laws that are as inescapable as the laws of mechanics. The work of Prof. V.M. Yakovenko at the University of Maryland ("Statistical mechanics of money", Eur. Phys. J. B 17, 723{729 (2000)) is fundamental here.
