Levels of Ekotism

What is it that allows poker players of all skill levels to believe that they are terrific players? Did you say "Egotism"? It certainly contributes to this misconception.

Most forms of poker - very close to the right mix of skill and luck - make it is easy for people to experience long enough winning streaks to convince them that they are superior players.

Because players are only able to view their results in capsulated snapshots that do not clearly define their actual advantage or disadvantage, egotism allows players to consider their results the way they want.

The nature of the human animal is such that poker encourages bad play. An analogy exists between poker and a study conducted several years ago on rats. The scientists conducting the study wanted to find out how to increase the frequency with which rats would touch a trigger to release food. For our purposes, the three important trials were:

1. The trigger released food every time the rat touched it.
2. The trigger released food at a specific interval of touches (e.g. three touches per morsel).
3. The trigger released food intermittently.

You can guess that the trial that resulted in the highest frequency of `touches' was the last one. Does this sound a little like poker? You have a game in which a person can play quite poorly and still win added to the natural variance of the game encouraging `loose' play (using the theory developed in the rat study).

poker and a study conducted

the interpretation of reality

An egotistical person