Forum Archive : Miscellaneous

Why do people play for money? From:   Hank Youngerman Address:   redtop@redtopbg.com Date:   23 September 2005 Subject:   This might be a dumb question, but...... Forum:   rec.games.backgammon Google:   0vq7j1tsofnaf2n43qdkjo3v0la1fhshs8@4ax.com When I play backgammon online for money, I do it because I win money. I'm sure that people who know me find it believable that I am a steady long-term winner. I know there are a few people around who are fairly well-fixed and play backgammon for money for the sociability also. A few people deliberately play medium to high stakes against strong players for the pleasure of challenging their skills against a top expert. But why do so many people play and lose? Most people MUST be losing, as the house always wins. There are plenty of places to find online games at any level. Even the experts who play on places like TMG and GE, are mostly not identified by name. If you are, perhaps, playing against Giant 32 players, you don't know it. Are there really that many players who prefer money play to non-money play, even though it means re-funding their account every week or month? David C. Ullrich  writes: Two things spring to mind: We have a little chouette here - I've been keeping track, and in fact all but two of the players are indeed losing. It's mostly students, hence what you guys would think of as ridiculously low stakes (10 cents or 25 cents depending on who shows up first - for a lot of these guys losing 5 dollars is significant...) The two better players have each won $150 or so this year. Most of the other players have lost $20, $40 or something like that over the year, a few are up $10 or so. One answer to your question is that most of them say they regard it as cheap entertainment, and/or they think of the money they lose as tuition - many of them have been improving a great deal, learning things from the two of us. Another aspect is the one _very_ big loser in the group. He's lost over $200 this year. I'm certain he knows he's lost money but I doubt he has any idea he's lost that much. Based on his play and things he says it seems clear to me his problem is he thinks he's much better than he is. Maybe a year ago he was much better than the other guy, but the other guy's been improving very fast and he hasn't because he thinks he already knows it all. So for example he's in the box, he'll correctly drop most of the team, beaver the guy he thinks he can beat, and get pissed when he loses (sometimes the guy he takes is better than he thinks he is, sometimes he doesn't realize that even if he _is_ much better than this guy he's not enough better to justify a take in this position...) Or he'll make _totally_ wacky plays, which as far as I can guess are inspired by misunderstanding the reasoning behind plays he's seen the two better players make. I guess the short version of the second answer is that some people are very good at believing what they want to believe in spite of evidence to the contrary. (The fact that backgammon has so much luck helps him believe he's not playing that badly - he sees the two better players also losing all the time.)   Did you find the information in this article useful?           Do you have any comments you'd like to add?

 

Miscellaneous

Backgammon computers  (Graham Bayne+, Mar 2005) 

Backgammon in famous paintings  (Dan Scoones, Mar 2000) 

Backgammon versus poker  (Peter Hallberg, June 2006) 

Backgammon's popularity  (Anon+, Sept 2003) 

Board orientation  (Daniel Murphy, Mar 1999) 

Calculation versus instinct  (Kit Woolsey, Jan 1998) 

Checker play versus cube play  (Gregg Cattanach, Oct 2004) 

Checker play versus cube play  (David Montgomery, Jan 1998) 

Copying positions from books  (Stick+, Nov 2005) 

Famous people who play  (Carem Wiklicm+, Dec 2002) 

Free lesson  (Donald Kahn, Apr 1999) 

General tips  (Hank Youngerman, Aug 1998) 

Giants of Backgammon list  (Raccoon+, Mar 2006) 

Handicapping  (Kees van den Doel+, Aug 2003) 

Handicapping  (flash, Aug 1998) 

Handicapping--Pass or pick a roll  (Michael J. Zehr, Dec 1997) 

Handicapping--Rerolling 5-4  (Mary Hickey, Feb 2004) 

How bots rate you  (Phil Simborg, Mar 2010) 

Initiatives by local clubs  (Raccoon, Mar 2006) 

Is online gambling legal in the U.S.?  (Chuck Bower+, June 2006) 

Maximizing earnings  (Stanley E. Richards+, Oct 2005) 

Money management  (Carly Robson+, Jan 2009) 

Money management  (Gnoh Mon+, July 2004) 

Money management  (Adam Stocks, Jan 2003) 

Money management and the Kelly Criterion  (Stuart Thomson+, June 1999) 

Notation  (Dean Gay, Feb 2000) 

Notation  (Kit Woolsey, July 1995) 

Position cards  (Francois Hochede, Jan 2004) 

Posted diagrams are scrunched up  (Dale+, Sept 2000) 

Top women players  (Tami+, Nov 2006) 

Typesetting backgammon  (Jason Lee+, Apr 2006) 

What is Zbot?  (Douglas Zare+, Dec 2003) 

What is backgammon?  (David C. Oshel, Aug 1997) 

Why do people play for money?  (Hank Youngerman+, Sept 2005) 

World Champions  (John Bazigos, June 1994) 

rec.games.backgammon mini-FAQ  (Daniel Murphy, Mar 1998) 

From GammOnLine         Long message         Recommended reading         Recent addition

 

Book Suggestions Books Cheating Chouettes Computer Dice Cube Handling Cube Handling in Races Equipment Etiquette Extreme Gammon Fun and frustration GNU Backgammon History Jellyfish Learning Luck versus Skill Magazines & E-zines Match Archives Match Equities Match Play Match Play at 2-away/2-away Miscellaneous Opening Rolls Pip Counting Play Sites Probability and Statistics Programming Propositions Puzzles Ratings Rollouts Rules Rulings Snowie Software Source Code Strategy--Backgames Strategy--Bearing Off Strategy--Checker play Terminology Theory Tournaments Uncategorized Variations