Posted by Junelli 1:31 PM
I know several people that fit this description perfectly...

"Anticipation: You Can't Gamble Without It"
by Roy West

During one of our recent conversations here in the dark corner of your poker mind, we spoke about “chasing,” and why people chase. That got me thinking about why people gamble. I believe that we gamble because of … anticipation.

Prove it? Maybe. Explain? Sure.

It was while I was walking through a sportsbook on the way to a poker room that this theory came to me. You can make a wager today on an event, the outcome of which won’t be known for several months. Games like the Super Bowl and the World Series can be bet on even before the start of the football and baseball seasons. The other end of the spectrum is that you can put a coin into a slot machine and know if you won or lost in just a few seconds.

The excitement of gambling for most people is in the time interval between placing the bet and knowing the outcome — whether that’s a few months or a few seconds. It is a period of … anticipation. Most poker players, whether or not they even realize it, are not in the poker room to make money, but to play poker. As Nick the Greek put it, “The next best thing to playing and winning is playing and losing. The important thing is playing.” So, for most poker players, playing skillfully is not the most important thing — gambling is.

The gamble is what sets up the anticipation. That’s why so many players don’t wait for a good hand. If they’re waiting, they’re not playing. No gamble, no anticipation, no fun. That’s why you often see a hand get checked around, except for the last active player, who bets no matter what he is holding. If he checks, there won’t be a “period of anticipation.”

One of the reasons why so many players play so badly is anticipation. It’s why so many are willing to consistently take a small pair against a big pair — why they are willing to chase. It puts them into action; they’re not sitting, and watching, and waiting. Action. Gamble! Anticipation!

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Tenacious, at 12:45 PM, October 06, 2005  

you mean others besides yourself?

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