Often, I\u2019ve heard players tell a video poker story of a time when their score was positive on a given day, but then they \u201cgot greedy\u201d and ended up with a negative result. The phrase is usually accompanied by some self-loathing. Perhaps, \u201cWhy did I let myself do that again. I know better!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I almost never say that, although I\u2019ve certainly had my share of experiences where my score went south after I was ahead for a while. Today I want to look at that term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not going Gordon Gekko on you and proclaiming, \u201cGreed is good!\u201d As I\u2019m using it today, greed is a negative trait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s also accept in general that winning is good and losing is bad. Then losing intentionally would be a bad thing. One more premise we must accept is that gambling scores go up and down. We can all recount what happened over the last half hour. None of us can accurately predict what swings will happen in the next half hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my mind then, so long as I am playing a game that exceeds 100% in theoretical return, and playing to the best of my ability, when I lose, it\u2019s just a circumstance I cannot control. I know it\u2019s going to happen sometimes. Frequently, even. I just don\u2019t know if it is going to happen today or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I hated myself after each loss, then I\u2019d be in a psychologically unhealthy profession. Losing is just part of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most players, of course, aren\u2019t playing games where they have the advantage. They either can\u2019t find good games, don\u2019t know how to play them well, or possibly are in the mood to play and don\u2019t really care whether or not they have the advantage. For players like this, if they\u2019re just thinking about the royal flush without accurately considering the cost to get it, then yes, perhaps that could be said to be \u201cgreedy.\u201d But that\u2019s not the way most players use the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As best as I can tell, some players who use the term simply mean they lost and aren\u2019t happy about it. Perhaps they\u2019re telling what poker players refer to as a bad beat story. If that\u2019s the case, no big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others, perhaps, are justifying their loss by admitting to a \u201cpersonality defect\u201d (i.e., greed) which has the effect of saying that this is not really their fault. They are still good people who have occasional lapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the fact is that they are going to be losing again and again and again — interspersed by wins sometimes. Every gambler goes through this. Even winning ones. It isn\u2019t that you\u2019re greedy. It\u2019s that you\u2019re playing a game with ups and downs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps they use the term because they are poor losers. While nobody likes to lose, getting really, really upset about it probably suggests you should consider not gambling. Knowing you\u2019re going to get upset over and over again because that\u2019s the nature of the game isn\u2019t the healthiest way to lead your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Often, I\u2019ve heard players tell a video poker story of a time when their score was positive on a given day, but then they \u201cgot greedy\u201d and ended up with a negative result. The phrase is usually accompanied by some self-loathing. Perhaps, \u201cWhy did I let myself do that again. I know better!\u201d I almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861201,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861200\/revisions\/861201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}