Do you play poker?

Post Reply New Topic

The game of poker, first and foremost, requires ability to read your opponents' cards. It's rarely possible to say exactly what cards your opponents have, so probabilistic thinking is necessary to be good at this game, and I've noticed that many (most? all?) autists lack it almost completely. Poker is also a pretty good simulation of social interaction in general*, and we all know how autistic people fare in that department.
So, do you play poker? Or maybe some other game of insufficient information? If yes, are you any good at it? I'd really like to learn more about your experiences of playing such games.

*The difference, of course, is that poker is a zero-sum game, but still.

Last edited by BMH on 15 Nov 2010, 4:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

I thought it was normal for autistic people to be able to count cards? I'm kidding. I don't play poker. It seems too much of a social game. I do however think it would be easy to have a poker face if you rarely show emotion though .

I'm odd... the only casino like game I find interest in is roulette. For some reason I like figuring out the odds of how likely a number is to hit while betting a lot on the outcome. In video games I tend to make a lot of money on roulette, but since it requires a lot of money and luck I'd never risk that much on a chance in real life. In real life I just like figuring out the odds in my head and don't even really play. I then watch for the number that is rolled and think "Thank the Godess I didn't bet money on that." Although I still can't figure poker out in video games due to my lack of interest

Edit: My lack of interest for poker is there is no story or fantasy involved to grab my attention. Like you said poker is a social game and I think that is what the real appeal is to the average player. When I see poker I just see a bunch of numbered cards and there's not enough to pull my interest in. I don't actually know if I'd be good at it or not. I am good at coming up with probabilities and the odds of occurrences... just not so good at sitting with a group of people staring at me.

Well, counting cards may be very useful in blackjack, but not so much in poker.


I wasn't necessarily talking about playing in casinos. It's possible to play over the internet, or with computer opponents.


What I meant was this: for example, your opponent raises and raises his bets. He may have the best hand, or maybe a mediocre hand, or he may very well bluff. Usually it's impossible to tell exactly what he has, so you have to think about his behavior in terms of probabilities... just like in real life. And what I noticed while reading these forums is that autistic people strongly prefer clear-cut, definitive answers (read any "Why do NTs do this or that" thread and you'll see). Hence I'm wondering how autistic people fare in games of insufficient information.

Okay. My answer for me is I don't take risks on things that aren't really clear cut. That is obvious even from my example on me not actually placing bets on roulette. I also didn't mean that the game had to be played in a casino... I just think casino whenever I hear those types of games. Anyway I don't want to bother this topic anymore as I'm getting the feeling you're looking for autistic people who do play poker... and want to hear what they have to say. I was only answering the question... "Do you play poker?" and I don't because I'd probably not do so well at it.

Edit: Maybe edit the title of the topic to "For autistic poker players... how do you fare?" I'm just saying that way you'll catch the attention of autistic poker players, and not people just saying no I don't play poker. Just trying to be helpful

Does that mean you don't take risks at all? Because taking risks when you expect to win with probability of 1 is not that risky


No, negative answers are also valuable


Thanks for answering. And about roulette: it's interesting that you didn't mention that you must expect to lose playing roulette, cause odds are stacked against you, no matter what strategy you're using. I don't know about computer roulette, though, but if you win consistently that surely means that random number generator in the computer roulette game is not random.

With roulette I like to figure the odds and they are usually very bad... that is why I do not play in real life. With roulette though you can make your chances fairly fifty-fifty. Kind of like betting on every other square and then consistently picking the color of the squares you bet on and then choose odd or even to go with your choice of squares. Sometimes even betting on 0 is good. the thing for me is trying to make a game out of betting the most without actually making redundant bets. For example it would be a waste of money to bet on everything because the win would net less than the bet. Heh I said I'm weird because roulette is not usually a favored game for people who don't like to take chances on the chance of luck. I however feel I can only play when nothing is at stake. So I do well with it in video games since there's no chance at real loss. Also with the above strategy you are always likely to win some money even if the ultimate bet is lost. It's too scary to play in real life though. That's why in a casino I play it in my head since there's no chance of losing... although when you win in your head it gets pretty annoying

Yes though ultimately if you could bet on a single number and it's color and it's being odd or even that would net the best results but I don't like taking huge chances for no reason so I try to make the odds much better. I think I like roulette... I wouldn't say I'd enjoy playing it in a casino any more than I'd like playing Russian Roulette though

Edit: Sorry that was off topic. I was just explaining my interest in the game

I still don't understand how that works. Care to show me your calculations of odds?

I only played once with some friends back when I was 18. They said I had a mean ass poker face. For an Aspie it's not really that hard to produce...

I play on line at Poker Stars a friend got me in to it. I don't play much and I'm 18 dollars + so far ( started playing not long ago).
I kinda joke around and I tell my friend I do binary card counting, since I seem to be really good at it and somehow predict/know when some cards are more likely to show up and depending on how many fold and how many bet and how much they bet. Some probability math in my head seems to work out kinda well.

I started with 10 dollars on my account and I play maybe one or two times a week at night when I have nothing to do.

I'm not a gambler I just do it for fun. I used to love One Armed Bandits (Slot Machines) when I was a kid traveling on boats.

To be quite honest the odds are very stacked against the player and the last game of roulette I've played in a game might not have been ultra accurate. I think there were 32 numbers and 0 so 33. For the 32 every other was black and the other was red. And they were mixed evenly between odds and evens aside from the green zero. the colors weren't necessarily in a perfect checkerboard either from what I'm recalling from memory. Each bet would be multiplied by it's odds of occurring so a bet on a color and a bet on odd or even only doubles the money. Where as a bet on a number would put out 32x the bet.

Just for example in the game I played I probably bet on like 16 of the 33 numbers so that's dealing with a 48.48% probability of a win, and then I'd bet on a set of color which is only double and an even or odd which again is only double their bets which would be a 45.45% chance toward the total but theres a 3% chance a zero could happen making both these bets null . Really now that I think about that that's not that great since thats the possibility to win 34x from spending 18 so it isn't a great science no... since it even goes over the rule of spending half a win towards a bet. Also now that I actually thought about it the extra bets probability of occurring to win 34 over 32 seems to be more along the lines of a 10 percent (that math could be bad it's 3:30am) probability making them redundant most of the time... Erm... you've got me... It just seems to be an okay method in playing games with a roulette game involved. I think I might have used a different method when I was doing better with it but I think I was just betting on half of the numbers with a 48.48% chance of winning (This way would save making 2 pointless bets 90% of the time so It is under half). It was fairly close to 50% and every win would bring back up to two previous losses. Really now I'm sure you can tell why I don't play for real money

48.48% is a terrible chance for odds. Seriously that's like betting 16k on a coin toss with a tiny piece of gum residue on the one side you're betting for . For my next trick I'll disappear before I make myself appear less intelligent