If you have spent any time at all playing poker online, you know the guys I'm talking about. They lose a hand in poker to a draw (In the popular internet poker community-card games hold em and omaha, this usually consists of players filling a straight or flush draw on the last, or river card), or just lose generally, and get verbally abusive about it. They call everyone at the table donks, and accuse the site of being rigged, though how exactly the site would be rigged, and what value there would be in rigging it in that particular way, is never discussed. And they come back day in and day out, keep losing, and keep complaining.
I often wonder what sort of person would behave this way. Are they just the sad sacks of life, with nothing to support their ego other than a perceived brlliance at poker? Ironically, they come across almost as egomaniacs, unable to consider even for a moment that maybe the reason they lose consistently is because they have a lot more to learn about the game. Often times they are pure pot-odds players, not understanding the importance of bluffing to playing profitably.
It is also interesting to note that accusations of nonrandomness in computer generated games almost always consist of the claim that low probability events are happening too often. Not coincidentally, this is what psychology tells us we willl perceive. The routine and expected elude our recollection, while the outlying results stick with us.
But don't tell the brilliant losers that. Their perceptions are always reality. Just ask them.
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It is also interesting to note that accusations of nonrandomness ... almost always consist of the claim that low probability events are happening too often. Not coincidentally, this is what psychology tells us we willl perceive.
Now what does that remind me of? Oh, yeah, IDists claiming that if low-probability events occur, then we have proof of the handiwork of "the intelligent designer" (aka, God)
Fabulous observation, that didn't occur to me. It sure is interesting how no matter what the subject, everything we know implies the IDers are full of beans.
But yes, as I think about it, the absive poker losers and the IDers are intellectual kindred. They both put their ultimate faith in their own interpretation of the events around them. For both, perception and reality are the same, and the facts be damned.
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