Superstition in Gambling
Superstition is rife in the gambling world. From the craps tables to the roulette wheel, you will find people who are ordinarily smart and rational people basing their gaming decisions on “feel.” While going with your gut instinct is not necessarily always irrational, in the case of making reads in poker, there is often a negative expectation correlation with superstition and gambling. By definition, a superstition is a belief or notion not based on reason or knowledge. The idea of a superstition has been around for centuries, spanning the ages from the Roman Empire to the 21st century. People correlate certain days, objects, or actions as bringing bad luck, or being inherently flawed based on nothing other than a superstition. Even the most rational of people could likely find something they unconsciously do that is wrought from a passing superstition in the back of their minds. In gaming, superstition is extremely prevalent, and can be observed in is naturalistic environment, the casino. If one walks past the craps table, you may see people snapping their fingers as they roll, arranging the dice in a certain fashion they feel is more lucky, or performing some kind of routine every time they roll, believing it will bring them luck. One could prove by studying a large sample size of people with superstitions that over the long run, their success or failure correlates with statistical significance based on the expectation of the bets they place, rather than their individual routines based on superstition. In the card room, poker players may believe they always lose when a particular dealer begins his shift. This may be a result of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the player believes he will be less lucky with the specific dealer pitching the cards, and will consequently play his hands more tentatively, enabling more draw outs. A player may ask to switch the deck every time he loses a poker hand. He may switch it out 20 hands in a row before he wins a hand, but on that last switch, he will believe he was correct in changing the deck. It may not occur to him that if he had not switched out the deck on the other 20 hands that he may have won some of those hands. Over the long run, superstitious people are likely to lose more, because they are basing some of their decisions not on facts and reason, but on irrational fears with no basis of logic. The more superstitious you are, the more likely you are to shut your mind off and blindly place bets without proper forethought. By breaking yourself of this habit, and rationalizing each situation you put yourself in as you hopefully would in your day to day life, you will come out on top more often than you otherwise would.
