Life Blog One

A poker mystery.

Although I’m not that good at it I do enjoy a game of poker. Not “serious” stuff for serious money, but a nice sociable and friendly game of Texas Hold ‘Em when I get the chance is always good.

My nephew and his gf used to regularly have poker evenings with a few friends, (£10 a session, winner take all), and I enjoyed the social aspect of it as much as the game itself, but since they’ve started a family the sessions are no more.

Just lately, as I’ve been stuck indoors for so much of the time and become bored beyond belief, I’ve taken to playing poker on the Playstation again with Prominence Poker being my game of choice. It strikes a nice balance for me in that:

• There are avatars that sit around the tables and show realistic pre-programmed motions and emotions animations, and one has numerous choices when designing ones own avatar to reflect ones own personality
• There is no need to “friend” people or enter into conversation, although voice mode is available to those that like that sort of thing
• Among the playing options, each month has an ongoing rating system where players can get promoted or relegated to various levels commensurate with their current form
• There is a challenging solo mode where one plays the “machine” in the form of characters within the game

While playing the game against other “humans” though I’ve noticed one thing that baffles me …

Why is it that some people, when playing the Big Blind sometimes choose to just fold when none of the other players have raised the stake on the opening round of bids? There may only be themselves and one or two other players still in the hand.

This makes zero sense to me as it would cost the player nothing to just check and see what comes out on the flop.

Ok, so they may be holding two cards which, by themselves, don’t seem to offer much hope of winning anything, but the flop can turn something like a 9-2 off-suit into a winning hand almost as easily as a pair of Aces can become a losing hand.

It costs nothing … zero, zilch, zip … to just check and find out. The worst that can happen is that they then fold after the flop.

I know there are no rules involved in this, but can anyone explain the logic for me, because I sure as heck don’t get it.

Happy “poking”.