Hello gentlepeople it's your friendly neighborhood Guurg.
I hope you are doing well today.
I was thinking about a friend of mine that I was travelling/working with a couple years back. He was incredibly passionate about poker and would always go on about how complex the game was. Taking it a step further, I think cards are one of the best forms of entertainment to exist (for several reasons).
I had previously never really thought about it prior to that, but the man had a point. There's a definite skill to playing the game well and it isn't just about the social aspect either. I had found it pretty fascinating that there are people who make a pretty good living running online poker. If it was only a game of reading and deceiving people then playing it online would be taking away most of the game (since you can really only read their behavior).
It seems like playing a fighting game to me (since I used to play a fighting game in tournaments). You've got this base level skill for a professional poker player that they all have to meet, and it's so much higher than your average that it's trivial for a pro to beat an average player. I mean, that's a given. but what about a bot?
A bot can play a GTO (Game Theory Optimal) strategy all day long, but that doesn't mean that the bot will actually cause losses for a pro. GTO is basically this strategy that involves playing defensively to minimize risk and bring in a better win rate - it's more of an avoiding loss strategy than a win big strategy. There isn't really a perfect play for every situation in poker, since a lot of the dynamic IS reading your opponent (even if your opponent is a screen name). But a pro can play that way as well. I mean, they might not play it "perfectly" but they can play it well enough to get through a handful of rounds and observe their opponents. So if they see someone always playing that way, they can exploit it.
Chances are though, they are just going to realize it's a bot and avoid it. Not because they can't win, but because it's not worth the time. If you're playing against someone who's always going to use a risk minimization strategy then it's simply going to be a very long match. Which again, sounds familiar from fighting games to me since there's a class of contender that would focus nearly exclusively on defense. It would always seem like an unfun waste of time to play people like that, but when it comes to a tournament you would simply have to do it.
Anyways, poker and fighting games aside, I think cards are an absolutely genius platform for gaming. You could invent a new card game using the standard 52 card deck today if you wanted to and then switch from playing that once you got frustrated with how difficult it is to create a balanced game. You can pick up a deck of cards for less than 1$ and play a new card game every single day for a couple years at a minimum. Granted, many of those games would have significant overlap.
I mean really, the history of the 52 card deck goes back to somewhere around the 14th-15th century and many of the games that we play today probably have roots going back to those times. Of course, poker as we know it is from the 1800's, but it is predated by numerous similar games much older than that.
Point being that cards are one of the oldest games that have been continuously played throughout history with little modification. The main modifications are mostly in manufacturing processes, of which we have probably reached a pinnacle of sorts.
Speaking of pinnacles, we've been stuck at the 52 card deck of cards for a significant amount of time. Certainly there a number of games that use more cards than this, but I wonder if there could be a more interesting/strategic version of poker using a greater number of cards - for example a higher base deck or something (such as a 14 or 15 base). Because, obviously, one of the games renowned for its complexity in practice needs to have a way to become more complex.
I mean, sure there have been a lot of modifications to the playing card in that there are tons of collectible card games in existence now. Shoot, one of the most active tags on Hive is all about a collectible trading card game. Trading cards are kind of their own monster though, if you ask me. I find the simplicity of playing cards to be one of their best features. You could be playing a card game in 10 seconds with a deck of playing cards using a very simple and easily understood rule set.
Aah, what a great invention!
Certainly not the oldest game that we still play today, which as far as I know is checkers. Unlike checkers, however, there' so much more you can do with numerically based playing cards.
One could argue that cards are the best invention in history as far as entertainment goes, but I'd probably disagree with that. Personally, I think the internet is probably the best invention in history as far as entertainment is concerned. Look at us now! Being entertained by writing and reading articles! suddenly this has gotten very meta...
Which logically would make the following absolutely 100% true, without a doubt: Online poker is the best invention ever in gaming.
And THAT's called LOGIC.
just not very good logic.
Anyways, thanks for coming by and seeing my madness be unleashed through a keyboard.
-Guurg.
Image sources:
https://www.pexels.com/@nick-rtr-1632308/
https://www.pexels.com/@matthardy/
https://www.pexels.com/@javon-swaby-197616/
Proof of brian tag because I think the bot is funny. I apologize profusely.