The Theology of Poker

I have been interested in religion for many years. In my time, I've read the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, the Satanic Bible, and other books on theology and philosophy (holy and otherwise). Somehow though, despite a deep fascination with religion, I am agnostic. I don't worship a supernatural deity or play any part in religion, and I never really have.

I'd like to describe myself as an atheist. The world today is full of examples of religion, twisted and perverted to suit an individual's greed or ulterior motives. In America, fundamentalist Christians have a profound effect on policy, foreign and domestic. War is waged on countries that don't agree with the USA's (Christian) moral code. Creationism is taught in schools alongside science. In some areas, a woman cannot even choose to have an abortion, and doctors who perform abortion services are threatened and assaulted. In fact, the effect that religion has on modern society, particularly when it is taken to it's inevitable extremes, is truly worrying.

God

However, to call myself an atheist would be dishonest. The truth is that I was brought up in a Christian country, and I was educated by Christians. My grandparents are Christians, my country is governed by Christians, and while I was at school I took a class called 'Scripture', in which we studied the Christian bible. The effect that all of this childhood indoctrination had on me is unmistakable, and although I find the idea that God exists highly improbable, and I find only artistic, not spiritual, inspiration from the pages of the holy books, the notion that there just might be a God out there somewhere is indelibly branded on my mind.

What does this have to do with poker? Well, recently I was wondering whether religious belief can affect your poker game, either positively or negatively. To become a truly great poker player (as I aspire to do), you need to be able to detach yourself from the swings that are inevitable in the game, and be truly unbiased in assessing your own play. You need to accept responsibility for your mistakes, and be able to analyse your game impartially.

A lot of players can't do that. They can't deal with the swings, so they forever underachieve. Or they refuse to accept that they are to blame for their losses, and look for something or somebody to blame instead.

This culture of blame is encouraged by religion. If you crash your car head on into a pedestrian and they die, it's not your fault. God had a plan, which unfortunately meant that the victim had to pass on. But it doesn't matter - they're in heaven now, a better place.

Religion encourages people not to take responsibility for their own actions - whether good or bad. Some people believe that God pervades all, and that no action takes place without God's will. If they commit an act of outstanding charity, it was because God made them do it. If they catch a miracle card on the river, it was because 'God wished it'.

Never mind for a minute that if God did exist, he probably wouldn't be helping out players of a game in which the greedy objective is to inflict financial damage on your opponents. But why shouldn't you take pride in your achievements, while accepting and learning from your failures? It will make you a better player.

Knowledge of probability is also an essential weapon in a top poker player's arsenal. It's 220-1 against being dealt pocket aces preflop in Hold'em. If you have fifteen outs on the flop, you're a favourite to hit one of them by the river. If you play enough hands, you will inevitably be dealt a royal flush in five cards twice in a row (granted, it could take a lot of hands).

This is hard enough to grasp as it is. The vast majority of new players to the game think they are getting astoundingly unlucky when they take two bad beats in a row, or lose with pocket aces. That's because they don't understand the underlying mathematics, which often explain that a) what happened wasn't all that unlikely and/or b) what happened was bound to happen to someone, somewhere, eventually.

Religion and superstition erode this even further. The whole concept of randomness and the mathematical absolutes of probability fall apart when you believe deep down that they can be subverted at will by a deity. Sure, you're 3-1 against to make this flush, but if you pray really hard, God can turn that magical card for you every time!

I got wondering whether many top poker players were religious. Obviously, Jerry Yang, the winner of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, was nauseatingly so.

Daniel Negreanu is also religious, as he has made clear on his website. I don't know whether this was due to some experience later in his life, whether his Romanian parents had an influence (97.5% of Romania's population is Christian), or whether something else is at work. It's somewhat surprising though, as Daniel appears to be both highly intelligent and fairly young, both of which correlate with reduced religiosity in general.

Doyle Brunson is also outwardly Christian. In Super System he describes two key moments in his life, one in which his own health was spectacularly affected, and one in which his daughter's was, which saw his belief in God reaffirmed. It is interesting that Doyle chooses to ignore the anti-gambling messages of his chosen religion.

I expect the number of top players who are religious to be skewed slightly by the fact that many of poker's best players are American, and America has a much higher proportion of religious people compared to Europe. I am curious how religious are Britain's top players, and Scandinavia's, and Australia's. I would guess, for example, that someone like Gus Hansen is not particularly religious.

I think I am better off as an agnostic poker player, but I sometimes wonder whether believing in God would give me comfort and encouragement in bad times. Maybe I'll never know. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll find God at the main event final table. I'll be sure to let you know.