Hi guys, thanks in advance for any comments.

I'm a postgraduate psychology student (also and avid poker player, PLO and MTTs are my thing) and I'm currently preparing a paper on superstition and gambling.

Gambling is one area in which superstition is rife, simply by the very nature of superstitious behaviour as something that develops originally by inferring cause and effect between two events simply because they are followed closely in time.

What I'd most like, in a purely selfish way, is some great examples of specific superstitious behaviours that you might have seen at poker tables/casinos in general. The literature on general superstition has some fairly colourful examples, but the gambling related literature is pretty tame, blowing on dice, spinning a seat three times, not picking up cards with the left hand, etc etc. The weirdest things you have seen would be great, to compete with Farha's cigarette and Chan's orange.

If you do have anything to add about the superstitious beliefs, as opposed to behaviours, I'd be very interested to listen as well. Of course the age old 'gamblers fallacy' - the idea that if something has happened several times in a row it's less likely to happen again, despite unchanging odds, and a number of other probability related errors are well documented. Any other ideas that you have heard people spout off about how they believe things to work would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,
Carnite.

if i see the clock at times like 11:11 2:22 3:33 etc.. i know its gonna be a good day when i notice that more then 3 times.. without looking for it.. like ill be watching tv. go make food, look at microwave and wham.. there it is.. sometimes as many as 3 times a day ill see that now.

Yeah, something that's in the general literature about superstition is that most of the widely held ones have a very low investment value, so even if there is nothing to be gained from them the potential payoff outweighs the very minor requirement of taking part - for example knocking on wood. It doesn't take much effort and what if it actually does something?

I agree that in poker this can be a bad thing, like chasing because you 'just felt' a certain card was coming up, or the ultimate no-no, the gambler's fallacy, simply put "I've lost so many times in a row, the next one MUST be gonna go my way"

Readzie, i'm playing in a NL ring game right now and we're talking about palindromes too. Here's one for you: A man, a plan, a canal. Panama. (we're also talking about onomatapoiea (sp?) Come join in at table Brush on Full Tilt. I promise it'll be a good time .....

I meet a person who thinks that online in tourneys the chip leader always has the advantage. He claims to have seen runner runner for the chip leader to pull Quads and such. Also people like me who won't look or touch cards till they are all dealt. I have also seen people that Tap all their incoming and outgoing chips to there "lucky coin" or the card holding coins.

I swear the person with more chips than the other wins the all in more often than not in an online tourney. The poker sites want you to vbe out quicker so you play another game quicker......

F JJ vs 88 runner runner straight ( yes he had more chips than me)

doomed

I am probably the least superstitious person in the world.. That being said, once I was deep in a tourney and sitting in 13th place and folded an AJ to an all in.. I figured I was ahead and the only reason I folded was my position in the tournament.

I wore number 13 playing softball too.

Me too.

I used to be very superstitious.

When I wreslted in High school, if I won a match I would do every thing exactly the same before the next match, going so far as to piss is the same urinal.

When I got to college I did the same thing.

To root on the Buckeyes to the national championship a couple years back I ate the same breakfast and wore the same sweatshirt every game day all season.

Then I read in a poker book how superstitions were the sign of a week player who believed in luck. I think the trully serious poker player is rarely going to be superstitous and may even go out of their way to fight against it.

The good poker player knows that they prey on 'lucky' plays who 'have a feeling their gut shot will hit.'

If you are looking for gamblers who are superstitiuos, I suggest the craps or roulette tables.

Does Moises Alou piss on his own hands because of superstition or does the piss do good things for his skin that makes him play better?

Actually, jsbyun can just sit out of an entire sit-n-go while taking a dump and still take second place. It's amazing, really. . . .

Heh, those are some nice ones. Four is bad luck in chinese culture (and one other asian culture) oweing to the fact that it's the same as their word for death, one two three death five six....

On another note, how much do you think it'd cost to ship a few dozen decks of used cards to New Zealand? :-P

Not only that, but I never seem to be knocked out on an all-in by something like an overpair. Quite frequently my all-ins seem to get beat by monsters. Not ten minutes ago in a SnG, I ended up pushing preflop with the short stack on a 77, and got called down by a KK, which left me pretty much done for. The flop came up blanks, but the turn brought another K, and I'm drawing dead. Just to make the point, the river brought the other K to give the other guy quads. It happens all the time, I'll get beat by someone's two overpairs pair on the flop, but just to make the point the river will pair the board and give them the boat. It does occasionally go the other way too, one time I called a short stack's all-in with a KJ and flopped the flush to beat them (they had a flush too, but had pushed on something like a 76,) but just to make the point, the turn brought the king high straight flush.) It seems to happen all the time, my all-ins keep getting beat by monsters.

ya supersitions have prolly let me make a few extra bucks in my time.. but on the toher hand i no longer follow therm because i know they are donk plays.

When i used to see the clck say 3:33 like well iam sitting at a table.. if i got 3/3 within 3 minutes id call anything with it.. lol Anyhow needless to say ive prolly missed a few.. but hit more then my fair share :) Just an intresting tid bit.. i no longer do that now.