ROBERT NORTHCOTT is an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-St Louis. He works in the philosophy of science and in metaphysics, and has published several articles on the subject of causation. Before that, he also learnt quite a lot of game theory. To his displeasure though, he found that this didn’t help him at all when it came to winning at poker. He’s now desperately looking for some other magic panacea.
STEVEN M. SANDERS is a former professor of philosophy at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. He has published numerous articles in ethics and political philosophy and has contributed an essay on amorality and psychopathy to the forthcoming volume Alfred Hitchcock and Philosophy. He is the author, most recently, of “Film Noir and the Meaning of Life” in The Philosophy of Film Noir (2005) and “Sunshine Noir: Postmodernism Meets Miami Vice,” in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir (forthcoming). He combines the excitability of an Erik Seidel with the composure of a Phil Hellmuth.
SUSAN SOLOMON is owner of Susolo Consulting Group, specializing in risk control. She was previously a vice president at Charles Schwab, managing its payment systems area, and has held positions also at Wells Fargo Bank, Del Monte Foods, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and McKinsey and Co. Susan has a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from U.C. Berkeley and has been close friends for over twenty years with Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 World Series of Poker champion. She was with Robert along with his wife and another MIT friend on the day that he won, and even inadvertently sprayed mustard on his sweatshirt at the Binion’s snack bar during a break in the action.
KEVIN L. STOEHR teaches humanities at Boston University. He is the author of the forthcoming book Nihilism in Film and Television and editor of Film and Knowledge: Essays on the Integration of Images and Ideas (2002). He has contributed chapters to Bob Dylan and Philosophy (2006), The Sopranos and Philosophy (2004), and Movies and the Meaning of Life (2005). He also serves as Project Director of The John Ford Center in his (and Ford’s) hometown of Portland, Maine. He is now writing a book on the metaphysics of cribbage playing.
MICHAEL VENTIMIGLIA is an assistant professor of philosophy at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He is the recipient of the 2005 Sacred Heart University Excellence in Teaching Award. He is also the two-time winner of the Alfred J. Streicher Cup, awarded each August to the least awful poker player to emerge from a smoky hotel room in Saratoga Springs, NY.
PETER J. VERNEZZE retired from the game in disgrace after his unsuccessful attempt to introduce the term “Dead Philosopher’s Hand” into common parlance. He also failed to become known as “The Utah Kid” primarily because it happened to be the title of a 1930 movie starring Rex Lease. He now teaches philosophy at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where neither poker, nor anything, is legal.
WILLIE YOUNG is assistant professor of humanities at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. He has recently published articles in Movies and the Meaning of Life (2005) and The Journal of Religion, and has a book on friendship forthcoming. As an ethicist, appropriately enough, he currently leads his poker group in moral victories, and never met a flush draw he didn’t think was right.
Index
acceptance, as distinct from belief, 133
action, voluntary, 30
addiction, and obsession, difference between, 175
Affleck, Ben, 22, 212
Ali, Muhammed, 17
alienation, 16. See also poker: and alienation
Alson, Peter
One of a Kind, 188
Alto, Jessie, 24
Alvarez, Al, xv
The Biggest Game in Town, 153
Amarillo Slim (Thomas Preston), xiv, 17, 18, 56, 82, 130
The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived, 53
arete, 29
Aristippus, 83
Aristotle, xv, 31, 32, 54
on friendship, 170–71
on knowledge, 33
Nicomachean Ethics, 29, 30
phronesis, 28
on virtue, 29–30
Auden, W.H.
“Casino,” xv
Augustine, Saint, 5
City of God, 159
Autry, Gene, 205
availability heuristic, 84–85
Barch, Tex, 162
Bataille, Georges, 215
Battle, Mrs., 215–16
Beatty, Warren, 206
A Beautiful Mind (movie), 113
Beebee, Helen, 96, 101
Big Hand for a Little Lady (movie), 206
Binion, Benny, 218
Binion, Ted, 218
bluffing. See also poker: bluffing in and acceptance, comparing, 134
as art, 136, 154
and bullshitting, comparing, 134
complexity of, 136–37
and fooling yourself, comparing, 134–36
and lying, comparing, 127–130, 151
nature of, 151
online, 154
value of, 37–38
“Bluff of the Century” poker hand, 35
Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy, 197n
Boggs, Wade, 88
Bond, James, 206
Borgia, Cesare, 165–66
Born Yesterday (movie), 205
Bottoms, Cissy, 212
Boyd, William, 205
Boyle, Peter, 177
Brag (card game), 149
brelan (card game), 216
Bret Maverick (TV show), 207
Britton, Barbara, 205
Brunson, Doyle “Texas Dolly,” xiv, 17–20, 22, 24, 31, 44, 53, 56, 71, 82, 83, 85, 89, 163–65, 169, 172, 182
Super System, 49, 160, 162, 163, 166
Brunson, Louise, 172
Brunson, Todd, 50
Buddha, xiv
bullshitting, nature of, 130
Burtman, Dr. Mark, 175–76
Butler, Joseph, 95
Caan, James, 207, 208
Cage, Nicolas, xiii
California Split (movie), 206
Callahan, David
The Cheating Culture, 219–220
Campbell, Joseph, 211
Camus, Albert, 43, 54–55
The Myth of Sisyphus, 54
Cannell, Stephen J., 206
capitalism, 24–25
Cardano, Girolama
The Book on Games of Chance, xv
care ethics, 211
Carey, Harry, 200
Caro, Mike, 31
Carradine, John, 191
Cassidy, Hopalong, 205
Chan, Johnny “The Orient Express,” 23, 47
Cheyenne Autumn (movie), 192
Chouchani, Mordechai, 183
The Cincinnati Kid (movie), 61, 206
Clifford, William, 5–6
Cloutier, T.J., 44, 66, 69, 72
cogito, 4
Cohen, Jonathan
An Essay on Belief and Acceptance, 133
Colbert, Robert, 206
competition
and greatness, 17
moral question of, 168–170
popularity of, 167–68
counterfactuals, 109
difficulty of, 109–110
and possible worlds, 111
courage, as virtue, 11–12
critical thinking errors, 81
Crystal, Billy, 37
Dalla, Nolan
One of a Kind, 188
Damon, Matt, xiv, 162, 207
Dandalos, Nick “the Greek,” xiv
Dannenmann, Steve, 162
Darnell, Linda, 198
Darwin, Charles, 9
on co–operation, 10
Davidson, Donald, 67–68, 76
Deadwood (TV show), xvi
decision, as preserving creation, 185
decision theory, 108, 112
Deeb, Freddy, 72–74, 76
DeGeneres, Ellen, 86
Descartes, RenÈ, 4, 8, 42
Destry Rides Again (movie), 191
determinism, 96–97, 107–08
Dewey, John, 5
doing, bel
ief and desire in, 77
Dollison, Nani, 212
Donlevy, Brian, 191
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 56
The Gambler, 53, 57–60
on gamblers, types of, 58–59
gambling problem of, 57
Notes from Underground, 53, 56–57
Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (movie), 205
Duke, Annie, xv, 208–09, 210
Dunst, Kirsten, 208
Earp, Wyatt, 192, 198–200
Eastwood, Clint, 83, 195
Edwards, Ethan, 200
Einstein, Albert, 42, 53, 108
El Dorado (movie), 191
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 11
the Enlightenment, 54
Enright, Barbara, 212
Eolis, Wendeen, 212
Epictetus, 210, 211
Esfandiari, Antonio, 46
eudaimonia, 11
Everybody Loves Raymond (TV show), 176–77
Existentialism, 43–44, 48, 53
effort of will in, 55, 56
and meaningful life, 49–50
on psychological distress, 55
and reason, loss of confidence in, 54–55, 56–57, 61
expert poker players, mistakes of, 81
exploitation (Marx), 22
false consciousness, 18
Farha, Sam, 18, 36
Ferguson, Chris “Jesus,” xv, 23, 26, 45
Fight Club (movie), 181
film and television, female stereotypes in, 208
Fisher, Gene, 184, 186
Flynt, Larry, xvi, 130
Fonda, Henry, 198
Ford, John, 191, 192, 195, 198, 200
Foster, Jodie, 207
Foster, R.F.
Practical Poker, 149
Fowler, Hal, 23
Frank, Joseph, 59
Frank, Robert, 216
Frankfurt, Harry, 128
On Bullshit, 130
Frazier, Joe, 17
friendship, types of, 170–73
fundamental attributions error, 85–86
The Gambler (movie), 207
gambler’s fallacy, 89–90
gambling
as existential activity, 59–60
pathological, phases of, 174–75
popularity of, 181
possible harms of, 173–75
risk and decision in, 181
games
and computers, 147
evolution of, 148
game theory, 112–13
Gardner, Julian, 139
Garner, James, 206–07
Gibbs, Joe, 168
Gibson, Mel, 207
Gilligan, Carol, 211
Good, I.J. (Jack), 102
Gould, Elliot, 206
Gowen, Cyclona, 212
Green, Jonathan H.
Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of Gambling, 149, 216
Green, Perry, 184–87
Greenstein, Barry, 49
Griffith, Melanie, 205
The Gunfighter (movie), 205
Hachem, Joseph, 162
Hansen, Gus, 18, 26, 45, 94, 152
Harman, Jennifer, 212
Harrington, Dan, 72, 75
Harroch, Richard D.
Poker for Dummies, 82
Hathaway, Henry, 192
Hawks, Howard, 191
Heimowitz, Jay, 184
Hellmuth, Phil, 16, 26, 49, 95, 102, 144–45, 169, 182, 209
Hiatt, Shana, 208
Hickock, Wild Bill, 147
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story (movie), 188
Hobbes, Thomas, 192
on civil society, 193–94
on state of nature, 193
Hoff, Bobby, 17, 18, 23
Holliday, Doc, 192, 198–200
Holliday, Judy, 205
the Holocaust, 187
Honeymoon in Vegas (movie), xiii
Hooks, Bob, 17
Howard the Vest, 21
Hoyle, Edmund, 149
Huggins, Roy, 206–07
Hume, David, 111
Husserl, Edmund, 28
on appearance, 33
Cartesian Meditations, 34
criticism of, 34
on intersubjectivity, 34
on reduction, 33
Hutton, Lauren, 207
intuition, 197
Ivey, Phil, 47, 120
James, William, 5, 7
“The Will to Believe,” 5–6, 13
Jimmy the Blade, 21
Jimmy the Greek, 53
Johnson, Don, 205
Jordan, Michael, 168
Juanda, John, 49
justice, as virtue, 12
Kaleidoscope (movie), 206
Kant, Immanuel, 11, 42, 129, 172
Kaplan, Gabe, 169
Kaufmann, Walter
Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, 56
Keith, Brian, 192
Kelley, Jack, 206
Kennedy, Arthur, 192
Keynes, John Maynard
A Treatise on Probability, 49
Kierkegaard, S¯ ren, xiv, 43, 45, 55
“knowledge that” versus “knowledge how,” 118, 123
Konik, Michael, 47
Krieger, Lou, 155, 219
Poker for Dummies, 82
Kutcher, Ashton, 212
Kyne, Peter B., 200
Ladd, Alan, 195
Lamb, Charles, 215
Landau, Martin, 192
language, meaning and belief in, 67–68, 77
Lederer, Howard, 45, 66, 208, 209, 212
Lederer, Katy, 212
Pokerface: A Girlhood among Gamblers, 208
Lehman, Kristin, 204, 208
Leibniz, Gottfried W., 42, 43
Leone, Sergio, 195
Levinas, Emmanuel, 181, 182–83, 189
on action and decision, 183–84, 185, 187
on ethics, 187
on philosophy, 183
“The Temptation of Temptation,” 183, 185
Lewis, C.S.
The Chronicles of Narnia, 171
Lewis, David, 96, 111
Liebert, Kathy, 212
life
appearance and reality in, 11
as gamble, 44
Lindgren, Erick, 74, 94
Loaded Pistols (movie), 205
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (movie), 207
logic, 196
loss aversion, 86–87
low-limit versus no-limit games, 121
Luckytown (movie), 208
lying
in everyday life, 143
implicit rules about, 143
morality of, 146
Machiavelli, NiccolÚ, 162
on fear and love, 163
on Fortune, 164–65
on foxes and lions, 160
Madsen, Michael, 203
“The Man with No Name,” 195
Margaret, Ann, 206
Marshall, George, 191
Marx, Karl H., 18–19, 20, 22, 25
on alienation, 16
Das Kapital, 16
on internal contradictions, 24
mathematical expectation, of a play, 93
calculating, 96
Mature, Victor, 198
Matusow, Mike the Mouth, 26, 49
Maverick (TV show), 206
Maverick (movie), 206, 207
May, Jesse
Shut Up and Deal, xv
McEvoy, Tom, xiv
McManus, James, xv, 46
Positively Fifth Street, 49, 218
McQueen, Steve, 61, 192, 206
meaningful life, 50
Mill, John Stuart, 172
moderation, as virtue, 12
Moneymaker, Chris, 23, 35–36, 44
Moore, Roger, 206
Morrison, Jim, 48
Mortensen, Carlos, 50
Moses (Biblical), 185
Moss, Johnny, xiv, xvi, 82, 188
My Darling Clementine (movie), 198–200
poker in, 198–200
&
nbsp; Nash, John, 113
Nash equilibrium, 114
Negreanu, Daniel, 18, 66, 72–76
Nevada Smith (movie), 192
Newman, Paul, 133, 206
Newton, Isaac, 42
Nguyen, Scotty, 23
Nicholas, Jack, 168
Nietzsche, Friedrich, xiv, 5, 43, 210
Nixon, Richard M., 221
Norton, Ed, 207
No-Limit Texas Hold’em. See Texas Hold’em: no limit
Nutall, Tom, xvi
obsession, and addiction, difference between, 175
Odds or Evens game, 75
The Office (TV show), 181
Office Space (movie), 181
oikeisis, 211
Old West, as Hobbesian, 193, 201
Old West mythology, 192
ambiguity in, 195
Papineau, David, 96, 101
Pascal, Blaise, xv, 43
Pascal’s wager, xv
Patrick, Danica, 167
Paulle, Mike, 26, 162
Payton, Walter, 168
Pearson, Puggy, 82
Peck, Gregory, 205
Peckinpah, Sam, 195
Peirce, Charles S., 8–9
Perry, Ralph, 139–140
phenomenology, 28, 33
philosophy
certainty/uncertainty in, 4–5
feeling and instinct in, 8–9
gambling themes in, xv
and mathematics, 8
and meaning of life, 48
and risk–taking, xiv
phronesis, 28, 30
Pickle Puss, 15–16
Plato, 8, 12, 54, 66
Republic, 11, 159
Platt, Louise, 191
Poch games, 150
poker. See also Texas Hold’em
addiction to, 174
and alienation, 16–18
among friends, 170, 171
availability heuristic in, 85
bad beat in, 105
bad winning in, 163
bluffing in, 11, 28, 36–38, 72, 127, 151–54
and acceptance, comparing, 134
and bullshitting, comparing, 130–32
and fooling yourself, comparing, 134–36
and the Internet, 152, 153
and lying, comparing, 129, 146
and capitalism, 25, 219
and character, 50–51
as cheating game, 217
and classic virtues, 12
collusion in, 145–46
communal cards in, 149
community versus competition in, 192–93, 195, 196
as competition, 9, 10, 17, 18, 168