PS: Very little of this has anything to do with poker except for the possibility that poker can be seen idealistically as a game from which we can learn a lot about human nature, probability theory, game theory and even society. A group of people from various places, fields of study and experiences can get together and give a result that the original game design never anticipated and now extends beyond that game into a greater one (and that is idealism at its best -to explore what is possible and learn from it all).
Nice to hear. Think I've put at least a couple of thousand hours into it. Never got good, just not bad. Stopped development somewhere when becoming a predator would have been the thing.
Poker is not a subset of finance. The fact that it involves money is incidental--money is just the type of the betting unit. When viewed properly it is purely mathematics.
I always liked that money made the level. I destroyed play money. Won at the lowest and also the second lowest money level. The third was always a bit too tough. No matter what I played.
Poker is a game of math and communication(live poker anyway). You try to tell a story with your betting and behavior and try to understand your opponents hand by the same.
Someone said deception is involved which is very uncommon but it's very common in sports games, trying to make your opponent think you're going to zig when you zag, pump fake, etc.
My current view is that poker is an abstract game which is a subset of finance, and belongs in the field of finance as these are all financial decisions. Others view poker as a game of mathematics, and is described by the math itself. Others emphasize the psychological aspects. And, I suppose you can view poker as a language game.
What is poker, and where does it belong?
An answer to an inquiry 'why people play poker?' is that people's impetus for why they play poker exists on an array with variety. So some 'philosophical meaning' of playing poker is diverse and belongs in it's own category under a broader inquiry as to 'why people play games?'
