I think poker is the perfect tool for teaching economics. In a sense, it is the most perfect form of capitalism. The entire game revolves around making decisions on incomplete information. That’s pretty much business. Those who are good at decision making tend to do well while those who aren’t tend to do poorly.
It seems like the folks over at the Motely Fool share my appreciation for the commonalities between poker and economics. In a piece titled “Econ 101 at the Poker Table” Bill Mann tells a tale of his college dorm buddies which illustrates the economics of trading debt and risk. It also had a special impact on me because the last paragraph of the story is:
You might wonder what happened to Eric? Well, it took him a while, but he worked and paid back every penny he owed. He may have had questionable judgment with money — as well as with whether to stay on three sixes against someone who’s been folding all night and is suddenly betting aggressively — but he knew an obligation when he saw it, and he honored it.
When Zengy and I went to go see the WPT Ladies Night event at the Bike earlier this year he split out during the final rounds to go play in a NL tournament. About a half hour later he comes back and I asked him what happened. He told me how he got in this pot with a pair of sixes and hit a set on the flop and couldn’t get away from it and busted out. After telling me his story he said something along the lines of “Well, it’s not like I had a choice.” So that’s been my running joke with Zengy ever since. When I saw the Fool article I knew I had to post it so I could have a valid reason to harass him. 🙂