ITHACA, N.Y., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- A study of online poker finds the more hands players win, the less money they're likely to collect, U.S. researchers found.
Cornell sociology doctoral student Kyle Siler analyzed 27 million online poker hands and said multiple wins are likely for small stakes, and the more one plays, the more likely one will eventually be walloped by occasional -- but significant -- losses.
"The finding coincides with observations in behavioral economics that people overweigh their frequent small gains vis-a-vis occasional large losses, and vice versa," Siler said.
In other words, players feel positively reinforced by their streak of wins but have difficulty fully understanding how their occasional large losses offset their gains, he said.
The study, published online in the Journal of Gambling Studies, is scheduled to be published in a forthcoming print edition of the journal.
Siler concluded the biggest opponent for many players may be themselves "given the challenges of optimizing one's mindset and strategies, both in the card game and the meta-games of psychology, rationality and socioeconomic arbitrage which hover beneath it."
