Gambling

[Oxossi]

The types of magick one might use in gambling could be enchantment or divination.

I am interested in the possibilities of magick in gambling. Does anybody have any idea? I posted be for some will remember mentioning Austin Osman Spares racing forecast cards.

http://www.topy.net/kiaosfera/aos/mente/mind-2.gif

[Defenestrator]

The types of magick one might use in gambling could be enchantment or divination.

I am interested in the possibilities of magick in gambling. Does anybody have any idea? I posted be for some will remember mentioning Austin Osman Spares racing forecast cards.

http://www.topy.net/kiaosfera/aos/mente/mind-2.gif

This was discussed over at MLA: http://www.maybelogic.net/psychonaut/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=40&?topic=105.0

Actually, I see that you started that thread, too? Have you tried to do any magical gambling yet?

[Oxossi]

That’s right there was a gamble thread and I started it.

Rumour has it that there was a card room on board, somewhere below deck.

Have I attempted any magickal gambling? Well I’m trying to work something out. I have done some experiments… but it’s difficult.

Applying magick to gambling appears to be very difficult.

[Defenestrator]

Applying magick to gambling appears to be very difficult.

How about applying gambling to magick?

[flibbertigibbet]

in most any professionally regulated games of chance you probably stand more to gain by using math to increase your chances of winning.  divination might work on horses and fights since the outcomes generally get predetermined by the promoters   

[anosognosia]

I had great luck with a simply evoked servitor for a low stakes game among friends. I posted that over at MLA:

I should mention that I created a poker servitor on my way to a penny ante game Saturday night. I designed and evoked it in the car by creating a mantra and singing it to the songs on the radio. I normally play poorly due to lack of attention and a tendency to distraction by cartoons on the TV in the next room. I almost doubled my $3.00 stake with great hands and good bluffs. Two of the the other players, one of which I cleaned out, play regularly.

My single example probably doesn't count for much, but it does make me wonder if single deck, private poker, a game that seems based on decisions as much as chance, might yield to a well designed servitor? I would like to hear about anyone else's results with similar servitors or enchantments.

This also seems like an area where clients would like to pay a practicioner for enchantments or evocations. I would like to hear some thoughts from the class on the ethics of this. Does it seem wrong to enchant for someone's success at poker and charge a fee? What if it was in the form of a talisman and tutorial like S.V.? Could we expect this kind of an enchantment or servitor to be less successful than what we seem to see with S.V.?

I think Peter's argument from probability precludes using this sort of enchantment in a multi deck professional game against people who already show a strong resistance to influence and distraction. But maybe I misunderstand the variables?

As a bit of interesting sychronicity:

The march of the machines will be celebrated in Las Vegas next month with the world's first money tournament for robots — and the $100,000 prize is drawing a handful of coders out of anonymity.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fi-pokerbots12jun12,0,6050364.story?track=mostemailedlink

[Defenestrator]

I would think that poker is one game where enchantment could potentially have some effect --- on how the cards are shuffled and dealt, on whether other players fold too early, etc.

In poker, you're not actually playing against the house, right? My only poker experience is with small-stakes games with friends.

[flibbertigibbet]

I would think that poker is one game where enchantment could potentially have some effect --- on how the cards are shuffled and dealt, on whether other players fold too early, etc.

In poker, you're not actually playing against the house, right? My only poker experience is with small-stakes games with friends.

poker relies a great deal on the ability to "read" your opponent's intentions and to disguise your own intentions, which seems like a kind of magic to me.  after that it like most card games comes down to mathematical percentages.  i feel as sceptical about the idea of enchanting cards as i do about enchanting dice, basically the percentages eventually catch up to you. 

[Oxossi]

poker relies a great deal on the ability to "read" your opponent's intentions and to disguise your own intentions, which seems like a kind of magic to me.

More so in live play than online play. In live play the 'reading' is more psychological. Here on reads facial expressions and body language ect.

There is little of this type of reading in online play however. In an online game the only thing you have to go on is betting patterns.

The key thing with poker is that once the cards are shuffled the winner is determined. The cards are only shuffled once and that is before the game starts.

Then again maybe the cards are like Schrodinger's cats before they are turned over.

[flibbertigibbet]

i kind of meant read in the more general sense, as in predict or recognize.  i think playing live brings the best chance to increase your odds with any form of magic.  as it seems easier to enchant people than the odds of chance.  though who knows?

[Defenestrator]

poker relies a great deal on the ability to "read" your opponent's intentions and to disguise your own intentions, which seems like a kind of magic to me.

Then again maybe the cards are like Schrodinger's cats before they are turned over.

That's kind of what I was trying to get at -- with dice, I agree that it would take a lot of energy to affect the laws of percentages, but with poker, it's sort of a sortiledge, like with tarot cards -- and a lot depends on the other players' strategy, and you could possibly affect their perceptions of what you're holding, etc. 

[Oxossi]

I did see a man using magick to win high stakes European poker tournament. I think it was Brandon Shaffer, he was kissing a grape fruit and rocking back and forth, as he played in a heads up game for first place. He finished second, but second in a tournament that size pays several hundred thousand dollars and he had beaten a hundred or so players to get that far.

His grape fruit and his rocking were definitely some attempt to work magick. He was trying to make luck.

[Defenestrator]

Hmm....maybe I'll try evoking a grapefruit while sitting in a rocking chair...

[Oxossi]

It did look interesting; he was definitely getting himself into a state.

In the final hand he kissed his grape fruit. The grape fruit did seem to be the material base of an evocation. I think it was his blessed grape fruit; it was some type of traditional good luck charm it seems. There might have been some type of ritual, incense offering to gods or something like that.

Definitely an attempt of magick in Big Tournament.

[Oxossi]

A rocking chair could be a aid for entering inhibatory gnosis. Thats a good idea well done. You could put the chair in the middle a circle.Thats funny, could be useful and fun.