Poker on the Enterprise

[at Quark's]

I'm doing a complete run through TNG and am now one disk into season 2, where we see the first instance of the Enterprise crew playing poker. ("The Measure of a Man") Throughout the series, we see the poker game re-appear many times as a vehicle for allowing some casual conversation between the officers (never Picard) and to get some insight into their minds. The producers did not have a very good poker consultant, because the game play in this first game was HORRIBLE. Data, while an android and not well-versed in the art of bluffing, certainly would have programmed himself with enough essential knowledge of the game that he would not fold three queens in a 5-card stud game to a possible flush based on a 10 unit raise when there were about 85 units in the pot. (Not dollars, of course, since money doesn't exist on the Enterprise, so one wonders what exactly they were wagering?) Riker has four hearts on the felt. Data has the queen of hearts in the hole, leaving 8 hearts in the deck, less the number of hearts already exposed on the table (we never see the cards of the other players), leaving Riker with at best a 20% chance of having a flush, while Data beats any other hand Riker could have, while Data's call represents only about 14% of the pot. Mathematically, it's an absolute call, and by any poker player's standards, it's a never-fold situation. It would have been much better if Riker had bet 100 units into the 85-unit pot, making Data's decision much harder (assuming that the units had any meaning).

Regardless of this example of bad poker, I always enjoyed the scenes around the poker table, where Worf would growl at a player taking too long to think, and where Data would make his slightly off-point observations. It was a good device for the writers to use. Any other comments, memories, or objections to the recurring poker game theme in TNG?

And for reasons such as these, I'd expect them to never show a game that actually exists in the real world (just analogs to existing games with rules they never quite lay out, let's say 'Starfleet poker'). (Same reasons they always use 'warp factors' and 'stardates', I suppose).

 

[evilchumlee]

And for reasons such as these, I'd expect them to never show a game that actually exists in the real world (just analogs to existing games with rules they never quite lay out, let's say 'Starfleet poker'). (Same reasons they always use 'warp factors' and 'stardates', I suppose).

In all fairness, it's a few centuries in the future. They might have NEW Poker games.

I'm just glad everyone is just always playing Texas Hold Em.

 

[Herbert]

So what's everyone's take on Data outmatching the card sharks in 19th Century San Francisco, during Time's Arrow?

Easy to explain. No "take" is needed from anyone. It's what the story called for.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I need a new prescription for my glasses.

I thought that this was a fat-shaming thread.

"Porker" on the Enterprise.

 

[Mojochi]

Easy to explain. No "take" is needed from anyone. It's what the story called for.

Well that's not fun at all. What's the harm in imagining that Data was reverse conning the sharks? It seems almost a given imho, & is fun to consider they might be having that kind of subtext gag at play without the need to spend screen time on it.

 

[maneth]

I enjoyed the scenes with the officers bonding over poker, but found them absolutely unbelievable. Poker is based on bluffing, and Deanna's certainly telepathic enough to tell when anyone (except Data) is bluffing, and Geordi can certainly see the physiological reactions of people who are bluffing thanks to his VISOR. Are we really expected to believe that both Deanna and Geordi are so honorable that they wouldn't take advantage of knowledge they couldn't help acquiring? Please, they may have developed past a resource-limited society, but they're still human.

Besides which, poker's no fun unless you stake something. My sister and I staked chores (washing up, laying and clearing the table, cleaning the bedroom we shared) when we were kids. What do they stake? Replicator rations?

 

[Tenacity]

Deanna's certainly telepathic enough to tell when anyone (except Data) is bluffing,

If you're comfortable bluffing during a fun game what would Deanna pick up on? It's not like it's a important life or death event.