More Dogs Playing Poker

by Daniel Kimberg | Published: Jul 18, 2003

When I first started writing for Card Player, one of my first contributions (for the web site only) was a short piece called "Dogs Playing Poker," in which I considered some of the eerie similarities between certain poker players and dogs. At the time, although I'd spent quite a bit of time with both poker players and dogs, my dog knowledge was fairly superficial, because I'd never had a dog of my own. But my wife and I got a puppy a few months ago, so I've had a chance to examine this phenomenon more closely. And I'm happy to report that my thesis – that dogs and poker players are essentially two breeds of the same species – remains intact.

Of course, as was the case with my earlier observation (that both dogs and some poker players can be continually surprised by things that happen over and over again), these factoids apply neither to all dogs nor to all poker players. Actually, better poker players tend to be less doglike (or, if you like, dogs are not cut out for poker). But if you know enough of each, I think you'll find the similarities undeniable. And I hope you'll understand that although it may seem like I'm insulting both dogs and poker players, I draw this comparison only with the deepest affection for both. That said, here are some more thoughts on dogs playing poker.

Dogs will play until you basically force them to stop. Even when they're overtired and have lost all semblance of coordination, puppies especially will keep going, because they don't really understand that if they rest, or even go to sleep, there will be more playtime tomorrow. Even if they did understand, one suspects they would still choose play over sleep. Poker players likewise will play beyond the point at which they can tell the suits and often the ranks of the cards apart. If you ask them if there will be another game tomorrow, they will usually say, "Yes," but they won't really believe it. Even if they do, they don't see any reason why they shouldn't play both tomorrow and today.

Dogs have a tough time with other kinds of self-control, as well. They don't hide their emotions well, they tend to leap at immediate rewards (especially food) without regard for consequences, and occasionally they have little accidents in the house. Poker players have a similar list of difficulties with self-control. They often don't hide their emotions well, even after years of practice. They tend to leap at immediate rewards (the pot) without regard for the long-term consequences (regularly cold-calling three bets with 9-7 may have some undesirable long-term consequences). And although poker players usually know how to get to the bathroom in time, they do often spill drinks.

Dogs are slow learners. They don't usually get the run of the house until they learn to stop having little accidents indoors. Although they may get rewarded for relieving themselves outside and yelled at for doing so inside, it tends to take a while before they figure out the obvious way to get more reward and less punishment. Part of the problem is that they tend to do the right thing a lot of the time by coincidence, and they occasionally get punished for other reasons. So, it's not always easy to see how the two are related.

Many poker players are likewise somewhat slow to catch on to essential facts that mean the difference between rewards and punishments, like the fact that K-9 (the poker hand, not "canine") isn't always playable against a raiser. Cold-calling raises with K-9 can cost you a lot of money. Yet, for some reason, some players have a tough time learning not to do it. Part of the problem is that sometimes K-9 ends up winning, and more powerful hands lose. So, it's not always easy to see how the two (folding K-9 and doing better at poker) are related.

At the same time, slow learning does serve some dogs well in some areas. I'm glad our dog is a little conservative about deciding at whom to bark. It takes her a bit of time to warm up to new people, and you could say she's conservative in forming new impressions. Poker players are similarly well-served by paying less attention to immediate feedback (which hands or players have been winning in the last half-hour) and more to long-term trends.

Finally, dogs and poker players both want to take what's yours. In fact, they both consider it a kind of game. Dogs want pretty much anything they can get in their mouths, while poker players want just about anything that fits in a wallet, especially the billfold section. Neither tends to show remorse, although poker players will occasionally sympathize with your bad beat, and dogs will sometimes show their remorse with a sheepish expression often described as "hangdog."

Although this column is partly tongue-in-cheek, I can't resist tying this all in to a topic I've written about in the past – poker and the brain. Although the brains of different species differ in many ways, one of the most striking differences is in the size of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the area right behind your forehead. While human brains and dog brains are grossly different in size, the PFC is proportionately much larger in the human brain than in any other species. Not surprisingly, it seems to be closely connected to lots of the things we think of as "higher cognition" – for example, short-term memory, reasoning and problem solving, emotional control, and some language functions. It's no coincidence that these are lots of the things dogs are bad at.

Many of the doglike behaviors you see in poker players, especially the less desirable behaviors, are plausibly connected to what the PFC does. In particular, impulse control, including the ability to override emotional responses for considered ones, is often described as a PFC function. What does this say about poker players who are more … well, canine? It's possible those players have PFCs that work just a hair less effectively than they'd like. Nobody knows for sure, although if I can get the funding, I'll let you know how it turns out.

I hate to end this column without softening things a little, because I really don't want to sound like I'm bad-mouthing two kinds of beings for whom I really have a lot of affection. So, I should mention one more similarity that links the two. Dogs and poker players can both be wonderful people and great company.