Lunar Poker: A Game Rewarding Patience and Attention

Lunar Poker is a form of 5 Card Draw Poker that is growing in popularity in many casinos throughout the world. In an age in which desires are instantly gratified and attentions spans are reaching government-sized deficits, it is perhaps surprising to some that poker, a game requiring an immense amount of attention, concentration, and patience, is becoming more popular with such rapidity. However, Lunar Poker is appreciating growth in the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia so there is no denying this effect.

Poker requires immense patience because it is a game of averages, which means there must be enough time given for the percentages to play out. A knowledgeable poker player is aware that if a particular hand has a 40% chance of emerging victorious but has lost the past 40 consecutive hands, they should not lower their expectations of the winning percentages of a hand. However, the knowledgeable poker player is also aware that just because a hand with a 40% chance of winning has lost the previous 40 consecutive hands it does not mean that the hand is guaranteed to win the next 60 consecutive hands. As with all probabilities, previous outcomes do not affect present or future outcomes. Only a particular combination of cards has the power to affect the probabilities of an outcome. A successful poker player must have the strength and vision to patiently wait through bad outcomes to reach a chosen destination.

A successful poker player must also possess immense concentration and attention, for the behavior of other players on previous hands is incorporated into the value they assign to other people in a hand. Another player may possess a mental or physical tendency to act in a certain fashion under given constraints, so the attentive poker player can be perceptive of when these constraints crop up and thus be better adjusted on how to act accordingly. A poker player with a short attention span who concentrates on the surrounding casino more than the table action will have information pass them by and thus be less prepared for future hands.

Lunar Poker is a rather recent and growing phenomenon yet it still offers the same advantages to the patient and attentive poker player.