I've been playing poker for a living for a number of years and what initially drew me to pinball was how much like poker the game really was. I mean to most outsiders the games both seem like pure luck, but the deeper your actual understanding of the games are you start to realize that luck plays a much smaller role than skill does. True in both games luck does still exist but with skill you are able to neutralize it to a degree.
As I started playing more and more I started to wonder how much fun it would be to actually bet on pinball games. Just like golf it just seems that games are much more fun when theres a wager on the line (and a beer in hand). The bet doesn't have to be big but man does it ever make it fun.
A friend and I have started recently doing it and it even changes the way we've played. In the past on multiplayer games the winner would go first. Now winner chooses and usually chooses to go last so he knows what score he has to beat.
It's pretty awesome to put up an awesome third ball to come back and scoop the money.
I was thinking even further that you could even set it up bowling style and figure out handicaps for players on certain games to make a completely even playing field. Say on MM player 1 averages 28 million and player 2 averages 20 million. At the end of the game player 2 would add 8 million to his score and whomever had the best score would win.
What do you guys think? Ever play for cash? How about handicapping. It'd be sweet to handicap a whole tournament that way recreational players could play next to near pros. The main problem however would be people sandbagging averages just to win. But that's a rambling side point.
Prescott, AZ
Coquitlam, BC
