Timeline for Poker in the Star Trek universe: What are the stakes?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
30 events
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 9:31 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Mar 28, 2020 at 18:30 | comment | added | Valorum | @AnthonyX - Indeed. So in this case the chips are meaningless. It's not until Beverly Crusher gets into a pissing contest with Riker that the stakes become real. And even then, they stop using the chips and start betting on dares. | |
| Mar 28, 2020 at 18:25 | comment | added | Anthony X | @Valorum As soon as you use it as a medium of exchange for goods or services, it becomes a currency, such as if someone accepted monopoly money in exchange for household chores. Yes, I've played texas hold'em where everyone is issued something like $50,000 in chips and hands are played until one player has them all - it can be just a way of keeping score. But if those chips are exchanged for something of value outside the game, it's money, not points. | |
| Mar 28, 2020 at 16:58 | comment | added | Valorum | @AnthonyX - Is monopoly money a currency then? It's pretty clear that the winner is the person with the most 'chips' but the chips don't mean anything other than as a score-keeping mechanism | |
| Mar 28, 2020 at 16:55 | comment | added | Anthony X | They are playing with chips which have some sort of denomination in some sort of unit, whether explicitly spoken in dialog or not ("credits", perhaps). That they have value in being won or lost, and if they have any value in exchange for labor or some tangible commodity makes those units a currency, post-scarcity or not. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 15:06 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 28, 2014 at 14:01 | comment | added | Ellesedil | @BogdanAlexandru: The hand was never finished. Senior officers were called in by Captain Picard. Beverly was pretty flustered about it, as she actually had a decent hand. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 13:37 | comment | added | Bogdan Alexandru | As a curiosity, who won that bet on Riker's beard? | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 13:18 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 28, 2014 at 10:37 | vote | accept | Joe L. | ||
| Aug 28, 2014 at 10:36 | history | edited | Joe L. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
remove redundant information (do we really need a definition of a "poker chip"?)
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| Aug 28, 2014 at 9:36 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | I like to think that during filming of that scene in A Quality of Life, Riker fixed Beverly with a wicked stare and said “Collar and cuffs, Bev.” | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 7:18 | comment | added | Joe L. | There doesn't seem to be a definitive canon answer. In-universe, it seems like humans treat the greedy/acquisitive side of our nature much the same way Vulcans treat their emotions - arrogant pride layered on top of denial and over-compensation. But there's a core of ugly truth: the knowledge that "this will destroy us if we let it". | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 7:07 | comment | added | Joe L. | @Richard: My original intent was to ask about gambling stakes within the supposedly post-currency economic structure of Starfleet. Preferably without sounding like an economist or a lawyer. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 6:56 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 28, 2014 at 6:48 | comment | added | Valorum | @JoeL. - That would make it a lot broader but not necessarily better | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 4:56 | comment | added | Joe L. | @Richard: I never said the question was limited to TNG. That was an edit by someone else, which I'm changing now. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 1:47 | comment | added | Beta | @JoeL.: According to Anthony Holden (a.k.a. "London Tony"), there are two things one must always keep in mind while playing poker; first, the money isn't important, it's just a way of keeping score, and second, the money is extremely important, that's the rent you're playing with. I choose to believe that this will be true as long as poker remains a game worth playing. | |
| Aug 28, 2014 at 0:00 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 23:59 | comment | added | Valorum | @bitmask - I've deliberately excluded Voyager and TOS because the questions was about Enterprise-D. In Voyager, they basically reinvented money because they were no longer a post-scarcity society and in TOS the crew still used credits for external activities. | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 23:57 | comment | added | bitmask | Your answer is dead-on (as always), at least regarding in TNG. In VOY, however, we see Paris run a gambling thing, where people can bet their replicator rations and (I believe) duty time. Until Janeway and Chakotey close it down. [Disclaimer: Comment because not double-checked on M.A., ymmv] | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 22:56 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 22:49 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 22:37 | comment | added | HorusKol | Many phrases we used in the past linger on in current usage even though their original meaning is no longer valid - "cleaning out" the junior officers could simply mean he took all the chips. | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 21:19 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 21:17 | comment | added | Joe L. | That's one of the things that makes me think they're betting something tangible, not just "bragging rights". Also, I just can't see Riker gambling for fun - there has to be something on the line. | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 21:15 | history | edited | TenthJustice | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 20:59 | comment | added | Roger | There's also the line from "Lower Decks" to the effect of, "I just cleaned out some junior officers and thought I'd do the same up here," but there's no clear indication of what he cleaned them out of (except maybe their pride). | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 20:57 | history | edited | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 27, 2014 at 20:51 | history | answered | Valorum | CC BY-SA 3.0 |