Poker and bingo are wildly different games. At face value, the only obvious similarities are that they’re both played for money, both involve at least one card and at the end of the game there’s only one winner. This, of course, is an extremely shallow evaluation of the two games—you only need to scratch below the surface to see similarities popping up time and again. Both are designed to work in a room full of likeminded people and yet both are best enjoyed when that room is online. Let’s take a look at the two games individually for a moment so that we can not only see the differences between the two, but so that we can see how they are so similar while appealing to wildly different crowds.
First of all let’s look at poker. Whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em, Omaha or anything else, the basic premise is the same. You each get dealt a set of cards and then set about trying to make the most of your hand with each extra card the table is dealt. Your goal is to get a Royal Flush, though to be honest most people are just happy with a Full House. Whoever winds up with the strongest hand at the end of a round wins the chips.
Bingo on the other hand, is a game where you get all of your numbers at once. A caller will call out the numbers that are drawn until one person has completed their card (also called a ticket), at which point that person shouts “Bingo”, winning the game. The mechanics of the game are entirely different, though the operation certainly has its similarities.
For a start, both games look like they’re entirely luck based. Just as there is a huge degree of skill in poker, there is a huge degree of strategy in bingo. While the probability of the first ball being drawn in a game is 1 in 90, the statistical probability of each subsequent ball differs based on the balls that came before—just like in poker, except of course that the game is played with cards.
Secondly, both games require a huge level of concentration. Poker, because you obviously need to know what you’re doing with each bet while refusing to give away any information or tells that could influence how much money you’re about to win; bingo, because you have to listen carefully or you will lose out on your chance to win. Both games have evolved to make this easier over the years, with sunglasses, caps and hoodies worn in poker to hide the face and bingo calls in bingo to help players quickly identify which ball is called to ensure that they’re the first to shout out correctly.
The next logical step to this is, of course, taking the game online. You can’t give away tells when playing poker on your PC, and you can’t mishear the bingo number when it flashes up on your phone. Despite a strong history of gaming in casino and bingo halls across the world, both games have made a very robust name for themselves online. This being said, the communal pull of the game isn’t quite lost in the 21st century. Poker is a great game that can played among friends without putting money on the line, with nothing but banter being traded back and forth across the table. Bingo, similarly, can be played simply for the thrill of the win. This is evidenced by the fact that it’s a very popular tool in almost any teacher’s tool belt. Want to teach the periodic table in a fun way? Play bingo. Want to teach the Japanese alphabet? Play bingo. Want to teach the dates of important battles? Play bingo.
While bingo and poker are two very different games, they are very similar in their own right. They may not hold the same levels of glamour and appeal, but the fact that they are so different is just one reason why both games can appeal to very different people and yet the same person at any given time.
