A dealer unclear on the concept

I was at Mandalay Bay tonight, waiting for a no-limit game, and had to endure a $2-4 limit game until a seat became available. (The CIA may waterboard suspected terrorists, but they won't go so far as to subject them to $2-4 limit poker. No question that that would constitute illegal torture under the Geneva Convention.)

One woman commented on what a lucky session it had been for her. The dealer, a young Asian man with a heavy accent, said, "It's a good time of year to play, right after the Chinese New Year."

I said, "It can't be good for everybody."

He looked puzzled and asked why not.

"Because in poker," I explained, "every time somebody wins, somebody else loses."

He got a thoughtful look on his face for a second, then said, "I guess you're right about that."

Poker is not a zero-sum game--it's worse than that. It's an overall negative for the players, considered as a group, because tips and the house rake take money out of the game. The sum of the cash that the players walk away with will always be less than the sum of the money they bought into the game for. There might be nine winners and one big loser, or one big winner and nine losers, but there will be at least one person losing.There isn't enough luck in the world to prevent that outcome--even during the Chinese New Year.

It's astonishing to me that a poker dealer had apparently never realized that rather basic truth about the nature of the game.