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How often is William Riker bluffing?

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked by Edmund Dantes on February 22, 2021

Ensign Babyface Commander William Riker is a known poker player. We often see him playing with officers under his command. Most of them are aware of his bluffing skills. Isn’t it pretty obvious for them that he is bluffing most of the time? Or isn’t he?

How often do we actually see William Riker bluffing during poker?

2 Answers

Riker bluffs in poker at least twice on-screen: once in 2x09 "The Measure of a Man", wherein he introduces the concept to Data, and once(-ish) in 5x18 "Cause and Effect". (The poker game in question was repeated several times due to time-travel shenanigans.) In both cases, his bluffing was relevant to the plot.

In most other cases the outcome of the actual hands doesn't seem to get much attention, so it's not clear how consistently he bluffed. He could play plenty of hands straight, and we simply don't see them because they're not interesting, sort of how we never see the hundreds of times the Enterprise pulled up by a planet and nobody tried to shoot, abduct, or swindle them.

Finally, from a poker-playing perspective, bluffing all the time doesn't make you good at bluffing. Any fool can do that. A skilled player should know when it's not prudent to bluff - whether because the other players are too confident in their own hands, or because they're starting to cotton on.

Answered by Cadence on February 22, 2021

In addition to 2x09 "The Measure of a Man" and 5x18 "Cause and Effect" as mentioned already, Riker also bluffs in 3x26 "The Best of Both Worlds: Part 1".

Answered by mooseman3 on February 22, 2021

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