{"id":1310,"date":"2012-03-06T17:54:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T17:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gwae.apps-1and1.com\/?p=1310"},"modified":"2012-03-06T17:54:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T17:54:02","slug":"a-difference-of-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/a-difference-of-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"A Difference of Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a drawing at the Palms. There were three of us. Friends all. &#8220;Al,&#8221; Bob, and &#8220;Charlie.&#8221; (I&#8217;m using quotation marks around two of the names to indicate I&#8217;ve changed their names. In fairness, I suppose I should make it &#8220;Bob&#8221; as well because I changed that name a while back as well.)<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Charlie had 800 tickets in the drawing. I had 790. Al had 475. Since Al had done favors for both Charlie and me recently we decided to equally split all wins in the drawing three ways. This was a great deal for Al, if you only count the drawing.<\/p>\n<p>As luck would have it, Al won $1,500 that night and was the only winner in our group. So he ended up giving Charlie and me $500 apiece. At this point, Al wasn&#8217;t thinking this was such a great deal for him.<\/p>\n<p>The next week Charlie wasn&#8217;t there. I had played more and had 1,600 tickets and Al had 400. Al wanted to share with me again. This time I declined. I had 80% of the combined ticket totals and it made no sense to me to share results under these conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;However,&#8221; I told Al, &#8220;if we both get called we&#8217;ll have equal chances. I&#8217;ll share with you at that time.&#8221; This was a drawing where eight players were called. After these eight people were determined, each of the eight had equal chances at all prizes. I don&#8217;t remember the specifics of the bonus game, but I do remember that when you were called didn&#8217;t affect your chances at getting the top prize.<\/p>\n<p>Al argued: &#8220;If you share, you should share every time. You can&#8217;t pick and choose only when it&#8217;s to your advantage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I disagreed. Sharing when it&#8217;s even or close to even is one thing. Sharing when one has a 4-1 edge is something else altogether.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Besides, I didn&#8217;t have the advantage last week. We gave you the advantage.&#8221; I told Al. &#8220;You didn&#8217;t have the same number of tickets but we still gave you a complete share.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Advantage, hell! What you call an advantage cost me a thousand bucks!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, you determine the advantage before you look at the results. I believe you must make your decisions before you know what is going to happen. You make your best decisions and then live with the results.<\/p>\n<p>Al looks at the actual results and then afterwards determines whether he should have done something different. (Never mind that nobody could have the information before-hand of what the actual results would turn out to be.) He is forever second-guessing. And forever unhappy.<\/p>\n<p>Al and I have been around and around about this in a number of contexts. I suspect we&#8217;re never going to agree with each other.<\/p>\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-48 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lasvegasadvisor\" style=\"font-size: 0px; width:48px;height:48px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px;\"><img alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" style=\"display: inline; width:48px;height:48px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: none; box-shadow: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-48 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LVA_Tweet\" style=\"font-size: 0px; width:48px;height:48px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px;\"><img alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" style=\"display: inline; width:48px;height:48px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: none; box-shadow: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-48 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-youtube nolightbox\" data-provider=\"youtube\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Find us on YouTube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/LasVegasAdvisorSHOW\" style=\"font-size: 0px; width:48px;height:48px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px;\"><img alt=\"youtube\" title=\"Find us on YouTube\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" style=\"display: inline; width:48px;height:48px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: none; box-shadow: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/youtube.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-48 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-instagram nolightbox\" data-provider=\"instagram\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Check out our instagram feed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lasvegasadvisor\" style=\"font-size: 0px; width:48px;height:48px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;\"><img alt=\"instagram\" title=\"Check out our instagram feed\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" style=\"display: inline; width:48px;height:48px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: none; box-shadow: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/96x96\/instagram.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a drawing at the Palms. There were three of us. Friends all. &#8220;Al,&#8221; Bob, and &#8220;Charlie.&#8221; (I&#8217;m using quotation marks around two of the names to indicate I&#8217;ve changed their names. In fairness, I suppose I should make it &#8220;Bob&#8221; as well because I changed that name a while back as well.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Difference of Opinion - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/a-difference-of-opinion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Difference of Opinion - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was a drawing at the Palms. 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