Practice and Theory of Gambling --- Part 1 of 20

If you hate and/or despise gambling a tad too much, we need to ensure that you are not suffering from a shadow, which I'd like to define as those aspects of your own self/personality that you've estranged or disowned to please your primary caregivers and/or peers in your childhood and/or youth. Your shadow is there all the time but you just don't notice it except in your night dreams and/or daydreams and/or projections.

Do you still hate and/or despise gambling too much?

1. You can avoid gambling with E coli uncertainty by staying away from all vegs till the rage dies down or a new vaccine is discovered.
2. You can avoid gambling by preparing "perfectly" for your exams, whatever that is or in whichever way you define "perfectly."
3. You can avoid gambling by drawing up a perfect business plan, whatever that is or in whichever way you define "perfect."
4. You can avoid gambling by drawing up and executing your centralized, decentralized, free-market, laissez faire, market-oriented, market-driven, capitalist, liberal, Marxist, Leninist, socialist economic policies. I truly don't know what such an economy will look like, though.

But what about death? How are you going do postpone it, prevent it, mitigate it, defend against it?

What will happen if you disown you left hand and let it atrophy?

What will happen if you disown you gambling hand and let it atrophy? Will it serve you well when you truly need to use it?

After reading Mike Caro, David Sklansky, Alan Schoonmaker, Mason Malmuth, Dan Harrington and co., many of whom even refer to death in their discussion of bridge and/or poker, I notice that true and good gamblers (not those world champions, those tournaments winners who usually end up broke) won't really mind whatever hands are dealt to them at death.

"Variance," "randomness," arbitrary "distribution" of luck, "luck," "fluctuations," "streaks," unpredictability ...

Yes, sure, you will be given a number of cards upon your death.

Just make sure you will be feeling fine, (or at least, feeling lucky) then.


Enough clues for you, dear readers. More to come later upon this.

on June 11, 2011