Thanks to this video for flagging this anecdote for me. This is why I get frustrated at journalists who forget basic high school math. You don't need to play poker to get what Musk is doing. This is the basic proof for why the house always wins, even if the dealer is a bad player.
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Hollywood depicts them as lovable rogues: The Music Man, Catch Me If You Can, The Sting. When push comes to shove, these rapscallions will always Do The Right Thing. Fade Out. The End.
In the real world, Harold Hill would skip town, his pockets full of other people's money.
If he had lost every hand all day or all week, it would have made no difference to his bottom line.
This is true even in 50/50 games, because eventually the limited person runs out of money.
There should be a term for things that people *feel* should be surprising but aren’t. It would be useful in talking about how often this shows up in his behavioral pattern.
Musk played exactly like people who play with fake money, because money doesn't have meaning to him.
Getting a narcissist Richie Rich like Musk in a real-money game is the thing of legend for good poker players. But, they will still get lucky sometimes and outdraw a better player's superior starting hand.
Makes me wonder what everyone's on about there being multiple decks and stakes. There's only one deck, and only the white stake.