Chocolate is good.
Up(p)date:
My Bottom-deal has improved, and i have plans to turn it to good use tomorrow at lunch break, maybe i can convince some of my classmates who don't already know of my skills to play poker for candies, since i like candy, mainly chocolate. Also mints are good. Niw before you all judge me about all this cheating, i have to say this:
I mostly play genuinly, but if there's some reward for winning, and i cannot seem to beat my opponents with my very poor card-playing, i sometimes resort to "other" ways of obtaining the victory. It's really nothing major, a false shuffle here, a palm there, and the percentage of the game should, if not in my favor, have improved drastically.
Now, when i say drastically, i'm talking of perhaps, a 10-50% increase in probability of victory, which makes a great difference in the long run. Even as little as a 1% increase in odds towards your favor eventually stacks up, game after game. That's why card counting is used so much, even though it only gives the player about a 51% advantage, but multiply that by, say 15 games of blackjack and you get a pretty decent win potential.
But, unfortunatly, card counting is a pretty futile endeavor to learn here in sweden, since it's not that common, not even in casinos it seems.
A valuable, but highy discussed and difficult skill is die control, some people claim that it is indeed impossible, while others say that it is very much a reality. IT is theoretically possible, and i have heard about people in the american navy scamming their allied soldiers on the boats with help of this ruse.
So then, since i'm in the mood for stories about various ruses practiced at community games, let me share one:
The year is 1883.
The silence during a quiet spring day by the Mississippi River is disturbed by the slow rumble of a river boat, carrying booze, guns, and other commodities to be purchased by the degenerates further down in Ohio, the boats ultimate destination.
In the on-board saloon, that was covered in smog from the puffing patrons, at a table in one of the corners, sat four gamblers. It was obvious to the other guests that they were playing five card draw, a common game in these times.
Eventually a fifth person appears through the smoke and sits down at the table. He looks at the four men and asks:
"WHat are we playing?"
"Five card draw, no-limit." -One of the men answered.
The newly added player replies with:
"Allright, i'm in."
He then proceeds with first picking up a tightly packed roll of 20-dollar bills, and then again reaches in under his coat and pulls out a shiny razor knife. He opens it and puts it on the table infront of him. He then looks at all of the men, one by one as he slowly, in a threatening tone says:
"There will be no cheating here, or else i'll cut you all up(p)..."
The others swallowed nervously, and the game began.
Eventually it was the strangers turn to deal, he shuffles, let the man to his right cut, so that all of the cards are hopelessly lost in the deck. He then deals out the five cards to everyone, including himself.
The game progresses, and one after the other, they fold untill only the sranger and one of the men are left.
The stranger looks at the man, and says:
"I know your cards, you have 8 high, which won't stand a chance against my trips 10, so just hand over the pot."
Here's a puzzle for you guys, assuming everything i wrote here is true, how did the stranger know about the cards of his opponent?
