• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 20:12
CET 02:12
KST 10:12
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners11Intel X Team Liquid Seoul event: Showmatches and Meet the Pros10[ASL20] Finals Preview: Arrival13TL.net Map Contest #21: Voting12[ASL20] Ro4 Preview: Descent11
Community News
Weekly Cups (Nov 3-9): Clem Conquers in Canada3SC: Evo Complete - Ranked Ladder OPEN ALPHA8StarCraft, SC2, HotS, WC3, Returning to Blizzcon!45$5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship7[BSL21] RO32 Group Stage4
StarCraft 2
General
Mech is the composition that needs teleportation t Craziest Micro Moments Of All Time? Weekly Cups (Nov 3-9): Clem Conquers in Canada SC: Evo Complete - Ranked Ladder OPEN ALPHA RotterdaM "Serral is the GOAT, and it's not close"
Tourneys
Constellation Cup - Main Event - Stellar Fest Tenacious Turtle Tussle Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament $5,000+ WardiTV 2025 Championship Merivale 8 Open - LAN - Stellar Fest
Strategy
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 499 Chilling Adaptation Mutation # 498 Wheel of Misfortune|Cradle of Death Mutation # 497 Battle Haredened Mutation # 496 Endless Infection
Brood War
General
FlaSh on: Biggest Problem With SnOw's Playstyle BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL20] Ask the mapmakers — Drop your questions Where's CardinalAllin/Jukado the mapmaker?
Tourneys
[BSL21] RO32 Group D - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] RO32 Group C - Saturday 21:00 CET [ASL20] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Current Meta PvZ map balance How to stay on top of macro? Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Should offensive tower rushing be viable in RTS games? Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread SPIRED by.ASL Mafia {211640}
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Korean Music Discussion Series you have seen recently...
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2026 Football Thread NBA General Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
SC2 Client Relocalization [Change SC2 Language] Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Dyadica Gospel – a Pulp No…
Hildegard
Coffee x Performance in Espo…
TrAiDoS
Saturation point
Uldridge
DnB/metal remix FFO Mick Go…
ImbaTosS
Reality "theory" prov…
perfectspheres
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1360 users

EVE Corporation - Page 1070

Forum Index > General Games
Post a Reply
Prev 1 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 2021 Next
https://discord.gg/c8jHgQpMSY

mity hat tree discord if you care
Firebolt145
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Lalalaland34495 Posts
April 18 2012 16:49 GMT
#21381
Kwark manipulated the market and people were willing to buy items at over 100% markups.

I'm not surprised by blink at all.
Moderator
Mysticus
Profile Joined April 2011
298 Posts
April 18 2012 17:05 GMT
#21382
Kwark manipulated, in large part, perceptions of value. Your average person is not going to track the prices of items over time, they are going to trust that the tools given them show them the information that they requested (lowest sell order of x product).

This is just knowing the odds are against you and playing anyway.

In ten seconds you can find out that for a ship costing 80m they are selling 120m of tickets and making a boatload on every transaction.
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 17:11:42
April 18 2012 17:09 GMT
#21383
On April 19 2012 01:47 Byzantium wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 01:38 abominare wrote:
On April 19 2012 01:21 Byzantium wrote:
It is amazing how successful a game with, as far as I can tell, a by construction 75% payout rate is (at least before you take into account the sizable proportion of their cut they spend on promotional giveaways). Obviously the exact numbers aren't public but at least the last estimates I saw would put this at being 15-20% more lucrative than slot machines are programmed to be at casinos.



Seems like a poor analogy.

Regardless, people are really bad at understanding probability chance. The rake isn't important to them as long as they keep it so that 50%+1 of the tickets cost less than buying the item. This keeps gamblers interested as they can always convince themselves that clearly the long term laws of averages will work in their favor. Promo blinks or whatever the hell they call them now keep casual gamblers going to their site to try to win those and keep up with the minimum activity needed to participate.

By the time you add into the fact that eve is a painfully slow game with often long time requirements, and plentiful down time for many players, you have a great market to introduce something fast paced and exciting like gambling.


It's not that I'm analogizing one to the other, I'm just amazed at the scope of the gap in payout structure; I (as you abom would know) don't even mean to suggest this is some amazing deficiency on the part of the playerbase, for all the reasons you mentioned. But if you had just asked me what the payout rate that turned out to be sustainable (and indeed, wildly profitable) was 75% I would have thought it would be closer to payouts in other forms of small-transaction, fixed-probability gambling.


I think we can both agree that my stance would clearly be on the side that theres an amazing deficiency in the player base. =D

The reason why i didn't like slot machines, despite being a fixed probability form of gambling, is that only the most delusional believe there's a way to game them. Blink makes it much easier by to lull yourself into that spot with their structure. This is due to the fact that the sets are much shorter and much bettered guaranteed than in digital vegas slots, IIRC the ruling is that the algorithm just needs to be mathematically proven to average x wins per y runs rather than just a it must pay out exactly 1 times in y number of runs. There's different rules for mechanical and computerized slots though.

The best part of the structure is that casino here simply doesn't mind people 'gaming' the system, they simply accept their rake, which is certainly an amazing strength over a game like black jack where the casino has a stake in the outcome of the game.
ghost_403
Profile Joined September 2010
United States1825 Posts
April 18 2012 17:10 GMT
#21384
Plex is going on right now. 16 tickets at 42 million = ~640mil. Plex = 525mil, therefore they are making about 115mil, or around 20%. As far as gambling goes, you could do a lot worse than that.
They say great science is built on the shoulders of giants. Not here. At Aperture, we do all our science from scratch, no hand holding. Step aside, REAL SCIENCE coming through.
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 17:28:35
April 18 2012 17:27 GMT
#21385
On April 19 2012 02:10 ghost_403 wrote:
Plex is going on right now. 16 tickets at 42 million = ~640mil. Plex = 525mil, therefore they are making about 115mil, or around 20%. As far as gambling goes, you could do a lot worse than that.



Kinda sort of. Most gambling strategies (from the player perspective) focus on pushing the odds as well as you can to just get past the break even point. (this is the basic premise surrounding things like blackjack betting routines, game selection, and why to card count at least in a limited fashion.

Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

If you had way too much time on your hands you could work out a model to determine how much capital you would need to continually reduce (not eliminate) the risk of being wiped out by a bad string of results, and at what ticket count to make that work optimally.

Regardless of trying to game the system, blink doesn't care because, as you pointed out, they always get their 115m regardless of who wins or not.
Mysticus
Profile Joined April 2011
298 Posts
April 18 2012 17:30 GMT
#21386
On April 19 2012 02:10 ghost_403 wrote:
Plex is going on right now. 16 tickets at 42 million = ~640mil. Plex = 525mil, therefore they are making about 115mil, or around 20%. As far as gambling goes, you could do a lot worse than that.



Except that their profit/loss is not probability based. Even with slots in casinos, it's possible to 'beat the system' as it were (win big early and leave). Over the long term, the averages are set so that the house will always win.

This one is literally set up in that the house wins every single time without fail.

It's a pretty great idea and I am envious.
Byzantium
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States423 Posts
April 18 2012 17:40 GMT
#21387
On April 19 2012 02:30 Mysticus wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 02:10 ghost_403 wrote:
Plex is going on right now. 16 tickets at 42 million = ~640mil. Plex = 525mil, therefore they are making about 115mil, or around 20%. As far as gambling goes, you could do a lot worse than that.



Except that their profit/loss is not probability based. Even with slots in casinos, it's possible to 'beat the system' as it were (win big early and leave). Over the long term, the averages are set so that the house will always win.

This one is literally set up in that the house wins every single time without fail.

It's a pretty great idea and I am envious.


The great idea in it all was the surrounding trappings which made the game attractive to participants; along with Abom's point about what the likely rationalization is for the risk-neutral, infinite-capital gambler, the promo blinks, the sponsorships, the very effective (from everything I've heard) logistics team that handles getting you your prizes if you win a ship etc. all contributes much like the excellent buffet at a casino to the experience of it being fun, and although I'm not sure how it was at the outset, by now Blink has such reputation that there's none of the "it's likely a scam" many private lotteries and such on the Eve Forums are.

MSL 2052
ghost_403
Profile Joined September 2010
United States1825 Posts
April 18 2012 17:42 GMT
#21388
I've done science, and I think you can beat this system. I was going to explain it here, but screw you guys, I'm gonna make some money first.
They say great science is built on the shoulders of giants. Not here. At Aperture, we do all our science from scratch, no hand holding. Step aside, REAL SCIENCE coming through.
Snarfs
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada1006 Posts
April 18 2012 17:42 GMT
#21389
abominaire wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run.

Expected Value

E[gain from 378m bet] = (-378m) * (0.44) + (147m) * (0.56) = -84m

I'm not sure what I missed here but I don't see how you could be making money in the long run if the statistical expected outcome of each of your bets is that you lose 84m isk.
ghost_403
Profile Joined September 2010
United States1825 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 18:13:52
April 18 2012 17:57 GMT
#21390
On April 19 2012 02:42 ghost_403 wrote:
I've done science, and I think you can beat this system. I was going to explain it here, but screw you guys, I'm gonna make some money first.


Disregard this fool. He's clearly an idiot.

Here be math!

+ Show Spoiler +

n = number of tickets you buy
N0 = total tickets for one drawing
P0 = cost of one ticket
eta = efficiency of blink

cost of playing : P0*n
payout : N0*P0*eta
chance of winning : n/N0

average winnings : (chance of winning)*(payout) - (cost of playing)
: (n/N0) * (N0*P0*eta) - n*P0

As it turns out, you're actually going to lose more money by betting more often.


edit: I keep fixing this damn thing. Basic probability shouldn't be this hard.
They say great science is built on the shoulders of giants. Not here. At Aperture, we do all our science from scratch, no hand holding. Step aside, REAL SCIENCE coming through.
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 18:43:00
April 18 2012 17:58 GMT
#21391
On April 19 2012 02:42 Snarfs wrote:
Show nested quote +
abominaire wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run.

Expected Value

E[gain from 378m bet] = (-378m) * (0.44) + (147m) * (0.56) = -84m

I'm not sure what I missed here but I don't see how you could be making money in the long run if the statistical expected outcome of each of your bets is that you lose 84m isk.



Payoff value is 525, such that E=127.68m.

Edit: I overlooked this entirely. Too complacent with structures that just double your money. The problem herein lies that you need 2-3 wins to cover a loss. In the older days of blink there were a handful of items in which the spread allowed for a much closer attempt to cover your losses. One of the frigs or cruisers used to pay at just under doubling your money(50%+1 tickets was almost half the value blink would put on your account including their credit bonus) , thus there was a handful of people happily grinding blink like that.

I feel bad at math.
tooDARKpark
Profile Joined June 2011
United States149 Posts
April 18 2012 18:01 GMT
#21392
On April 18 2012 08:00 ghost_403 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 18 2012 07:45 Firebolt145 wrote:
Not much to tell I think, just the usual stupid missioner gets killed by Ueberlisk the pirate warlord king.


Fix'd.


Everyone knows Sard Caid is the Pirate King.
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States43212 Posts
April 18 2012 19:15 GMT
#21393
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
April 18 2012 19:35 GMT
#21394
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.


Luckily I didn't use it to play blink. Or did I?


I haz stolen all the freighters! No launching for you!
*abominare leaves the corporation*
Otolia
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
France5805 Posts
April 18 2012 19:36 GMT
#21395
According my my very rough estimations, if COGDEV were to build each prize with costs == Jita prizes, they still make a 40% rought profit. They already distributed 157T ISK ... They basically have a ISK printing machine whose sole limits are either the amount of cash is in the game or their personal gaming time. Producing around 1000 Hawk everyday must be kinda tough.

Impervious
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
Canada4211 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 20:03:23
April 18 2012 19:51 GMT
#21396
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.

Why? He's right.

Here's an example showing how you could always come ahead if you had infinite money:

At a roulette table, you can bet on black or red. Neither of the options has a 50% chance of winning (since 0 is green), however, the payout for you being right is equal to your bet. In the long run, it sounds like it is impossible to win money, right?

Well, try this. Put a 1 dollar bet on red. If you win, you collect the 1 dollar and start again with 1 dollar.

If you lose, place a new bet on red for 2 dollars. If you win, you collect 2 dollars. Subtracting the loss from the first bet (1 dollar), you have a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 4 dollars. If you win, you collect 4 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first two bets (1 and 2 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 8 dollars. If you win, you collect 8 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first three bets (1, 2, and 4 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 16 dollars. If you win, you collect 16 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first four bets (1, 2, 4, and 8 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 32 dollars. If you win, you collect 32 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first five bets (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

Repeat as many times as it takes to win. As long as you have infinite cash backing you, you actually can come out ahead. There is more complicated mathematics that can show this as well, but this is a simple way of explaining it.

So, while theoretically it is a fucking terrible idea to gamble, since the odds are stacked against you, if you have an infinite source of cash backing you, you can beat the odds. There is mathematics that actually backs this up in a more precise way (I studied it for a semester), but I forget a lot of that stuff already..... Large numbers can be really, really weird :/
~ \(ˌ)im-ˈpər-vē-əs\ : not capable of being damaged or harmed.
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 20:01:03
April 18 2012 19:58 GMT
#21397
On April 19 2012 04:51 Impervious wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.

Why? He's right.

Here's an example showing how you could always come ahead if you had infinite money:

At a roulette table, you can bet on black or red. Neither of the options has a 50% chance of winning (since 0 is green), however, the payout for you being right is 2 times your bet. In the long run, it sounds like it is impossible to win money, right?

Well, try this. Put a 1 dollar bet on red. If you win, you collect the 1 dollar and start again with 1 dollar.

If you lose, place a new bet on red for 2 dollars. If you win, you collect 2 dollars. Subtracting the loss from the first bet (1 dollar), you have a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 4 dollars. If you win, you collect 4 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first two bets (1 and 2 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 8 dollars. If you win, you collect 8 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first three bets (1, 2, and 4 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 16 dollars. If you win, you collect 16 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first four bets (1, 2, 4, and 8 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 32 dollars. If you win, you collect 32 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first five bets (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

Repeat as many times as it takes to win. As long as you have infinite cash backing you, you actually can come out ahead. There is more complicated mathematics that can show this as well, but this is a simple way of explaining it.

So, while theoretically it is a fucking terrible idea to gamble, since the odds are stacked against you, if you have an infinite source of cash backing you, you can beat the odds. There is mathematics that actually backs this up in a more precise way (I studied it for a semester), but I forget a lot of that stuff already..... Large numbers can be really, really weird :/


Was my original point. Then I realized I overlooked that the payout structure not being 2:1 greatly changes the dynamic. The only way to come out ahead with the plex example is to end on a string of favorable outcomes. Like a long string of wins. Which of course if you had infinte backing you'd potentially find.

Also, your method will still amusingly get you kicked out of a casino.
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States43212 Posts
April 18 2012 20:04 GMT
#21398
On April 19 2012 04:51 Impervious wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.

Why? He's right.

Here's an example showing how you could always come ahead if you had infinite money:

At a roulette table, you can bet on black or red. Neither of the options has a 50% chance of winning (since 0 is green), however, the payout for you being right is 2 times your bet. In the long run, it sounds like it is impossible to win money, right?

Well, try this. Put a 1 dollar bet on red. If you win, you collect the 1 dollar and start again with 1 dollar.

If you lose, place a new bet on red for 2 dollars. If you win, you collect 2 dollars. Subtracting the loss from the first bet (1 dollar), you have a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 4 dollars. If you win, you collect 4 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first two bets (1 and 2 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 8 dollars. If you win, you collect 8 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first three bets (1, 2, and 4 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 16 dollars. If you win, you collect 16 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first four bets (1, 2, 4, and 8 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 32 dollars. If you win, you collect 32 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first five bets (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

Repeat as many times as it takes to win. As long as you have infinite cash backing you, you actually can come out ahead. There is more complicated mathematics that can show this as well, but this is a simple way of explaining it.

So, while theoretically it is a fucking terrible idea to gamble, since the odds are stacked against you, if you have an infinite source of cash backing you, you can beat the odds. There is mathematics that actually backs this up in a more precise way (I studied it for a semester), but I forget a lot of that stuff already..... Large numbers can be really, really weird :/

Premise
That if you have infinite bets then after gambling enough money at a negative expected value you will still have infinite money.
Problem
All you have effectively proved is that 1/10th infinity is still infinity

The bet is always negative EV, each time you take it you lose EV. What you've done is thrown infinity into the equation to counter this but it in no way changes the fact the infinity money you get out is of a lower order than the infinity you started with.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
motbob
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States12546 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-18 20:13:58
April 18 2012 20:13 GMT
#21399
On April 19 2012 05:04 KwarK wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 04:51 Impervious wrote:
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.

Why? He's right.

Here's an example showing how you could always come ahead if you had infinite money:

At a roulette table, you can bet on black or red. Neither of the options has a 50% chance of winning (since 0 is green), however, the payout for you being right is 2 times your bet. In the long run, it sounds like it is impossible to win money, right?

Well, try this. Put a 1 dollar bet on red. If you win, you collect the 1 dollar and start again with 1 dollar.

If you lose, place a new bet on red for 2 dollars. If you win, you collect 2 dollars. Subtracting the loss from the first bet (1 dollar), you have a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 4 dollars. If you win, you collect 4 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first two bets (1 and 2 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 8 dollars. If you win, you collect 8 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first three bets (1, 2, and 4 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 16 dollars. If you win, you collect 16 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first four bets (1, 2, 4, and 8 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 32 dollars. If you win, you collect 32 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first five bets (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

Repeat as many times as it takes to win. As long as you have infinite cash backing you, you actually can come out ahead. There is more complicated mathematics that can show this as well, but this is a simple way of explaining it.

So, while theoretically it is a fucking terrible idea to gamble, since the odds are stacked against you, if you have an infinite source of cash backing you, you can beat the odds. There is mathematics that actually backs this up in a more precise way (I studied it for a semester), but I forget a lot of that stuff already..... Large numbers can be really, really weird :/

Premise
That if you have infinite bets then after gambling enough money at a negative expected value you will still have infinite money.
Problem
All you have effectively proved is that 1/10th infinity is still infinity

The bet is always negative EV, each time you take it you lose EV. What you've done is thrown infinity into the equation to counter this but it in no way changes the fact the infinity money you get out is of a lower order than the infinity you started with.

Not true, it's a +EV series of bets even though all the bets in the series are -EV. Eventually you will win, black will hit, you'll stop playing and make a dollar. It will happen eventually because you have an infinite number of bets, that's how infinity works.
ModeratorGood content always wins.
abominare
Profile Joined March 2010
United States1216 Posts
April 18 2012 20:15 GMT
#21400
On April 19 2012 05:04 KwarK wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 19 2012 04:51 Impervious wrote:
On April 19 2012 04:15 KwarK wrote:
On April 19 2012 02:27 abominare wrote:
Ignoring payout value differences (you take a nice cut for cash or a smaller cut liquidating yourself via npc taxes). if you bought 9 tickets you would have about a 56% chance of turning 378m into 525m. So in theory if you had an infinite amount of capital to run an infinite amount of runs, you would technically make money of the long run. Of course you don't have infinite money so you always run the risk of simply hitting a string values in which you would lose all your capital.

-_-
I invested in you. Now I feel bad.

Why? He's right.

Here's an example showing how you could always come ahead if you had infinite money:

At a roulette table, you can bet on black or red. Neither of the options has a 50% chance of winning (since 0 is green), however, the payout for you being right is 2 times your bet. In the long run, it sounds like it is impossible to win money, right?

Well, try this. Put a 1 dollar bet on red. If you win, you collect the 1 dollar and start again with 1 dollar.

If you lose, place a new bet on red for 2 dollars. If you win, you collect 2 dollars. Subtracting the loss from the first bet (1 dollar), you have a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 4 dollars. If you win, you collect 4 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first two bets (1 and 2 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 8 dollars. If you win, you collect 8 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first three bets (1, 2, and 4 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 16 dollars. If you win, you collect 16 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first four bets (1, 2, 4, and 8 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

If you lose again, place a new bet on red for 32 dollars. If you win, you collect 32 dollars. Subtracting the losses from the first five bets (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dollars respectively), you get a net gain of 1 dollar.

Repeat as many times as it takes to win. As long as you have infinite cash backing you, you actually can come out ahead. There is more complicated mathematics that can show this as well, but this is a simple way of explaining it.

So, while theoretically it is a fucking terrible idea to gamble, since the odds are stacked against you, if you have an infinite source of cash backing you, you can beat the odds. There is mathematics that actually backs this up in a more precise way (I studied it for a semester), but I forget a lot of that stuff already..... Large numbers can be really, really weird :/

Premise
That if you have infinite bets then after gambling enough money at a negative expected value you will still have infinite money.
Problem
All you have effectively proved is that 1/10th infinity is still infinity

The bet is always negative EV, each time you take it you lose EV. What you've done is thrown infinity into the equation to counter this but it in no way changes the fact the infinity money you get out is of a lower order than the infinity you started with.


The infinite money premise is based on the idea that given the independent probablity of each 'roll' inevitable means that while there is always a tendacy to move towards equilibrium, you will not always have an equal number of W:L, thus there will always be sets where you are postive, thus you have beaten the odds if you end the set there.
Prev 1 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 2021 Next
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Replay Cast
23:00
PiGosaur Cup #55
CranKy Ducklings147
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ProTech126
Nathanias 90
CosmosSc2 47
trigger 16
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 7320
Artosis 666
Counter-Strike
fl0m923
taco 573
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1257
AZ_Axe130
Other Games
summit1g12281
Day[9].tv549
shahzam376
ViBE160
Maynarde139
C9.Mang0108
fpsfer 1
Organizations
Other Games
BasetradeTV25
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 90
• davetesta14
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 29
• Azhi_Dahaki13
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21202
League of Legends
• imaqtpie2607
Other Games
• Scarra817
• Day9tv549
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
7h 48m
OSC
10h 18m
Kung Fu Cup
10h 48m
Classic vs Solar
herO vs Cure
Reynor vs GuMiho
ByuN vs ShoWTimE
Tenacious Turtle Tussle
21h 48m
The PondCast
1d 8h
RSL Revival
1d 8h
Solar vs Zoun
MaxPax vs Bunny
Kung Fu Cup
1d 10h
WardiTV Korean Royale
1d 10h
PiGosaur Monday
1d 23h
RSL Revival
2 days
Classic vs Creator
Cure vs TriGGeR
[ Show More ]
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
herO vs Gerald
ByuN vs SHIN
Kung Fu Cup
3 days
IPSL
3 days
ZZZero vs rasowy
Napoleon vs KameZerg
BSL 21
3 days
Tarson vs Julia
Doodle vs OldBoy
eOnzErG vs WolFix
StRyKeR vs Aeternum
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Reynor vs sOs
Maru vs Ryung
Kung Fu Cup
4 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
4 days
BSL 21
4 days
JDConan vs Semih
Dragon vs Dienmax
Tech vs NewOcean
TerrOr vs Artosis
IPSL
4 days
Dewalt vs WolFix
eOnzErG vs Bonyth
Wardi Open
5 days
Monday Night Weeklies
5 days
WardiTV Korean Royale
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-11-07
Stellar Fest: Constellation Cup
Eternal Conflict S1

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 4
SOOP Univ League 2025
YSL S2
BSL Season 21
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual

Upcoming

SLON Tour Season 2
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
HSC XXVIII
RSL Offline Finals
WardiTV 2025
RSL Revival: Season 3
META Madness #9
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026: Closed Qualifier
eXTREMESLAND 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.