Although there are "pockets" of
relationships, I've seen no evidence of solidarity among professional
gamblers in general.
really?
how many times have you seen the real name of bob dancer posted in
this group, even by those of us who dislike him? or jean scott, or
anyone else? in the time since i've been a member, i can count, um,
none. it's something you just don't do, and it's best not to be known
as someone who does stuff like that.
i cite this example not because their real names are especially
important, since they aren't for people who are easily recognizable by
appearance, but to establish that a certain amount of adherence to
conduct does exist.
Breaking "unwritten rules," even those against blatantly stealing, financially and intellectually, from each other and physically attacking each other, has no consequences in that anarchic business
if you've studied any amount of game theory, you'll know that anarchy
does not necessarily lead to backstabbing, but often to cooperation
among cliques with exclusion and hostility towards those who do not
cooperate. this is exactly what we see in the community of skilled
players in vegas, and with bob dancer.
i've been startled by the amount of cooperation and unsolicited help
i've received from other skilled players, most of them presumably
pros, since i moved to vegas. it makes sense if you think about it; if
you're one of twenty people who knows something useful, the
incremental cost in telling a twenty-first is small, while the
potential gain if they return the favor by telling you something you
don't know is large.
while bob dancer is sufficiently well known to develop plenty of
contacts even if a large percentage of potential contacts strongly
dislike him, and he is certainly skilled and diligent enough to do
well even without cooperating with others, he does experience at least
some blowback from being known as a rogue.
i once saw him on a very strong play, three months after i'd started
playing it and a month after it'd gotten swarmed pretty much nonstop
by APs. he'd been grinding it for many hours straight, and made a
comment about how he'd just found it recently, sarcastically adding
"for some reason nobody i know told me about it earlier." well, of
course they wouldn't.
on a later date he asked a friend of mine if he could have the machine
at midnight, when my friend was going to stop playing... heh. for
someone else, maybe, but for bob dancer, no, he'll find someone else
to give it to.
anyway, this is a bit of a digression, but emergent cooperation among
selfish actors is a phenomena which i find cheerful and reassuring,
and i've been happy to see it exhibited in a context which was new to
me. i'm surprised to see someone claiming it doesn't exist here.
cheers,
five
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Tom Robertson<madameguyon@embarqmail.com> wrote: