Archive for June 14th, 2010

What is Reasonable Evidence for High Risk and High Rewards?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Let’s say for some reason you’re playing poker and for some reason you put not only all the money you have and all the money from selling your assets on the table for this one hand, you also will end up owing a bookie your life or $10 million. You have no idea what is in your hand, and no idea what is in anyone elses hands. One of the people put all in, if you put all in you’re risking your life and everything you have, for the chance to at least double your money. Given that you have no evidence at all that you will win or even have a chance to win, do you go all in? Probably not. However if you had four kings the decision might be a little more difficult because the chances that someone can beat that hand is extremely low. There is evidence that shows that getting a getting four of a kind are extremely low. Let alone that even if someone else has four of a kind, they still won’t likely beat four kings. I think the decision would be difficult, but the odds of you losing a hand in a fair game with four kings is lower than the chances you’ll die in a car crash. You don’t base your evidence on that someone just said that the odds are extremely good, you base you evidence on what can be mathematically proven, and though you’re playing the odds, in the case of four kings, your odds are almost sure, as close as 99.9%. So: if you’re putting your own life on the line, you don’t trust anyone, you make sure you understand the risks completely and make sure the evidence is as accurate and sure as possible.