chibi bahamut ([info]chibi_bahamut) wrote,
@ 2009-05-19 20:43:00
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luck
[edit: Oh yeah. My apologies for the previous [!!?#@Q$] and now private entry. I'm currently making a vow to myself only to complain to the people who can do something about it, and allotting myself maybe two or three complaint storms a week.

Hey, baby steps, y'know?

We'll see whether I ex/implode or not.]



My dad used to give us a dollar to buy a lotto scratcher each time we went to the grocery store (which wasn't so very often). It was always fun to choose which one to pick with my brother, and we'd switch off scratching it off with a quarter.

I didn't start doing it again until really recently (I bought one on my 18th birthday, my 21st, and another few here and there), but now I think I'm totally going to buy one every time I see a machine.


Because winning is addicting!

I won $10 from this "Hot Chile Doubler" scratcher, and apparently, I beat the odds 1:125! (There are 4 combos to getting $10, I have a 4:500 chance to get it; 1:125)

Also, those scratcher machines don't give change, so it's besides the point that I had to buy $5 worth of scratchers and never intended on buying the winning ticket anyway, but...

I WON I WON I WON~! :D And I've just about broke even, or am at a net of negative "a fewer" dollars.

Also, now that I know that calottery.com publishes all of the odds, I will be proceeding to create a beautiful excel sheet to figure which would give me the best chance of winning. Also am thinking of calling that 1-800 number to find out which scratchers have already had their large winnings collected. We'll see how this all goes!






The other unfortunate but sadly hilarious twist... my dad had to go to his friend's son's wedding whom of which he hasn't seen in a long time.

In a last-minute rush to buy a gift, my brother "volunteered" to sell a wii fit to him (yes my brother the entrepreneur). We wrap it up. It looks exactly like a laptop or netbook, but well. what can you do. He totes it to the wedding, late.


My dad comes home a few hours later and excitedly proceeds to tell us about the wedding. And show us pictures. And point out the couple. ...Yeah, the couple were... overweight. And when we saw that, we totally burst out in shame and laughter. blerg! We totally didn't anticipate nor forsee the possibility of offending them with the gift. The only thing we really thought of was, "Hey, what if they don't have a Wii?"

...

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[info]sakura_nek0
2009-05-20 05:15 am UTC (link)
lol, wow... I try to be wary about that sort of thing, but I forget, too!

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[info]chairwolf
2009-05-20 07:11 am UTC (link)
There are smart ways to gamble. You know I could go into the poker shpeel (did I spell that right :S) and how to properly make a good gamble into good odds vs making a bad gamble into bad odds when calculating your odds on the fly. Ill try and keep it simple. Basically theres a few things you want to look at. Obviously, the first are the "raw odds" - the mathematical ratio of win to lose. So if your chances are 1 in 10 to win a scratch n' go, duh, the ratio you're looking at is 1:10. Lets call this the win odds.

Now here's the part that most people don't factor in when committing to a gamble. You want to consider the ratio of how much you're investing (how much you're spending to get involved) vs how much your return would be if you did win (don't worry if the odds are like 1000000:1, do the math first). So, if it takes you $10 to buy a scratch n go ticket, but you win $200 if you win, that ratio is 1:20. Lets call this the reward odds.

Whenever you gamble, put the win odds against the reward odds to see if your investment is worth it. So, if your chances at winning are 1:10, but if you win, let's say you get 11X your money, is this a good gamble? The correct answer, is mathematically yes. The win odds, 1:11 beat the gamble odds, 1:10. Because if you gamble 10 times, 1 of those times, you're getting 11 times your investment. Do you see where this is going? You're a smart girl, probably better at math than I am, so I'm sure this all makes sense. Call me if it doesn't...I'll try and clear it up. :)

But anyways, this is a principle in poker we call "Pot Odds," it's a fundamental poker skill/math computing ability that you MUST have in order to be a successful poker player. It's a universal gambling concept as well that applies to all things where bets are concerned. This is why Casino's thrive...the tourist/gambler is always against the "Pot Odds" when it comes to craps, roulette, slots. If you ever go to a Casino, look at you're winning yield...theres 65 possible numbers to get...but if you win, you only get 60X your money. ;)

I just thought I'd go into this long post, 1 cause I'm bored, and 2, you might want to use it for your excel sheet.

But on a more serious matter, I don't think any of your friends mind you venting...honestly. Like I've told you before, I'm sure your boyfriend is understanding enough and actually wants to hear you bitch about your day; don't not call him because you had something bad happened to you; since you talk to him just about everyday he might get the sense that something's wrong if he doesn't hear from you...he does care if you get it off your chest; it's a good remedy. I'm sure you're also the type to surround yourself with friends who would try to cheer you up should they get the hint somethings wrong or getting you down...if anything, it's easy enough for you to make your posts private and to just PM people over messenger if you are having problems but don't feel like telling everyone you know. Seriously, it's healthy to talk to someone about something that's bothering you, even if it is a small thing; I do like to think it helps one's self esteem :)

Oh and one last thing; despite the fact that skill does play a part (sometimes a very big part) in some gambling situations (poker, 21, and most other card games), luck is still a factor. As someone you know likes to say, better lucky than skilled!

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[info]yoshifreak
2009-05-21 10:03 am UTC (link)
Scratchies hey? :D I used to love scratchies too as a kid. Not so much for the winning, but more because the actual act of scratching that silver stuff off and finding a picture underneath was amusing. Eh, you know what they say about simple things and simple minds. :3
But yeah, just be careful you don't end up spending more than you win. That 1-800 stuff sounds a bit like the lotto company trying to improve their chances of getting more money out of you. :p

Also, bwhahahahahahahaa! Wii Fit... For a fat an overweight couple... XP
Well okay, okay, to be fair, you didn't know that they were a little rotund, so there was no way you'd have known that it may not have been the most appropriate gift ever. And besides, there's nothing that says that they can't enjoy the gift in any case anyway. :3 d

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