Too Greedy <G6> PM Thoth

[mathcam]

\in.

Cam

[mathcam]

Sorry, what happens if all combined people try to take more than 1 million dollars? Are all the numbers scaled down?

Cam

[mathcam]

I hope no offense is being taken, gslamm. With games like this, there are always tons of contingencies that you haven't planned on. Let me try to rephrase, you tell me if/where I'm wrong:

Background:

There is $1 million to be split up between the mobsters. The goal is to leave the game with the most money.

Each Round

: Every mobster submits an amount of money that they wish to take from the pot. The person who requested the smallest amount of money will receive their share. Then the person who requested the second smallest amount of money. Repeat until there is less money in the pot than the next player's request (in the case of a tie, neither player gets any money). At this point, whoever made the last successful request (i.e. whoever was given the most money this round) is called "the greedy mobster" for the round as is forced to give half of their money back. If only one person requests money in a round, they get everything remaining.

The Cops

: At the beginning of each round, anyone still attempting to take money from the pot is subject to being caught by the cops. On round n, the probability of being caught is n out of 20. If you get caught, you are forced to leave.

Rounds

: Rounds will repeat with mobsters attempting to take some share of the remaining pot until either there is no money left in the pot or the cops arrive.

Exiting the Game

: You may exit the game by requesting $0 from the pot. Once you exit, you keep all of your money and this amount is your final score. You can no longer submit requests for money. If you are

forced

to leave by a cop, you do not gain any money from the pot this turn, and you additionally lose half of your previous money. The remaining amount is your final score.

[mathcam]

The big problems that you seem to reluctant to address is what happens if too much money is requested. What if the following are presented:

Player A: $900,000
Player B: $700,000

According to your set-up, if you give player A half of what he requested, he gets $450,000 and then player B doesn't get anything, because there's not enough left. Thus, player A is rewarded for being greedy, which I thought was kind of the opposite of the spirit of the game.

The way I had it set up player B would get his half, equal to $350,000, for being the greediest player that actually got money, and player A gets nothing.

It's your game, so it's your call. If I mod next, though, I might switch it to the latter scenario.

Cam

[mathcam]

Ohhhh...indeed. I thought they got half of what the requested. You're saying they lose half of all the money they've collected throughout the game. Okay, I think I've got it now. Submitting my amount.

Cam

[mathcam]

There's always room for more in this game, as long as you don't take

my

money...

Cam

[mathcam]

*rolls in his big wad of cash*

Cam

[mathcam]

Norinel, if you need to borrow a couple of bucks until payday, I understand.

Cam

[mathcam]

Wow. How bizarre

, (you bastard.)

Cam

[mathcam]

Go cops, go! Hmm...why don't I gust give them a little call....

Cam

[mathcam]

I couldn't for the life of me remember how I got to $89,000, but apparently there was

some

strategy (I

do

remember spending some time trying to come up with a good amount), because Thoth picked the exact same thing. If only I had picked 88999. Thoth, do you remember how you got to $89,000?

Cam

[mathcam]

That sounds like pretty much what I did. And agreed. \in. You know what killed us, Thoth? Our strategy was

too

optimal.

Cam

[mathcam]

Heh. Three mobsters are sitting around a table with 117,000 dollars on it. one of them says "Hey, let's keep this reasonable. I'm just going to take 4,800 dollars." The other two ask her to leave for being too greedy.

And bah! You just edge me out, MeMe. That was your plan all along, wasn't it?

Cam

[mathcam]

GAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Cam

[mathcam]

I think you gotta go for the win. You could just make a random decision: Say if the closing price of Nasdaq ends with an even number tomorrow, Norinel takes money, if it's odd, PBuG takes money. All that's important is that shadyforce gets screwed.

Cam

[mathcam]

And I guess I scared mathcam off with my vow to beat him...

Ha! Shows what you know. I became a cop and am taking everything you guys don't take when I show up.

Or: Gah. Stupid no internet on the weekends.

Cam

[mathcam]

Sounds good to me. I'm sending my choice in to MeMe.

Cam

[mathcam]

Yeah, that guy cheats.

Cam

[mathcam]

All of it. So feel free to ask for anything less (even just slightly less) as this will be an almost guaranteed victory for you.

Cam

[mathcam]

Pshhaw, gslamm. I'm taking at least a billion bucks.

Cam

[mathcam]

Fishbulb, Fishbulb, Fishbulb...when will you learn?

Cam

[mathcam]

MMhmm, right, gslamm. And let you and whoever catch up with me? Nice try. I'm goin' after some more moolah.

Cam

[mathcam]

CAM !!! Wha' the ... But you said ... and then .. But .. . Oh heck. Good Game. (So much for reverse-reverse-psychology)

Mwa ha ha ha ha ha. *grins evily*

*tosses gslamm a quarter*. Don't spend it all in one place, sonny!

Sure, I'll mod one.

Night 1 choices due Monday afternoon.

Cam

[mathcam]

Round 1 Results

:

It's a flurry around the table...each grabs what they can carry and hauls it back to their corner. When the dust settles, the amounts are tallied. Kerplunk requests a reasonable and moderate $99,990, where as outlandish Stewie outrageously requests a full $99,995, thereby earning him the title of "This Round's Greediest Participant." He leaves with as much as he came in with.

Round 1 Standings (Bold indicates final amount):

• $99,990 - Kerplunk
  
• $97,998 - Rite
  
• $97,989 - Totem
  
• $97,579 - Fishbulb
  
• $97,444 - gslamm
  
• $97,200 - rOver
  
• $94,000 - Shadyforce
  
• $89,998 - Yanqush
  
• $84,898 - MeMe
  
• $75,000 - Norinel
  
• $00,000 - Stewie

Amount remaining: A paltry $67,904. Good divyin'-up on that first found. Round 2 commences!

Deadline Thursdayish.

Cam

[mathcam]

Yup, forgot to post the role. 9. Thanks.

Cam

[mathcam]

Just need an amount from one shady force. I'll give you a few hours...

Cam

[mathcam]

Final Results

:

Totem Wins!!!!!

What an exciting round. With about 65,000 in the pot and 125,000 worth of requests, you knew

someone

had to be way screwed. Fishbulb, rOver, and rite get nothing, and Norinel gets only 2/3 of what he requested. Moreover, due to his excessive greediness, Fishbulb gets jacked of half of his current money. Supermoreover, I jacked another $.50 due to rounding. A little somefin' somefin' for my own hard work.

All in all, I'd say Totem did a hell of a job weaseling his way to the top.

Round 2 Submissions

:
Fishbulb: 23,432
rOver: 17,620.
Rite: 14,993
Norinel: 14,885
MeMe: 14,800
Totem: 12,877
Yanqush: 9,999
Kerplunk: 9,990
Gslamm: 7,000
Shadyforce: 3,800

Final Standings:

• $110,866 - Totem
  
  
• $109,980 - Kerplunk
  
• $104,444 - gslamm
  
• $99,997 - Yanqush
  
• $99,698 - MeMe
  
• $97,998 - Rite
  
• $97,800 - Shadyforce
  
• $97,200 - rOver
  
• $84,438 - Norinel
  
• $48,789 - Fishbulb
  
• $00,000 - Stewie

Cops rolled a 15.

Cam

[mathcam]

I can't really think of anyone. ~Not so subtlely, perhaps even

less

subtlely, motions towards Fishbulb~

gslamm, in case it hasn't been mentioned enough times, this game is fun. Well done.

Cam

[mathcam]

I wonder what happened to Fishbulb's money. As I understand the rules, that should be distributed too in this round.

Oh, really? I thought it just kind of vanished.

Cam

[mathcam]

Well, in this last round, to punish Fishbulb for being so greedy, they lit him on fire. Unfortunately, that also destroyed half of the cash. Too bad.

Cam

[mathcam]

I kind of like the idea in your second paragraph, but I don't see why the third paragraph is needed. Why not just declare, as you mention, that if everyone left asks for 0, then they all divide the pot? Why dou you have to set a max bid?

Cam

[mathcam]

I mgiht do this later, but I'm leaving soon, so I'll defer to someone else who's bored and is looking for something to do:

I wonder what the day 1 trends are. I would have suspected that the top bid on day 1 had been slowly decreasing, but then kerplunk went and took that theory and shred it to pieces last game. It's amazing how much a little collaboration could do...I wonder if it should be allowed. For example, if rOver and I agreed secretly to pick a random value in the range of 190,000 to 210,000 (accurately randomly), then as long as we actually do so, the one of us who picked the lowest is almost automatically going to win.

On the other hand, as long-term strategy, it doesn't work so well...because then people can safely pick 189,000 every time. So the new strategy for us would to be to randomly choose an relatively large value and then randomly choose wihin a 10,000 dollar interval around that value.

This stuff's great.

Cam

[mathcam]

Pfft. Not even close. My mafia could character could have bought one of these and still been in the lead. Sheesh.

Cam

[mathcam]

Indeed. Well, there's a good chance I won't be in a position to gloat after next round, so I better get it out of the way now:

Ouch, Fishbulb. If you have just asked for $3,000 more, you could've gotten away with it and taken the lead. That's gotta hurt. Again, I'm always available if you need a loan.

Cam

[mathcam]

You mean $2,000, right? What kind of math do you teach?

Huh? You got $45,670, and Shadyforce asked for $48,700. If you had asked for $3,000 more (namely, 48,670), you still would have been less than Shadyforce and you would have taken the lead. Or am I missing something?

Cam

[mathcam]

Oh....Shady

got

$0.00 and

left

with $48,700. I had it the other way around. I still mock you.

Cam

[mathcam]

This is a pretty sweet ending. The narrow lead would be cool enough, but the cops and Kerplunk sure make this tough.

Cam

[mathcam]

Yeah, kerplunk was the big "if" factor. I think I have pretty good odds on Saigon by himself, but I know that Kerplunk has to take $26,000 to take the lead, in which case Saigon could take anything less than that and be safe. This is risky for Kerplunk, because he's taking the probable highest amount and will be kicked out, but leaving is also risky. There's almost no chance of him winning by leaving...a 1 in 5 chance the cops will come, ro that Saigon and I tie with our bids. I thought he'd go for the gusto with a $26,000 or so bid, and so I thought I had a decent shot at my $25,000 being safe.

Cam

[mathcam]

just enough to get a higher amount than Mathcam incase he left.

This is exactly why

I

felt confident. I

know

you have to take at least $6401 to pull ahead (otherwise, you risk me leaving), which means that I'm almost absolutely guaranteed of being able to nab $6,400. So (according to logic...you might not have done this), you'd have to actually take 12801 to be sure to be ahead. But this is fine with me...you're still going to be kicked out. UNLESS Kerplunk tries to catch up in one round. I thought he would, so I bet high. I guessed wrong.

Not that you didn't have decent chances, but there's no way you could be in better position than me going in to that last round, so I think you're confidence was misplaced. We're symmetric with respect to voting possibilities, and I have an extra $6400 to boot.

Cam

[mathcam]

Actually if you read my post, the higher than $6400 part was just in case you left with what you had.

Yeah, I saw this. I even mentioned this is in my post: I knew you had to take at least $6,400 or else you'd risk losing if I just decided to leave (because you have no idea whether I'm going to stay or not).

Cam

[mathcam]

I definitely think we should add a new element to the game...

I'll think about it.

Cam