Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the September, 2013 issue.
There are a lot of 2+2ers out there who have yet to get my latest book, DUCY, even though they would almost certainly benefit from it. I think the main reason for this is that they don’t really know what is in the book. They only know that it contains several dozen essays about various subjects. And, that many of these essays talk about things they already know or don’t interest them.
Of course, if even one chapter could have a positive effect on their life, the book is worth buying. So, that second reason to not buy is silly. However, if some of you haven’t gotten the book because it isn’t clear from the title what an essay is about, I want to fix that now.
What follows are some very short summaries of those chapters that I think are both very important and not self-evident from the title. That’s a bit fewer than half of all the essays. But, keep in mind that many of the chapters not summarized may well contain information that you would find personally very useful.
Part One: My Years With Bob Stupak (casino owner and the man who built the Stratosphere tower)
● The Trump Challenge – I tell Bob to challenge the Donald at his own game.
● Experto 21 – My new way of dealing blackjack to take advantage of many players’ inflated opinion of their card counting ability.
● Playing Chicken – Using the game theory solution to “chicken” to get your way.
● The Five Gifts – I show Bob why he cannot use a simple poll to decide which new gift to add to his menu when the customer selects only one gift from that menu.
● The Little Room – I show Bob how to turn a tiny room into a big winner.
● The Front Desk – Conducting an auction to satisfy employees who aren’t getting enough hours of work.
● I Invent Caribbean Stud – The whole story from start to finish.
● The Chinese Restaurant – Thinking WAY outside the box when we have no kitchen.
● Money In The Envelope – Taking advantage of customer’s greed and risk aversion.
● The Slot Tournament – Once again taking advantage of customer’s greed and risk aversion.
● Building The Stratosphere Tower – Since building it half way up required only 10% of the final cost, I persuaded Bob to gamble his bankroll to attract big time investors.
Part Two
● The Acceleration Effect – My contention that relative circumstances and how they change day to day is psychologically more important to people than absolute circumstances, and how to take advantage of that.
● A Little Creative Thinking – My method to get one of the pro players to quit to let a live one into the poker game can be applied to many things.
● Background Probability – A unique way to incorporate Bayes’ Theorem into your assessment of things.
● Making The Best Decision – The three different times the decision most likely to be correct is not the best one.
● Those Handicapped Parking Spaces – Several good examples of thinking outside the box including putting very expensive parking meters on some of those parking spaces reserved for the handicapped
● The Pawn Shop Principle – Pot odds matter. Not what you have personally already put in the pot. Same goes for business decisions (and personal ones too).
● The 30% Syndrome – My contention that people are too pessimistic regarding small underdogs.
● Placebos and Peeping Toms – The odd fact that both things hurt you only if you know about them.
● My Caesar’s Blackjack Proposition – How I got someone to back me in high stakes blackjack even though he barely knew me and was skeptical I could beat the game.
● Casino Catastrophe Insurance – A great way to entice customers into your casino with an almost insignificant cost.
● The Fundamental Theorem of Investing – If you don’t know why people are betting the other way, beware.
● Friendly Figure Skaters – There are plenty of experts out there slightly below the top who would be glad to help you in return for nothing but appreciation and admiration.
● My Home Invasion – A true story about how I stayed friendly with my robbers and thus lived to talk about it.
● Evaluating Other People’s Expertise – Perhaps my most important essay.
