Simple thing, but it drives me crazy when I'm thinking of it in terms of GTO. If anyone can explain, it would be awesome.


"THE FOOL'S GAME":

It's a very simple two player game where you play with real money. Player who starts offers you some money, let's say he wants to give you 4 $. You can take this money and end the game or you can give him 2 options to choose from:

1. Give me more money (more than 4 $).
2. Take 4 $ from me and end with a 4 $ profit.

The GTO for me says: "Take the money he gave you and never give him 2 options to choose from."
The GTO for him says: "Never start this game with anyone."

Concluding - the GTO says: "Don't play this game." But what if there is a "fool guy" that doesn't care about all that, he wants to play and he offers you money ? Seems to be a simple solution - take the money. But when you try to analyze this more deeply it looks like this:

=> The fool guy's intention is to GIVE you money, because he knows you'll take it. So it means that he might be interested in giving you even more money. Why not ? Maybe you should give him 2 options to choose from so that he can give you more ?
=> Is he really a fool ? Maybe he knows what you'll think and he hopes you give him 2 options so that he can win ?

Does it eventually lead to a point where you have to decide if he's a fool or not ?

We can play it, if you want

It's not exactly a real game. It's just a theoretical spot for further analysis.

This is kind of the basis of every Ponzi scheme. Give me money now and I'll maybe give you even more money later.

Perhaps you convince a bunch of people to invest and even start paying some of them back with others' money. Then you entice them to invest further with the promise of greater return! The vicious cycle continues...

Then at some point, the rug gets pulled, the pyramid collapses, and the fools lose their investments.



On an unrelated note, would you like to buy my cryptozoo eggs? They'll be worth 10x in no time, logan paul promised!

I think the "fool guy" who offers you money is 50% fool / 50% smart guy - if this is even possible. He is a fool until a certain point and beyond that point he starts to be smart.

The funny thing is that the true environment for this game is real life, so you shouldn't play it online. Only in real life you will be able to make a subjective judgement if he's a fool or not.

Watch out for a guy wearing sunglasses that comes to you and says: "Wanna play the Fool's Game ? I'll give you 10 bucks."

GTO doesn't care if your opponent is a fool or not.

Hmmm.... ok. But GTO was probably invented / discovered to separate the fish from the sharks


Today I realized that there IS actually one certain environment to play this game successfully in real life. Of course the name of the game would have to be changed then, so that nobody feels offended. When you give a tip to the pizza guy, waiter or taxi driver you can play this game with him. It's because he can be 100% sure you are capable of giving him even more. Just as he is paid extra money for the service, he can also be paid for taking the risk and trusting you. The only thing he would have to do, is to make a read on you whether you'll rather give or take. This could be fun, I think I'll try this sometime in the future. And it contains the live poker tells factor, when you try to "scan" your opponent.

Yeah I'm sure the taxi driver wants nothing more than have their client dangle their money in front of them before they give a tip

No. GTO in poker is to prevent the shark from exploiting you.

Well, he always have the option to just take the money (+ tip) like he normally does. The tip already belongs to him, but he can bet in on client's intentions if he wants. The good thing is - you have to give a tip first if you want to play this game. It's good for him.

So does it mean there are 3 groups of players ?

1. Fish
2. GTO users
3. Sharks

Those things aren't mutually exclusive.