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"I
am not a number, I'm a free man," bellowed the
Prisoner. Greedy sod, he should have been grateful,
because Coventry City striker Paul Williams is remembered
in the tomes of football folly by just a solitary letter.
Yes, one blessed letter.
READ MORE...
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GAMBLER'S
LOGIC ALIVE AND WELL...
WEDNESDAY
11th JUNE 2008 |
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I
went for a sitdown and a trim at my local
barber's shop yesterday. I say, 'trim',
I really mean a once-over with some clippers
(and no, he's not called Shaun, before you
ask), but anyway, along I meandered to be
talked at about Brentford for ten minutes
or so.
But I approached the
door to find he'd gone AWOL, leaving some
tatty sign saying "Back in 10 mins".
Now, for a while ago I was attempting to
get a motion passed through Parliament to
ban these signs since they don't actually
give any indication of when the owner will
return. Sure enough, I waited there five
minutes, took another look at the sign,
and realised I still had another ten minutes
to wait. |
Anyhow,
about fifteen minutes after I'd arrived,
he rolled along (ten minutes early, judging
by the sign) with a betting slip in his
hand.
He fancied a little punt on Spain v Russia
later that afternoon and with Torres and
co on at 8/11 he couldn't resist a flutter.
Now there must be something about gambler's
logic that kicks in at certain points
as, when I asked him how much he'd put
on, he calmly replied £220.
£220?! That's 22 haircuts, for starters.
Sweet jesus.
His peculiar logic was that to put £20
or £50 on would have been too confusing,
but matching any denomination of Ladbrokes'
stake odds (i.e. the £11 bit - thus
£11, £22, £110, £220
etc) means he could work out his potential
winning odds easier, so for the fact that
he was a lazy gambler and, seemingly,
£110 was a pathetically small amount,
he was lumping £220 on as that was
the next available amount, and it was
relatively simple to work out his return
(£8 x 10 x 2).
Of course, I told him he was a right wally
to be working out how much he should bet
purely based on what base stake figure
his bookie quoted. And I stood by that;
right up until Spain began to run riot.
£160 suggests he's probably not
as foolish as I made out.
<<back
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