Stupidly Gambling For Millions Is Admirable?

[Triumph36]

David,

If you don't see any romance in someone betting that much money on a game of golf, you just don't see what gambling does to otherwise normal events. All the roulette spins in the world would be meaningless without the sums of money spread out on the various numbers and colors - just mere probability.

I admire recklessness because I lack it. Having courage and conviction and taking a -EV chance - that's what life is about sometimes. I don't admire degenerate gamblers; their betting is based on a compulsion, but I can't help but praise their sheer recklessness.

Tell me you can read the chapter on golf in A. Alvarez's 'The Biggest Game in Town' and not think that there's something somehow romantic in what they're doing - Straus and Brunson's absolute certainty that they shoot better when the stakes are raised. I feel like a lifetime of +EV gambles against suckers makes you think everyone who makes -EV gambles is a sucker - and maybe you're right. Regardless, not all suckers are contemptible.