Bry: Thnx Bry... I think you are right...

What happens if a player skips a turn (is not able to make a bet) and the points that he has left over isn't as much as he bet last round? Is there a default action for this?

Walter Montego:

Oh come one now, no need to get all bitter dude. Ok, I do play to win for the most part. But its not the only thing. Maybe its a difference of philosophy between people. Some people play for fun, some play to win. Sure everyone would like to win, but its not the end of the world if they don't. Some people just do not take it as seriously as you do. And again, I did not want to just resign. That wasn't the point of my move there.

And I don't think I ruined it for anyone (you included). You have to accept that this is a multi-player game and people's actions are unpredictable. Some people bet 5,000 points in the first round... why?? I have no idea, but it "ruins" for people trying to get the bonus by betting 502 points. There are tons of examples where people bet illogically and that is just something that comes with this game. Its unpredictable. Don't get you panties all in a bunch about it, just go play another pond, there are plenty to play!

And your suspicion of a conspiracy are so far fetched its stupid. If we wanted to conspire I wouldn't have posted a message saying I was going to bet 1! Come on now, how lame is that for a conspiracy?? Wouldn't I have just emailed one or both of them in secret?? I can think of so many other was to cheat besides posting a message for EVERYONE to see.

I did what I did because you asked someone to bet 1 or 2! You said it in your post! All I did was think about the repercussions of that and took it to the next step. I wondered if anyone would even believe it if I said I was going to do it.... and thought it would make for an interesting experiment. No cheating or conspiracy here. Maybe you're watching too many x-files...

Walter Montego: In response to your response to my post...

You see there in lies the fun and interesting part. You didn't know, and no one else knew if I was telling the truth! Thats what made it interesting. Now if everyone knew I was a pathological liar, then no one would have bet 1 or 2 or 10. Honestly Bry and Pedro are pretty good players at this pond thing and thats why they probably took the chance. It is after all just a game and if they were wrong, they just fall in the pond... so what?? It was a risk they took and they were pretty smart about it I think...

And so I wasn't in it to win! That is obvious, if I was, I wouldn't have bet just 1. Now why didn't I care about winning? Like I said I play for fun and do not get caught up in ratings... I had more fun experimenting on this game then just putting in another bid...

Sorry you don't see my point and I'm sorry you got the short end of it... but what was I supossed to do, look up everyone's number of games they played in and then think "oh geez, this person doesn't have enough experience in this game"... come on.... thats just silly. In any case it doesn't matter if you only had little experience, because I had never done that before and Bry and Pedro had no reason to believe me more than you!

For those people that aren't all sour about this I think its a fascinating result. Bry bids two absolutely believing me that I will bid 1, which I think may have been too trusting. Pedro bids 10! Honestly I didn't see that happening, but he is two steps ahead of me and Bry and hedges his bet thinking that if I am bluffing and I do bid 3,4 or even 5, he is covered! Nice move if you ask me... he is also covered in the sense that he almost certainly believes there is someone else probably going to trust me and that if someone does bet 2 and I bet the normal range of whatever (3,000 or so) then he is still covered in the sense that someone else will fall in the pond...

This makes for so many possible outcomes and gets into stratgic psychology... very interesting! Which was what I was shooting for. Sorry if I hurt your feelings Montego...

Hey just to let you all know, if you look at the discussion, I got the idea from Walter Montego himself! In his previous post, right before mine, he asks if anyone would like to bet 1 or 2. So on a whim, and since I play for fun and do not get caught up in ratings, I decided to take him up on it! He asked for it, so I did it. I further thought that because, even if I did decide to bet just 1, it would defeat the purpose of me doing so if I didn't tell anyone, so I went ahead and posted to everyone that I would... I though it made for an interesting experiment of sorts, because so much psychology can come into place there. So in any case I think only Pedro and Bry took the chance...

But I do want to point out that it was not collusion or cheating. Just plain fun and mind games... which I don't see anything wrong with in this game... just adds to the fun, as long as people are not colluding and cheating...

I don't aee anything wrong with someone stating what they might be betting next... s/he could just be bluffing... or doing it for real.. the thing is there is no real incentive for people to just lose on purpose, and I don't plan on making this a habit, but thought it would be an interesting outcome... which it was.

But I could have also stated that I was going to bet 3000 points and then decided not to do that either... I think that would actually make for a more interesting game... kind of like poker a little as someone else said...

I never got notice this game started or anything. This never came up on my games list. Was this posted someplace?? I just checked this game today and noticed I was "in the pond"... never even got a chance to play!! Damn...