How disappointing that the reaction to Chiren is so negative!
There are, from time to time, extremely lucrative schemes in the world of frequent flyer miles connection, and the person who devises them and demonstrates them normally gets vast kudos for this. In one sense I suppose that (a) this exploit relies on the fact that he is a Pokerstars team player and thus the activity is +EV (or, at least, +utility) for him when it wouldn't be +utility for someone trying it without being a Pokerstars team player, and thus everyone else who doesn't have that status is just jealous, and (b) poker players have a more direct notion of the concept of a zero-sum game than flyers, even though frequent flight currency gets devalued from time to time in a comparable way to the increase of rake, and thus is not so far from frequent play currency after all.
A more down-to-earth example considers occasions when Tesco give away lots of Clubcard points for buying unlikely yoghurts, etc., which can be redeemed at four times their nominal value with some retailers and thus the original purchase is immediately +EV. This probably illustrates how overpriced most of the things being given away as rewards are in the first place, rather than anything else.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 01:07 pm (UTC)There are, from time to time, extremely lucrative schemes in the world of frequent flyer miles connection, and the person who devises them and demonstrates them normally gets vast kudos for this. In one sense I suppose that (a) this exploit relies on the fact that he is a Pokerstars team player and thus the activity is +EV (or, at least, +utility) for him when it wouldn't be +utility for someone trying it without being a Pokerstars team player, and thus everyone else who doesn't have that status is just jealous, and (b) poker players have a more direct notion of the concept of a zero-sum game than flyers, even though frequent flight currency gets devalued from time to time in a comparable way to the increase of rake, and thus is not so far from frequent play currency after all.
A more down-to-earth example considers occasions when Tesco give away lots of Clubcard points for buying unlikely yoghurts, etc., which can be redeemed at four times their nominal value with some retailers and thus the original purchase is immediately +EV. This probably illustrates how overpriced most of the things being given away as rewards are in the first place, rather than anything else.