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Lucky Numbers Blues

There are many gambler's fallacies
the statisticians say 
each roll of the roulette table
is an independent event

Yet the gamblers believe
that if for example

there were ten red numbers
in a row
that the next one should be black
right

A statistician in the U,K.
decided to prove
that the gamblers
were all delusional

in insisting that there were patterns
in the endless spin of the wheel
and that it was more of a curve
that the noise of random numbers 

after thousands of spins
recorded on a computer
the pattern was clear

there was a bell shape curve
with an upswing 
and a downswing to the data

an early experiment 
in chaos theory
but with a practical application

if you are on a winning curve
keep going until the curve
turns into a losing curve
then walk away

and you might be a winner
according to science
but they have yet 
to be able to prove/disprove
 
that lucky numbers exist 
for you and me
mine was always 32
and when it pops

I swore that my lucky number
came up 
just a fluke 
according to science

another iron clad rule
the regression to the mean
the curve may go up 
and may go down 

but in the end 
it regresses to the mean 
and that means
the house always wins

Copyright © | Year Posted 2019




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Book: Reflection on the Important Things