I read the book titled “A Son of the Sun”, written by Jack London, when I was still at primary school, as my father bought it for me as a present, along with about a dozen other popular classical literature books.
He believed that this would prove to be a great investment in my education, and would provide me with better prospects in life.
The plot of the book is about the maritime adventures of David Grief across the southern seas of the Pacific Ocean, with the main hero being a risk-taking businessman who runs an empire of merchant ships and plantations, as well as an extensive network of trading stations in that part of the world.
Although all the stories of the book are fascinating and elaborately written by the talented pen of Jack London, there is one particular story, which has been engraved on my memory.
This story is set out in the chapter under the headline: “A Goboto Night”, where a company of men have disembarked on Goboto to spend the night there drinking and gambling.
At some point, a young Australian man challenges a Chinese merchant into a card game, and when the Chinese man quits the game, David Grief joins the young man to play cards with him; his deeper motive is to teach that audacious young man a good lesson.
In the beginning, the young man has a winning streak, but after some more rounds, David Grief gets even with him.
The young man follows a simplistic “strategy” in his gambling approach.
This strategy is based on doubling his bet every time he loses, hoping that he will finally get his overall loss back and win in one good hand.
However, as you can imagine, his expectations do not come true, and he finds himself losing his entire fortune to David Grief, who is a seasoned gambler among other things.
Finally, he admits he was wrong, and apologizes to anyone, and especially to the Chinese merchant.
As a result, David Grief gives him another chance by offering him a low-paid salaried position in one of his remotest trading stations, which the young man accepts.
As it becomes clear in this story, doubling your bet each time you lose, in order to get your money back and finally win, is not a realistic approach to gambling.
In fact, it can prove to be the surest and fastest way to lose all your money, because nobody can guarantee to you that you will win in one of the following hands.
Chances may be 50/50, but it is impossible for anyone to know how many rounds it takes for a winning hand, after a long series of losing rounds.
