[blackaces13]

David,

One thing that stands out to me about your original question is that neither yourself nor any of the big names that you mention have taken the time to work out the actual problem. Why is that? Is it because although it would be fairly straightforward to do with a pencil and paper in 10 minutes, it is exceedingly difficult and impractical to figure it out in your head in 2 minutes or less?

The reason I think this is important is because at the poker table, or better yet in the online world of many of today's tournaments, it is simply impossible to correctly work out a math problem which which requires time consuming calculations. You have to make rough estimates and come to a decision in often times 30 seconds online or whatever is reasonable live, 3 minutes or so I guess.

You chastised people for responding, "by the seat of their pants", but if the question is too dificult to get a precise mathematical answer in a live game anyway then what relevance does the correct mathematical solution have? I would imagine that what separates a lot of great poker players from just good ones is how close their approximations are at the table which allow them to work things out quickly enough to be considered by the seat of their pants.

The ability to arrive at the "correct" answer doesn't help much if you need more than a few minutes to get there does it?