4. Breaking up a Game

The good player sometimes breaks up a game to free its players for more profitable games. If he controls the game by keeping it organized, he can usually destroy the game simply by not organizing it. He can then feed its players to other games.

Besides the Monday night game, John Finn regularly plays in a Friday night game and occasionally in Tuesday and Thursday night games. The low-stake Tuesday game has the least profit potential, but one of its players would be a good addition to the highstake Monday game. John estimates that his entire income from the Tuesday game is less than the money he could win from that one player if he were shifted to the Monday night game. So John breaks up the Tuesday game by focusing his aggression on the two worst players, causing them to suffer consecutive, morale-damaging losses. After three weeks, those two losers quit and the game collapses when John makes no effort to reorganize the players.

By destroying that game, John gains a free night, along with a new player for the high-stake Monday night game. Also, he can now feed the other players from the defunct Tuesday game into the Friday and Thursday games.