"Winning Is Not Enough"

Pachi-Pro A's Playing Logic of "Accumulating Expected Value"

Abstract

This paper focuses on a man who has lived as a pachi-pro (who makes a living by playing pachinko). He explained that the most important thing in playing pachinko was to "accumulate expected value," that is, to play as much as possible the machines that have the highest expected turnover. However, he also explained that a high-level professional is the one who can also suppress this practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine why both of these practices are important for him. He explained that in "accumulating expected value," it is expected to look at the process of the practice rather than the result. In other words, the key of his thinking was to "shift" from one perspective and turn to another. This paper proposes that daring to suppress the "accumulating expected value" is also a kind of "shift" and that for him, it was appropriate for professional players.