How long do you think you can spend in complete isolation and in total darkness? Day? Two? A week?
But what if 100 thousand dollars is at stake?
A brave poker player last fall offered a friend a bet that he could spend at least a month in lockdown and complete darkness, without access to any light or communication.
It all started as an easy friendly argument between Australian poker player Rory Young and his close friend Rich Alati.
Young simply asked Alati how much he thought a person would be able to withstand, being placed in a small room with no light and being completely alone. Alati replied to this that such a person could hold out for about 30 days.
Rich Alati (left) and Rory Young (right).
Young had very small numbers on this score and then he offered Alati this unusual bet, and made according to all the rules of poker bets. Alati offered the players to bet 100 thousand dollars, which will go to him if he won.
The terms of the experiment were detailed on an 11-page legal document and confirmed in the presence of three witnesses.
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The location for the experiment was a small bathroom in an unspecified house in Las Vegas, owned by Alati. On November 21, 2018, Alati was locked in this room.
In a room without lamps, there was a refrigerator for storing food (no light), a toilet and a small bed. The only indulgence for Alati was that he could ask himself to deliver any food he wanted.
Alati was examined to make sure he had not brought any communications equipment or portable lights with him. In addition, he was obliged to regularly pass urine tests to exclude the use of any medication in the form of support.
To make sure that Alati is not cheating, as well as to mark his mental and mental state, it was established to check the conditions of Alati's detention at different intervals and at random times. Sometimes, Young even personally brought food to a friend to check it out.
A 24-hour video feed from the bathroom was also created for additional control.
Rory Young was sure that Alati would not last the set time, but his friend turned out to be unexpectedly resilient and unexpectedly easily withstood all the conditions of the "confinement".
One day, Young brought food to a friend and after talking with him, he realized that he was in a great mood and did not show anything about the alleged change in psyche.
Realizing that he was simply losing his money, on the 20th day of the experiment, Young persuaded Alati to pay him a ransom so that he voluntarily ended this strange experience. We agreed on the amount of $ 62,400.
Young still feels the bitterness of defeat.
Young also suspects that Alati may have been cheating a little by hearing sounds from a nearby garden and navigating them, correlating his time in the bathroom with them. And this helped him to calculate the time and meet the required time. True, Young has no proof of this.
An unusual controversy has caught the attention of many people and now another poker player Huckleberry Sid wants to conduct another similar experiment, but with higher stakes.