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Comment by jayknight

14 hours ago

The difference between a lie and a surprise is that soon everyone will know what the surprise was. A lie has the intention of concealing the truth forever.

We tell plenty of lies that aren't intended to hold up forever — whether it's a lie to a stranger that you hope to be away from before the lie becomes apparent, or a lie to a acquaintance that you hope is small enough that the social friction of confronting you over it would be worse than the lie.

Correct, and a bluff is not intended to last forever. Bluffing is revealed eventually, because you can only have a pair of aces so often, statistically speaking.

At that point, the table awareness of the bluff is still profitable because it forces others to bet into your strong hands.

A bluff that is revealed is just as good as one kept secret. Many people seem to misunderstand this.

> A lie has the intention of concealing the truth forever.

Is that a thing... in English? Or in some specific part of the world?

Well I guess you better hope your kid kindly shows their hand after you fold to their shove.