The best strategy for the second game may actually be for two people to pick 1, two people to pick 2, and one to pick 5. This way, any defector would lose money, assuming they are the only one that does not pick their respective number and that they'll split the money evenly.,(reply>), @rmsgrey Oh, I missed that rule,(reply>), @KiLLJoY I'm very glad I'm extremely unlikely to find myself playing a game like this with you. The key to a game like this is that it's not zero-sum, and your payout depends a lot more on what other people choose than on what you choose, so the goal is not to figure out what actions get you most money, but to figure out how to persuade other players to give you most money.,(reply>), @stvia If you can arrange for the lowest unique number to be 5, that makes the payout five times as large as if it's 1.,(reply>), That's the thing. Who gets to be number 5? Any idea of strategy doesn't work because you can't trust anyone to honour it. i'd just pick any different number and watch as chaos erupts. My objective would be to ruin each game and lie about it. In games like number 2 for example, you just show that you'll never do what they tell you to do.,(reply>), Or just have the one person pick 1 and everyone else 5.. then if anyone would deviate he still wouldn't win anything. Best he can do is annihilate the prize but then he just loses money because he doesn't even get his share now