&gt; Steven Landsburg has pointed out that the problem is a bit underdetermined, and the usual solution is far from unique. For example, &quot;the first pirate gets all the coins and everyone else votes yes&quot; is a subgame-perfect equilibrium which is just as good as the usual solution, because no pirate has an incentive to deviate unilaterally (one vote can&#x27;t change the voting outcome). There are many other equilibria like that. The moral of the story is that games with more than two players seldom have unique solutions, unless your assumptions are very strong and explicit.<p>I don&#x27;t follow. If pirate A assigns themself all the coins, the other pirates may as well vote against the plan - doing so risks nothing, and might result in them getting more than 0 coins if others happen to also vote against.