Anna Nicole Smith & “Pot Odds”

An interesting blog entry by Steven Lubet (Professor of Law, Northwestern University) entitled Calculating “Pot Odds” in the Anna Nicole Smith Case attempts to explain why Anna and Pierce refuse to settle even though there is more than enough money for everyone ($1.4 billion to distribute with Anna’s share, according to the lower court, being “only” $88 million).  His analysis uses the concept of “pot odds,” that is, “the ratio between the size of your bet and the potential payoff, compared to the likelihood of winning.”

Prof. Lubet concludes that:

the pot odds suggest that they might be willing to litigate almost forever – except that there won’t be any second chances for the loser. That makes the game too risky, and the smart move – for both of them – would be to settle the case before too much more money gets burned up.

For more poker analogies to the legal world, see his soon-to-be-released book Lawyers’ Poker: 52 Lessons that Lawyers Can Learn from Card Players.