no one had figured out how to turn his work around backward to ask the so-called inverse question from effect to cause: what if a poker player deals himself four aces in each of three consecutive hands? What is the underlying chance (or cause) that his deck is loaded?

Ottavino countered that the Edgertronic would make him think less, narrowing his focus. “I’m gonna think either way,” Ottavino told the coaches, “but this makes me know what to think about.”