Kingmaking

Kingmaking is when a player makes a move which arbitrarily decides the winner.

A player should decide his moves as he sees fit and have the chips fall wherever they may.

Every move, the one which came early and the one which came late, has an impact, a sum net effect, on what horse happens to be a nose ahead in the present moment. It’s only because the outcome of the horse race comes into increasing focus that later moves feel more decisive than earlier ones.

That’s an illusion. Every move has a bearing on the present.

There’s no denying the acting player may have a better chance of assessing the impact of a choice near the end, but his trying to conscience this and abstain leads to still another arbitrary outcome. Thus, the player should, without compulsion, make his move in the same manner as every turn before. There’s no reason to take offense for his doing so.