You just don't get it. You are so blinded by your idolization of a person and are so biased you can no longer see reality. John may decide to bet more on the match day, but it still won't change that I'm right. You see, what John does on match day doesn't in any way change what he is doing now and has already done, and why. John isn't very confident, and contrary to what he claims he was not trying to maximize his winnings when he asked Lou to play for 20k. He was just trying to get in Lou's head, expecting that Lou wouldn't accept the bet, plain and simple. But he got called, and even got an offer for another raise. Oh crap now what, that sure backfired.
If John was confident he would win, and was trying to maximize his winnings, he would have accepted Lou's offer instantly--period--end of story. If John bets more on match day, it is only another attempt to try to get in Lou's head, because he doesn't think he is the favorite in the match without using some moves. His first attempt to high roll Lou and get in his head failed miserably, actually backfired, because Lou surprised him and called it. John knows his last chance to try a move to get in Lou's head and to give himself half of a long shot chance to win is to try it again right before the match. Also try to aggravate Lou by making things difficult and throw him off his game.
That, and John needs the chance to see how well he is playing that day first, and maybe even to see how well Lou is playing first too. He first needs to see if he is feeling confident enough on match day to bet more. Because he damn sure wasn't feeling confident enough when Lou called his bluff on his high roll offer, and he hasn't felt confident enough yet up until this moment either. Or else he would have already confirmed on the bet that HE pushed for. No, make that he would have fallen all over himself jumping to confirm the bet that HE pushed for.
Umm... Did you forget the part where John set up and is about to play a match for ten grand out if his own pocket? I think that pretty clearly demonstrates his confidence in this match up. $10k is a lot of money, and losing it can really hurt a guy, especially a small business owner. No way he's risking that large a chunk of his wallet unless he believes he should win.
Would you be willing to consider an alternate explanation for John's reaction? Because I see one that's pretty obvious, but you seem to be overlooking it.
Yes, John's been trying to raise the bet for weeks. And yes, a couple days ago, Lou got on the board and publicly challenged John to raise it more. I read AZB every day, and I first saw Lou's message on Wednesday evening. Coincidentally, this was about ten minutes after I'd just had a conversation with John in his booth here at the Super Billiards Expo. He was showing cases and taking the time to talk to everyone who wanted his attention.
Every time I've walked by since then (which is several times a day, since his booth is right in one of the highest traffic places on the floorplan - you have to walk by it to go just about anywhere here), what has he been doing? Showing cases to a potential customer while 2 or 3 people wait for him to finish so he can do the same for them. The guy is busting his ass, and I don't know how he's even had time to eat or breathe, much less worry about Lou's offer.
Now, most people don't usually just carry around 25 grand like it's pocket change, and I doubt John does, either. He's got 10k ready to go, but he has to be able to get another 15 by Monday if he wants to accept the new amount. Have you ever tried to take $15,000 out of a bank account in cash? It's not like you just walk into the local branch, tell them you'd like to withdraw 15 grand, please, and walk out ten minutes later with a sack full of money. The bank usually gets pretty funny about a request like that. They don't keep enough cash on hand to fill it and still take care of their regular clients. This kind of large withdrawal requires several days of advanced notice so that they can make sure they have the extra currency on hand. They make you fill out some forms and sign a few things. And I'm sure it's even more complicated when you're away from home and your bank is on the other side of the planet. So it's going to take John some real time and energy to come up with the cash.
But he's working practically 24/7 from Wednesday night until Sunday night, and the game is on Monday. So what does he say? "I'm busy, we'll talk about it on Monday." I think he definitely wants to raise the bet, but isn't sure he can get the money in time. Maybe he'll pull it off and they'll raise. Maybe he can't. Perhaps he wants to talk on Monday to say he couldn't get the cash on such short notice but he's happy to raise it if Lou will give him a couple of days to get the extra money if he loses. I don't know, I'm not in his head.
And I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I just believe that the simplest explanation for something is usually the correct one. And this seemed pretty obvious to me. It's most likely about logistics, not mind games. I could certainly be wrong, but I'd bet I'm not.
