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Department of Mathematics,
University of California San Diego

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Food for Thought

Sam Spiro

UCSD

Semi-restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors

Abstract:

Consider the following variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) played by two players Rei and Norman.  The game consists of $3n$ rounds of RPS, with the twist being that Rei (the restricted player) must use each of Rock, Paper, and Scissors exactly $n$ times during the $3n$ rounds, while Norman is allowed to play normally without any restrictions. We show that a certain greedy strategy is the unique optimal strategy for Rei in this game, and that Norman's expected score is $\Theta(\sqrt{n})$.  We also prove several general theorems about semi-restricted games arising from digraphs.  This is joint work with Erlang Surya, Yuanfan Wang, Ji Zeng.

May 2, 2022

4:00 PM

AP&M 5402

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