ROCK PAPER SCISSORS WORLD Championship

["spaceman"Bryce]

It said in our school newspaper that someone from our school was invited to the rock paper scissors world championship in florida to compete for thousands of dollars.......???????
can you get +EV from this game?

[valenzuela]

I beat everyone I know at RPS.

[KingDan]

http://www.worldrps.com/advanced.html#Three

Advanced strategies. I remember seeing pictures from the finals last year. Not surprisingly this event had quite a bit of alcohol.

[bholdr]

get your ass down there and throw some game theroy at those bitches!

sounds like fun. pointless, but fun, so, yes, fun makes it +EV, IMO. (that's a lotts commas!)

[beset7]

[ QUOTE ]
get your ass down there and throw some game theroy at those bitches!

sounds like fun. pointless, but fun, so, yes, fun makes it +EV, IMO. (that's a lotts commas!)

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a RPS Society t-shirt. It's one of my prized possession.

RPS is a total skill game. Gambits (the avalanche? the crescendo? If these mean nothing to you then don't even step in the ring with me cowboy), sh-t talking, hand concealment: it's the real thing man /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[bholdr]

a little game theroy turns it into a coin flip, however.

[beset7]

[ QUOTE ]
a little game theroy turns it into a coin flip, however.

[/ QUOTE ]

True in theory but unless you are a walking computer a good RPSer can get you on tilt. (I'm mostly joking). I guess there is a yearly contest were different Game Theory departments at big universities design AIs to play RPS against each other.

[TStoneMBD]

you dont use game theory to beat rock paper scissors. that would be stupid. you use psychology. this means that you predetermine which RPS to use based on what you think your opponent is thinking, or what you think he thinks you think he thinks blah. if you are the underdog to win the match, then randomization makes the match 50/50, deeming the entire competition retarded as it immediately becomes a coinflip for anyone who chooses it to be.

also, pre-compitition, you should memorize an order of RPS in case you come to the conclusion that your opponent is the favorite. you use this against him and it will have been pre randomized. unless he can somehow read that you are thinking "rock", you're 50/50.

aside from tells, this seems to be the only tactics used to beat people who use appropriate game theory to make the match a coinflip:

"Cloaking
“Cloaking” is the term used for delaying the unveiling of the throw. Put a little more simply, “Cloaking” is waiting until the last possible second to throw Paper or Scissors. Some players will watch your hands for an indication of which throw you are about to use. By not moving your fingers until the last moment, you can fool such a player into thinking you are throwing Rock. Since a hand-watcher will respond to a well-executed cloak with paper, cloaking Scissors is generally more useful than cloaking Paper.

Shadowing
Another step beyond cloaking, “shadowing” is pretending to throw one thing, but changing to another at the last possible moment. This is much more difficult and requires great care in execution. Ultimately, it is up to the judges or referee to decide when that last possible moment arrives and if your hand is on the wrong throw or between throws they are not very forgiving. There are two primary ways in which you can use shadowing. The first is to merely twitch your fingers during the prime. A hand-watching opponent may believe this to foreshadow a throw of scissors or paper, depending on which fingers you wiggle. A more advanced method of shadowing is to change the position of your hand three or four times during the last prime. This has the potential to confuse or distract any opponent and will likely befuddle a hand-watcher completely."