RPS

[Voltron87]

I'm addicted to this. When I'm hanging out with my friends we rps for everything, who pays for lunch, who buys another person a shirt they have to wear, who has to carry everyones bags, et cetera. When I was in Boston last weekend with 10 friends we RPS'ed for who had to get a spray on tan, and for who had to go up to random chicks and ask for their numbers, and on and on.

and if you havent figured it out, its rock paper scissors. its a way of life.

[BradleyT]

http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Roshambo/

[CrazyEyez]

Anyone this hardcore should be calling it Roshambo.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Do you have wacky nicknames for everybody too?

[trying2learn]

we saw phil gordon at a weezer show and he was walking around offering $100 best two-out-of-three in this to the general public a month or so ago.

[lapoker17]

Um, I can't really say that Phil Gordon has reached any level as to not also be considered a member of the general public. Perhaps if it had beeen Castro or something, but Phil Gordon?

[RunDownHouse]

This guy is Dead reincarnate, right?

[Voltron87]

you guys may doubt it but rps is the game to play. especially since this is a gambling website, im surprised more people arent players.

[swede123]

If you have an acronym for Rock, paper, scissors you play this game too frequently. It's kind of the same as the guy who called chick flicks 'romcoms'. Certain words really don't need abbreviations or acronyms if you used them with normal frequency (which would be seldom).

Swede

[Voltron87]

one piece of advice, against amateurs, you cant go wrong throwing rock first. that is the correct play and is +EV. scissors is all too common, and paper is a rare first round pick in my experience. it becomes common in rounds 3-6.

[MarkL444]

earlier this year when my school (MSU) was in the final four, me and a bunch of my friends went to the bar super early and wiated in line for it to open. the place was packed with people drinking and waiting for the game to start. to kill the time some aussie took the liberty of organizing 32 player single elimination RPS tournaments for money. there was a huge crowd. it was a blast.

[blaze666]

so, what's the secret? all iv'e heard is that you can determine an opponents 'run'. one day, im going to do some serious reasearch into this. i am quite good at it though.

[Voltron87]

theoretically, optimal play is to be completely random. a lot of the people i play with on a regular basis (whom with i have practially 100s of matches logged) will say "chris, im throwing rock, thats all you need to know" in a pysche out attempt. to prevent me from thinking about it i look at my watch, add the seconds to the date and divide by 3. the remainder will be 0, 1, or 2, and there is my randomization. before i go into a match i know im throwing paper first.

people do have tendencies, but theyre very hard to figure out. i am convinced that people who rarely play dont throw paper first and shade towards scissors, and then use paper more after 2 ties.

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
theoretically, optimal play is to be completely random

[/ QUOTE ]

playing random only prevents you from getting patterned. if you do it, however, you are not taking any steps to predict your opponent.

unless your opponent is throwing random or is better at figuring you out, random shouldn't be optimal.

[Voltron87]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
theoretically, optimal play is to be completely random

[/ QUOTE ]

playing random only prevents you from getting patterned. if you do it, however, you are not taking any steps to predict your opponent.

unless your opponent is throwing random or is better at figuring you out, random shouldn't be optimal.

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, this is all true.

[astroglide]

so how is playing random "theoretically optimal" then?

[Voltron87]

its not optimal in all situations, it was something i typed while i was 4 tabling playing poker and distracted.

[UCF THAYER]

[ QUOTE ]
its not optimal in all situations, it was something i typed while i was 4 tabling playing poker and distracted.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not optimal in any situation. At best it gives you a 50% chance of winning.

EDIT: If you were playing someone who was far superior than you, and was laying you odds on the match, then being completely random would be optimal.

[Voltron87]

if your opponent can figure out your tendencies then random is optimal.

optimal doesnt necessarily mean +EV

[daryn]

[ QUOTE ]
you guys may doubt it but rps is the game to play. especially since this is a gambling website, im surprised more people arent players.

[/ QUOTE ]

i play this game a lot, sometimes for dinner, things like shotgun, whatever. sometimes for cash baby. usually when i'm in a group of poker players we're all playing for a hundo or two a pop, best of 3.

[DcifrThs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
its not optimal in all situations, it was something i typed while i was 4 tabling playing poker and distracted.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not optimal in any situation. At best it gives you a 50% chance of winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

it is optimal in ANY situation in which you are not a favorite going into the match.

Barron

[UCF THAYER]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
its not optimal in all situations, it was something i typed while i was 4 tabling playing poker and distracted.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not optimal in any situation. At best it gives you a 50% chance of winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

it is optimal in ANY situation in which you are not a favorite going into the match.

Barron

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys are correct, my post has been edited.

[Voltron87]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
you guys may doubt it but rps is the game to play. especially since this is a gambling website, im surprised more people arent players.

[/ QUOTE ]

i play this game a lot, sometimes for dinner, things like shotgun, whatever. sometimes for cash baby. usually when i'm in a group of poker players we're all playing for a hundo or two a pop, best of 3.

[/ QUOTE ]

since a lot of the people i hang out with are college kids who dont gamble or treat money like poker players, a lot of the time the stakes are a chore or goofy act. making someone do something embarassing, carry everyones luggage, get a spray on tan, wear a tight pink tank top out to a bar, carry two phone books when we go out at night, and so on.

[DcifrThs]

[ QUOTE ]
you guys may doubt it but rps is the game to play. especially since this is a gambling website, im surprised more people arent players.

[/ QUOTE ]

my younger brother and i play roshambo religiously...at least we used to.

he used to KICK MY ASS until i got good and throwing curve balls.

every match was a best of 7 series of best of 7 sets. so you have to win 4 best of 7 sets to be victorious.

we used to smoke...uh...tobacco, yea...tobacco...and play for anything from who was on cleanup to who was on supply etc. and after the session itself for everything from remote control to who makes sure mom was asleep. occasionally we'd get real into it and be like, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM etc... (equivalent of pwned i guess) and we'd wake up mommy...

she understood however that boys willb e boys. if we were to play now it would be very interesting as we've forgotten each others tendencies and thoughts on each other's patterns

i love the game though and it rules!

Barron

[Supersetoy]

Eh, my friends and I aren't big "RPS" players. We're more of the "over/under" type. I find it a lot more interesting.

And we bet it on EVERYTHING: Time, Date, Miles driven, times X word is said by X person, When we'll have our first black or woman president, When someone will get married, have sex, how long a phone call by an unsuspecting person will be, when the pizza will come, how much the beer will cost...it goes on and on. All for money too. The marriage bet is for $1000, the president bet for $2000.

Over/Under is my favorite. Agree on a median and then pick your side.

[ QUOTE ]
Eh, my friends and I aren't big "RPS" players. We're more of the "over/under" type. I find it a lot more interesting.

And we bet it on EVERYTHING: Time, Date, Miles driven, times X word is said by X person, When we'll have our first black or woman president, When someone will get married, have sex, how long a phone call by an unsuspecting person will be, when the pizza will come, how much the beer will cost...it goes on and on. All for money too. The marriage bet is for $1000, the president bet for $2000.

Over/Under is my favorite. Agree on a median and then pick your side.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what me and my friends do as well. I am constantly putting an O/U on my friends relantionships, # of cigarettes someone will smoke in a 1 hour period. The most obscure one we did though was we using digital scales and betting oh how much everyday object weigh.