[David Sklansky]

I just thought of this problem recently when a player mistakingly exposed his pat lowball hand too soon in a triple draw game against an all in opponent.

I realized that the situation rephrased in rigorous terms is a simply stated classic type game theory problem, perhaps never addressed before. Just in case that's so, we'll call it the Sklansky Exposed Pat Hand Problem. It goes like this:

Player A and Player B are both dealt a real number from zero to one. Higher number wins. No betting except for antes. Player A looks at his downcard and decides whether to keep it or replace it. If he replaces it he gets that second card face down. After Player A acts, Player B has the same option. And of course his decison will be based partially on what A did. But the thing about this game is that Player B's first card is face up. So B knows that A's decision to replace was based on what A saw.

If there is $100 in the pot and both players play perfectly what is the EV for both players? What is the optimum strategy?

I'm going to put this question in the Poker Theory, Probability, and Science Math and Philosophy Forums at the same time.