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Old 11-14-2005, 04:27 AM
J Chap J Chap is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Durham, NC
Posts: 77
Default Re: Guess WHO game. Dominated by a little girl!

this post is brilliantly funny.

your question seems to get at the root of the difference between heuristics and algorithms. (something tells me you know what I'm about to explain, but I'll do it, anyway, for the schn00bs.) Consider the task of locating the ketchup in the grocery store. a heuristic approach is like searching in the condiments aisle, then maybe over by the buns. an algorithmic approach is like starting in the front-left corner of the store, and searching up-and-down each aisle in a completely systematic way. The obvious differences are that heuristics can be faster, *IF YOU HAVE A LOGICAL BASIS FOR YOUR SHORTCUT*, but heuristics are gauranteed to work, at the cost of increased time and labor.

In the case of Guess Who, I can't see how this girl would have had any reasonable way of knowing which pot-of-gold questions to go for. (Hmmm..unless people tend to gravitate towards characters that look like them. Do you wear glasses? Would be an interesting study.) Assuming she hasn't been meticulously logging and pouring over data on your character-choosing patterns, I would say that your approach, in the long run, is +EV. She had some lucky guesses. To be safe, though, I would not pay attention to who you pick. Make sure you randomize your draws, just in case she has some amazing subconscious intuition for who you would pick. For instance, I realized that my brother seemed to choose Franklin like 74% of the time.

I'll bet that the girl who dominated you would be a good NLHE player, since she likes to go for the gold. It's a much more aggressive style of play, whereas yours is more passive and sure-fire. Out of curiosity, do you play NLHE or HE?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the issue. I'd say go with the binary as long as you can, and post again when the statistics are like 3 SDs out of the ordinary.

BTW, what are you asking that's binary?
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