Simulation studies - what to use?

[stigmata]

I want to simulate some card games. Essentially I need to program an abritrary rule set and player behaviour, and then run it over thousands of trials. Then I can alter certain paramaters and keep track of card counts, and understand the effect this has on outcome.

I can program perl (badly) so this is my first option. However, is there anything that is:

A) designed for this type of simulation studies
B) Easy to learn and use?

Thanks for the input. (Sorry, I may x-post this to Poker Theory)