Ask the Wizard: Solitaire odds
December 11th, 2009 at 8:28:50 AM
permalink
Okay geniuses, who can figure this out.
Standard solitaire starts with 7 piles of cards and 8 discard piles. As you know, you have to put cards from either a pile or discard onto a pile, and it must be a lower ranked/different color. I.e., a red queen can only go one a black king. All Aces can immediately go to the top.
What are the odds of starting a fresh game and having NO moves available? No Aces. No discards that go any pile and no piles that can go on another pile.
Standard solitaire starts with 7 piles of cards and 8 discard piles. As you know, you have to put cards from either a pile or discard onto a pile, and it must be a lower ranked/different color. I.e., a red queen can only go one a black king. All Aces can immediately go to the top.
What are the odds of starting a fresh game and having NO moves available? No Aces. No discards that go any pile and no piles that can go on another pile.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:34:20 AM
permalink
what is this business about 8 discard piles? What version of solitaire do you play? I thought standard was klondike, which has the one deck to flip through.
Wisdom is the quality that keeps you out of situations where you would otherwise need it
December 11th, 2009 at 10:51:37 AM
permalink
http://www.roziturnbull.com/bill/Solitaire/solitaire.htm
Simulation results for standard klondike rules:
- There was no move on the deal for roughly 1 in 17 games
- No moves at all were possible in 1 in 395 games (from the 100,000 game trial)
Simulation results for standard klondike rules:
- There was no move on the deal for roughly 1 in 17 games
- No moves at all were possible in 1 in 395 games (from the 100,000 game trial)
Wisdom is the quality that keeps you out of situations where you would otherwise need it
