Roomba on a pool table bet

I enjoyed this YouTube short video about a novelty gambling game.

(Players each place a pool ball on the table, next to one of the diamonds on the cushion, along with a stake. A Roomba, or similar robotic vacuum cleaner, bimbles around the table according to its inscrutable algorithm, occasionally knocking into a ball. With sufficient time, it will pot at least one ball. Staker of the first ball potted scoops the pool.)

Assuming a genuinely random Roomba, are there advantageous spots to choose? My guess is that the ones nearest the pockets are least likely to be hit directly but may be relatively likely to be pocketed when struck.

Assuming a real-world Roomba, does anyone know/understand its algorithm well enough to identify the best spot to choose? Does it depend on the precise starting position and orientation of the Roomba?

Lastly, will this be bad for the pool table?

If it's a newer Roomba, it will learn the orientation of the pool table and not bump against the walls as much, over time.

We have both newer and older roombas at our homes and there is a difference.

So if it's an older one, I don't think it makes much difference it will run all over the place bumping everywhere and moving along. If it's a newer one and especially if it has run the table more than once, it will tend to bump into the walls less often, spend more time navigating open spaces, and take less time to cover the full space of the table.

Someone else may calculate what that means in terms of ball placement.

I wouldn't run roombas over my pool tables, but I don't think running one a few times would harm them. Where roombas tend to cause damage are with Persian rugs and such, they are occasionally tearing up a bit here and there of the fringes, but otherwise they are not particularly hard on surfaces or furniture.

I’ve mentioned this to several friends.

They are in agreement with their assessment:

It’s the stupidest bet they ever heard of. 😵‍💫

But they all want to play it! 🤪

Me too. On both counts. 👍

Nicely expressed; it's a fun, benign sort of stupid, isn't it?

in the video the balls are touching the walls of the pool table... put the balls in random positions on the table... problems solved

Quote: lurkwarbler

I enjoyed this YouTube short video about a novelty gambling game.

(Players each place a pool ball on the table, next to one of the diamonds on the cushion, along with a stake. A Roomba, or similar robotic vacuum cleaner, bimbles around the table according to its inscrutable algorithm, occasionally knocking into a ball. With sufficient time, it will pot at least one ball. Staker of the first ball potted scoops the pool.)

Assuming a genuinely random Roomba, are there advantageous spots to choose? My guess is that the ones nearest the pockets are least likely to be hit directly but may be relatively likely to be pocketed when struck.

Assuming a real-world Roomba, does anyone know/understand its algorithm well enough to identify the best spot to choose? Does it depend on the precise starting position and orientation of the Roomba?

Lastly, will this be bad for the pool table?

Random Roomba: Are there advantageous spots to choose?
If the Roomba moves in a truly random manner (like Brownian motion or uniform sampling of movement directions):

Balls nearest the pockets may indeed have a higher chance of being potted when struck because they require less force/distance to drop.

Balls closer to the center might be more likely to be hit, because a random walk is more likely to pass through central areas than corners or edges.

So:
Near-pocket spots are lower probability to be hit, higher chance to be potted if hit.

Mid-table spots are higher chance to be hit, but may take multiple collisions or better angles to be potted.

Depending on how you value hit probability vs. potting chance, this might be a "spread your bets" scenario. But yes — near-pocket spots could be statistically smarter, assuming enough collisions occur.

Quote: corey7098

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