What is the EV of playing Dreidel?
December 11th, 2012 at 8:43:42 PM
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Wizard,
In the spirit of the season, have you ever considered the EV of playing a Dreidel game? I'm not Jewish myself, and my knowledge of the game is second-hand, but I am told that a group of players each antes one unit of whatever (chocolate gelt being popular), and each spins the 4-sided dreidel in turn. You have a 1/4 chance of push, 1/4 chance of owing 1 more unit to the pot (-1), 1/4 chance of winning half the pot (rounded down), and 1/4 chance of a scoop (assume a fair dreidel). It seems that's a disadvantage to going later, and the number of players matters.
Any insights?
Best,
Anon E. Moose
In the spirit of the season, have you ever considered the EV of playing a Dreidel game? I'm not Jewish myself, and my knowledge of the game is second-hand, but I am told that a group of players each antes one unit of whatever (chocolate gelt being popular), and each spins the 4-sided dreidel in turn. You have a 1/4 chance of push, 1/4 chance of owing 1 more unit to the pot (-1), 1/4 chance of winning half the pot (rounded down), and 1/4 chance of a scoop (assume a fair dreidel). It seems that's a disadvantage to going later, and the number of players matters.
Any insights?
Best,
Anon E. Moose
December 11th, 2012 at 9:15:36 PM
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See:
http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0403404
https://blogs.oracle.com/jo/entry/dreidel_math
http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0403404
https://blogs.oracle.com/jo/entry/dreidel_math
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
