On Wed, 16 Aug 2000, Jim Miller wrote:
Slot machine 0
Video poker 0.1
Scrabble slot machine 0.3 ?
One can remain hopeful -- video poker can definitely be played
to positive expectation even modulo any overlay equity from
swollen jackpots -- but if it's anything like the Monopoly
variants, wherein properties are basically just substituted for
fruits, then it will be closer to zero. The Wheel-of-Fortune
slot machine had some equity differential if you knew how to
play the game, but the overriding skill level is in finding
jackpot overlays.
And while I'm jumping into this thread, I'll relate an anecdote. A week before Providence, I was playing in a poker tournament in Las Vegas. I busted out early and hit the coffee shop with three friends who had met similar quick fates. One of the others was the current world poker champion [1], and -- unusual given the size of the fields in those things -- an accomplished game theoretician with a PhD in c.s. So we're talking about the complexity level of various games and maybe partially because I had just burned a $1k entry fee in a little over an hour I blurted out, "poker is a joke." Instantly I was horrified at what I had just said, worried that I was slighting the champ. Without missing a beat, he smiled and said "yep." Scrabble at the highest levels is a much better game.
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