View Proposal #53
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| ID | 53 |
|---|---|
| First Name | Stephen |
| Last Name | Walk |
| Institution | St. Cloud State University |
| Speaker Category | faculty |
| Title of Talk | Avoiding Paradoxes in Joker Poker |
| Abstract | If we add a Joker to an ordinary deck of cards, we'll find that the three-of-a-kind hands are more prevalent than the two-pair hands. (By convention, the Joker is always interpreted to make the hand's rank as high as possible.) Since the two-pair hands are rarer, by all rights they should outrank the threes-of-a-kind. But if the ranking is redone so that two-pair hands rank higher, then some of the Joker hands have to be interpreted as two-pair hands instead of threes-of-a-kind, and as a result the two-pair hands are again more prevalent than threes-of-a-kind. There is simply no consistent way to rank the poker hands in this Joker deck. It's enough to make Bret Maverick spin in his grave. \par What if we don't confine ourselves to the ordinary deck? Is it possible to find a deck that avoids paradoxes like the one above? Yes! Is it \emph{easy} to avoid paradoxes? Sure---if the deck is big enough. This talk will include the results of an investigation into this situation as well as a few details about the methodology. Only decks of size smaller than one million are considered; bigger decks become somewhat difficult to shuffle. |
| Subject area(s) | |
| Suitable for undergraduates? | Yes |
| Day Preference | |
| Computer Needed? | N |
| Bringing a laptop? | N |
| Overhead Needed? | Y |
| Software requests | |
| Special Needs | |
| Date Submitted | 3/9/2004 |
| Year | 2004 |