A Probabilistic Two-Pile Game
Ho-Hon Leung
Department of Mathematical Sciences
United Arab Emirates University
Al Ain, 15551
United Arab Emirates
Thotsaporn "Aek" Thanatipanonda
Science Division
Mahidol University International College
Nakornpathom
Thailand
Abstract:
We consider a game with two piles in which two players take turns
adding a or b chips,
randomly and independently, to their respective piles.
Here a, b are not necessarily positive.
The player
who collects at least n chips first wins the game. We derive general
formulas for pn, the probability of the second player winning the game by collecting n chips first, and
give the calculation for the cases {a, b} = {-1,1} and {-1,2}.
The latter case was considered by Wong and Xu. At the end,
we derive a general formula for
pn1, n2, the
probability of the second player winning the game by
collecting n2 chips before the
first player collects n1 chips.
Full version: pdf,
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Maple code
(Concerned with sequences
A000108
A001764
A006013.)
Received March 22 2019;
revised versions received May 19 2019; June 29 2019.
Published in Journal of Integer Sequences,
August 19 2019.
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