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1 Me: {pointing at the reader} I challenge you! Rock, Paper, Scissors! Best of three!
2 {scissors}
3 {paper}
4 {rock}
5 {thinking suspiciously}
6 Me: {glaring at the reader} Are you sure you're not cheating?
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Rock, Paper, Scissors is a simple game of chance. I'm sure most of you are already familiar with it. The interesting thing is that if you play an extended series of games with a single opponent, and they use any non-random method of choosing what symbol to play next, then it's possible to exploit that and increase your own odds of winning to more than 50%. As such, far from being a trivial child's game, Rock, Paper, Scissors is an important and well-studied example in the highly mathematical field of game theory.
If you prefer a good laugh to complicated mathematics, check out the World RPS Society.
Oh, and I should qualify the above statement about being able to exploit your opponent's non-randomness to raise your chances of winning above 50%. This assumes your opponent is choosing their plays based only on their own internal ruminations, and not attempting to do exactly the same sort of analysis to your plays.
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