If you could see your opponents cards in poker, could you always clear them out?
Game theorists draw a distinction between games with perfect information and games with imperfect information.
Poker is a classic example of the latter category because players dont know each others cards.
Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky Leta
The subjective experience of playing a long-form chess game feels like anything but possessing perfect information.
Sure, the game doesnt conceal information, but the limits of your brain do.
For one, most humans cannot consistently look 10 moves ahead.
Chess even has a concept of bluffing.
Your opponent may worry that you see something they dont and play an overly cautious response.
So perfect information does not imply that decisions come easy.
In this weeks puzzle well demonstrate this lesson by considering a perfect information variant of poker.
Can you play your cards right when theyre face up?
Did you miss last weeks puzzle?
Check it outhere, and find its solution at the bottom of todays article.
Be careful not to read too far ahead if you havent solved last weeks yet!
Puzzle #37: Transparent Poker
You and I will play a variant of poker.
We will spread out the entire deck of 52 cards face up.
I then get to do the same.
Whoever has the best five-card poker hand after the replacements wins.
What cards should you pick on your first turn to guarantee that you win the game?
If we end with the same hand, then I win.
The puzzle has more than one solution, but one stands out as the most natural.
Find the ranking of poker handshereif you need a refresher.
Ill be back next Monday with the solution and a new puzzle.
Do you know a cool puzzle that you think should be featured here?
Ill confess my prank at the top.
The fifth puzzle is an infamous unsolved math problem known as theCollatz conjecture.
Part of the reason for its fame is how simple the problem appears at first blush.
A rope ladder hangs over the edge of a ship.
The ladder is 20 feet long, and the rungs are each 1 foot apart.
The bottom rung just barely grazes the water.
The ocean tide rises 3 inches per hour.
How much time will pass before the bottom nine rungs of the ladder are submerged under water?
The ladder is attached to the ship, so when the tide rises the ladder rises with the ship.
The tide level will not change the number of submerged rungs.
Whats worth more, a gallon of nickels or half a gallon of dimes?
The dimes are worth more.
Answer: they both weigh a pound.
I hoped some of you would reflexively say the nickels and dimes would have the same value.
A man leaves home and takes three left turns.
When he arrives back at home he sees two men wearing masks.
Who are these men?
The catcher and the umpire.
Home refers to home base on a baseball diamond.
The runner took three left turns as he ran the bases for a home run.
You meet two girls named Chloe Smith and Zoe Smith.
They look alike and you ask if theyre twins.
How is this possible?
The girls are triplets.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Whats the Best Way to Cheat at Poker?
Which full house should you choose to maximize your chances of winning?
