How to win Rock-paper-scissors every time
I admit it. When I first heard there are actual tournaments for Rock-paper-scissors, sanctioned by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society, I laughed. I mean seriously, $50k to the winner of a game that requires no skill whatsoever? Absurd. Boy was I wrong.
Rock-paper-scissors isn't just a silly game kids play or a way to decide who has to be the designated driver at parties. This is serious stuff. It's psychological warfare. ChaCha Answers explains.
Males have a tendency to throw rock on their first try, inexperienced RPS players will subconsciously deliver the item that won previously, and paper is thrown least often, so use it as a surprise. And remember, when in doubt, throw the Spock. Your opponent will never know what hit him. You'll be disqualified, but at least you'll go out fighting.
My nephews liked to throw the illegal “dynamite,” which, according to them, could blow anything up. Until I pointed out I could cut their wick with my scissors. At which point they would usually challenge me to a thumb war, which I would lose.
Hope the thesis-writing is going well!
Roleplaying actually uses this and that is how it goes! Certain things that you have allow you to throw the bomb, which is defeated by scissors. It beats the other 2.
Want to really beat them, Make a circle and call it a black hole. I used that one a few time LOL
When you thumb wrestle and you are losing, call tag-team and bring in your other hand. My son did that to me once and I thought I was going to hurt myself laughing.
if you play 10 thousand people and punch them all in the face instead of throwing a gesture. You could hope they all have 5 dollars and it would be like winning the tournament.
There are many variants of R-S-P that use more forms – my favourite is Rock-Scissors-Paper-Rabbit-Diamond.
My favorite game is human-nuclear-cockroach. Human kills cockroach, Nuclear kills human, and cockroach survives nuclear blast.
my favorite is the one with over 50 choices, all mapped out!
I like Ninja – Pirate – Robot – Zombie – Monkey.
Google it (:
Now you know how Poke’Mon works.
I like Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, as seen on ThinkGeek: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshir.....eric/b597/
The first thing was write I always put down rock first and I never noticed until now…
You think a human contest is crazy? How about the computer programming version of it? http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/rsbpc.html
Sean
i’ll make sure to use that soon
What about Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock? Here, Spock is quite legal, but the game rules are a little more complex:
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/004916.php
I’d be screwed in this version since I can’t get my fingers to do that unless I use my other hand to manually move them. Arg.
Agreed with Dan, for a more entertaining version of his link on explaining the rules to Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iapcKVn7DdY
Enjoy.
much too complicated for my simple mind :)
I think I’m good at this since I’ve never lost before. On a similar note, I’ve always lost coin tosses.
I’m confused about the advice on step 4. If your opponent has thrown three rocks in a row and is therefore likely to throw either paper or scissors next, why would you throw rock? This gives you an equal chance of winning or losing if they indeed do not throw rock. Throwing scissors would give you an equal chance of drawing and winning if they don’t throw rock, a better expected outcome than if you threw rock.
Am I missing something?
Sorry first sentence should have read “two rocks in a row” but point remains the same.
You are right…I saw that too.
If you expect either SCISSORS or PARER…go with SCISSORS every time. Its either a tie or a win.
Another common tactic of inexperienced players is that they won’t throw the same thing twice. So If you are trying to resolve a situation with RPS (2 out of 3 wins) watch their first throw carefully…
Ex. If they throw ROCK first, counter with SCISSORS since their next move will either be SCISSORS or PAPER. Worst case scenario is a tie. Repeat this until victorious.
Throwing PAPER first is usually a good start since opponents often throw ROCK to begin the showdown. Once you have a 1-0 lead…the game becomes significantly easier.
Your next move should be SCISSORS. Since you just beat them with PAPER, they will see it as a strong option and use it to no avail. If they go with SCISSORS its a tie.
A double ROCK is rare and should not be feared…especially after the first unsuccessful attempt.
OK, so there’s some psychology that can be used to foresee predictable moves, etc.
But that would seem to work only at the most basic level. Once it gets beyond that — a situation in which both competitors fully understand that psychology and predictability — it seems it would get pretty random again. Once both players are that deep into the logic chain (“he would do X here, so I’ll do Y, but of course he knows that I know that, so he’ll instead do Z,” etc.), then basically it’s just back to a matter of chance.
Just to be clear on what I mean by “it gets back to being a matter of chance”: When the logic chain on a given play is so lengthy (indeed infinite), then it’s really just a matter of which step in the chain each player chooses to stop at. One happens to stop at step 6 (“he knows that I know that he knows that I know that he knows”), the other at step 4 (“he knows that I know that he knows”), and the outcome becomes random.
And it truly is random, because that logic chain is indeed infinite. There’s no “correct” stopping place.
And all I can think of is that scene in the Princess Bride where Vizzini tries to figure out which glass has the poison in it. I agree with you, and this is totally the same thing.
There’s also the increasing likelihood of someone losing their place in the chain somewhere and making mistake(s) along the line, which makes it even more random.
Double on the Rocks is wrong. If you know the other person is not going to throw rock, you should counter with the throw that rock beats – Scissors. Since they are not going to play rock, you’re guaranteed at least a draw.
RSP is the only and fair way to decide between your friends who is going to do what everyone doesn’t want. We do it all day.
is all reminds me of the discussion of the marble guessing game described in Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” You can read it, here:
http://poestories.com/read/purloined
Poe is credited with creating the mystery genre but really his mysteries are more like lectures on non-mathematical logic, rather than stories.
And mind you, they are interesting lectures. he predicted and denounced the trend of treating logic as a matter of mathematics. i think we live in the world he was arguing against today, and yeah, i think we are a little worse off for it.
As for rock, scissors, paper, the problem with this kind of thing is it can quickly devolve into the guessing game scene in the Princess Bride, where first the guy says, your first instinct would be to put the poison away from yourself; but then you might know i would predict that, and thus put it closer; but you might also predict that i would predict that… and so on. I don’t remember the dialogue, but that was the upshot.
That is my favorite scene out of any movie.
I personally like Steve Irwin, Crocodile, Sting-Ray. It has 3 full body forms instead of hand symbols too.
I first heard of the “throw what beats what won last” strategy in Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series:
http://www.amazon.com/Split-In.....345354915/
I always win at rock-paper-scissors. Just start with paper and go with scissors-rock-scissors-rock.. after that you’ll win lots of games in a row!
Step four is giving bad advice. Since you “know” that the next throw will either be paper or scissors, you would not want to throw rock. With rock you have a 50% chance of winning and a 50% chance of losing (assuming we “know” that your opponent’s next throw will not be rock).
You should instead counter with scissors. This way you have a 50% chance of winning (if your opponent chooses paper) and a 50% chance of a draw (if your opponent chooses scissors).
If you choose paper there is a 50% chance you will lose and a 50% chance you will get a draw… so you can’t win.
Therfore, Scissors is the best choice. You can’t lose, only tie or win.
!NERD ALERT!
cept for when someone does two ‘rocks’ it would be smartest to do ‘scissors’ on the third try. if they dont want to be predictable, they would do ‘paper’ or ‘scissors’-leaving you with a win or a tie.
i play witht that super mega rules and i only lose!!! fuck you and your rules!!! and i lose my lunch !!!! and i love the lunch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRKfZ0mGLaY
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
Feh! RPS(LS) is only effective if done from underneath a table. Even drawing from behind the back, the person with superior (manual) reaction speed will generally win by starting from a semi-scissors position and quickly adjusting his choice in accordance to what his slower less-able-to-quickly-counter opponent brings out.
(Alternative: mandate off-hand use: righties must use left-hand and vice-versa)
Good old rock. Nothin’ beats that!
A good friend spoiled the game by declaring “Rock breaks scissors, flys through paper!” LOL
Always throw rock. Always. Except when your opponent knows this and thus he or she will throw paper. Then you throw scissors. F–ck paper. Not needed. Fifty grand.
One minor disagreement: in step #4, you say that your opponent will come at you with either paper or scissors after a two-rock run; yet you recommend countering with rock. This is a bad idea statistically; you should counter with scissors instead. If you counter with rock, you can win vs. scissors, but LOSE vs. paper, while if you counter with scissors, you either win or TIE (and live to fight another round).
Yeah, gee, there haven’t already been a gazillion posts before you pointing this out. I don’t get people like you, who skim past an entire comments thread just to spurt your thoughts out there.
It’s like the guy above you who cited “The Princess Bride” scene as if it hadn’t already been mentioned here three posts earlier.
I like bear-ninja-cowboy. cowboy shoots the bear, bear eats ninja, ninja dodges cowboy’s bullets. you play by pacing off, not your hands. the spock of this one? chuck norris. he’s a cowboy-ninja, and a bear of a man.
On #4, the only possible way to have 2 rocks in a row is if BOTH people play rock 2 times in a row, otherwise someone wins. The next throw should be paper.
Scissors + Paper + rOCK = SPOCK = win
the folks who advocate scissors to counter after a two rock throw ignore the stats given for rps, r gets 35%, s gets 35% and p gets 30%. this means there is a psychological predisposition for your opponent to throw scissors instead of paper, which gives you an overall statistical edge if you throw rock. in other words you’ll win outright more often if you throw rock after a r-r game, tie more often if you throw scissors or lose more often if you throw paper.
The funniest version of rock, paper, scissors is the Nathan Barley version, from the TV show. Here are the rules.
1. Muff smothers Cock
2. Bumhole guffs on Muff
3. Cock f***s bumhole
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9.....2288561496
Awesome post man! got me started playing, laughed my guts out playing with my wife. Cheers!
Croc, Irwin, Stingray.
Croc eats stingray, stingray beats Irwin, and Irwin beats croc.
step 4 under strategy suggests throwing rock after your opponents consecutive rocks because they will likely throw either scissors or paper. However if you know they will throw scissors or paper throw scissors, this way you either win or tie rather than win or lose as is the case with throwing rock in that spot.
i just do scissors right-side up so it looks like a man and say JESUS!
wins every time!!
jajaja esto esta muy bueno ,estrategia Claro !!!
when in doubt throw spock…nice
great your first advise is to learn a pattern the last advise is to look out for patterns in your opponent.
fuck it..
it still is just luck very form has the same chance to win, choosing randomly gives the best results against someone who tries to be smart.
scissors cuts paper. this paper is in strips its useless, rock crushes scissors? my scissors are crushed they are in pieces. you win. paper covers rock… rocks ok. rock can break our at any point in time… it should be rock, dynamite with a cuttable wick, scissors- demetry martin comedy.
Number 4 is incorrect. If the opposition is likely to use paper or scissors, you should use scissors. That way, you will either win (if they choose paper) or draw if they choose scissors.
By using the rock, you will win if they choose scissors, but LOSE if they choose paper. You choosing scissors produces a situation where you cannot lose, but a 50% chance of winning still.