Semi-restricted Rock, Paper, Scissors

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a semi-restricted variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors where one player must use each move equally, showing the optimal strategy and expected scores, and extends the analysis to general zero-sum games.

Contribution

It introduces and solves a semi-restricted RPS game, establishing the optimal strategy for the restricted player and analyzing expected scores, and generalizes results to other zero-sum games.

Findings

Greedy strategy is uniquely optimal for the restricted player.

Expected score for the unrestricted player is proportional to the square root of n.

Results extend to semi-restricted versions of general zero-sum games.

Abstract

Consider the following variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) played by two players Rei and Norman. The game consists of $3n$ rounds of RPS, with the twist being that Rei (the restricted player) must use each of Rock, Paper, and Scissors exactly $n$ times during the $3n$ rounds, while Norman is allowed to play normally without any restrictions. Answering a question of Spiro, we show that a certain greedy strategy is the unique optimal strategy for Rei in this game, and that Norman's expected score is $\Theta(\sqrt{n})$. Moreover, we study semi-restricted versions of general zero sum games and prove a number of results concerning their optimal strategies and expected scores, which in particular implies our results for semi-restricted RPS.