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#322311 - 17/05/2009 14:59 Expected odds of winning at Windows Solitaire?
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
I've spent most of the weekend rebuilding my desktop PC; as part of this, I've spent an inordinate amount of time watching installer progress bars. So I've been playing a load of Solitaire while waiting.

I think there's a bug in Windows 7 Solitaire, because I've only one 1 out of ~40 games played so far.

What are the expected odds?
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-- roger

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#322314 - 17/05/2009 17:13 Re: Expected odds of winning at Windows Solitaire? [Re: Roger]
Waterman981
old hand

Registered: 14/02/2002
Posts: 804
Loc: Salt Lake City, UT
I just did a bit of a test... 2 out of 4. Not a large sample by any means though.
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#322315 - 17/05/2009 17:52 Re: Expected odds of winning at Windows Solitaire? [Re: Waterman981]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
You're at the mercy of the RNG in Windows Solitaire for whether a particular game is winnable. Last time I checked, you couldn't see/input the RNG seed that is used unlike the FreeCell so it would be more difficult to test.

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#322329 - 18/05/2009 04:09 Re: Expected odds of winning at Windows Solitaire? [Re: tman]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Originally Posted By: tman
You're at the mercy of the RNG in Windows Solitaire for whether a particular game is winnable.


For the Windows rules, Wikipedia claims that 82-91.5% of Klondike Solitaire games are solvable. This probably checks all possible moves from an initial position (i.e. that you backtrack if you get stuck). I was wondering what the odds are for a naive strategy (i.e. me), because I can rarely be bothered to backtrack.

On the other hand, Windows Solitaire probably doesn't use the CryptoAPI RNG, so you might be right there...
_________________________
-- roger

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