Calculate the probabilities that the 2 of Clubs through Ace of Clubs, or any Spade will win the first trick in a simplified game of Spades.
The game is simplified in that card play for the first trick is completely automated:
- if a player holds any clubs, they must play their lowest club
- otherwise, the play may play any heart or diamond
- if the player holds only spades, they must play one
The winner of the trick is the highest club or a spade.
The probabilities are calculated by taking a sample of N random decks containing M cards and playing through their first tricks.
# Run calculations with default (100 decks with 8 cards each)
$ rake odds
# 10000 decks containing 52 cards
$ rake odds DECKS=10_000 CARDS=52
The script is fully unit tested using minitest, run tests with rake or rake tests