Analyzing the win rate for strategies in the Russian game Durak (Fool)
As a fond player of the Russian game Durak, I wanted to test how much of the game is Strategy versus Chance.
I paired a "Beginner" and an "Expert" against each other in a series of simulated millions of games.
The Beginner simply attacked and defended with the smallest playable card.
The Expert used every single strategy possible to win.
After much trial and error, I found strategies that increased the chances of winning, and ones that didn't.
This game was "Reversable Durak", meaning the defender can reverse the cards back at the attacker, if the defender has a matching card.
Unlike most online Durak games, I made sure that the computer never "cheated".
The players were only provided the following information:
- The players' own cards
- The cards that are currently being played on the table
- The Trump/Kozer
- How many cards are left in the deck
The players also had no ability to remember old played cards.
I did this because human players don't have the ability to remember all old cards, so it's unfair for a computer to do it.
Check out the code and analysis here - https://github.com/veniamin-ilmer/durak-analysis
