Is It Possible To Always Win On Rock, Paper And Scissors?

With over eighteen centuries of existence,  the game “rock, paper and scissors” is one of the most famous in the world. It originated in China, during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), and since then its progression has been unstoppable. It was first exported to Japanese lands, and eventually expanded throughout the last century throughout the West.

And what was one of the ingredients of your success? Well, mainly the simplicity of its dynamics, where each player only had to take one of the three elements (rock, paper and scissors) and each one of them could beat the other, respectively. In this way, both young people and adults  could spend time having fun without the worries of everyday life.

However, despite its easy planning, countless mathematicians and scientists around the world have asked themselves the following question: is there any kind of formula that will allow you to win this game infallibly?  Not really. The conclusion found is that the best way to compete and win this game is to be as random as possible.  In other words, at no time is it necessary to follow a specific pattern, since the only thing we will be able to do is make our opponent “read” our moves and thus know how to dribble the strategy.

Nash balance in games

The theory of randomness in games comes from the  “Nash Equilibrium”, devised by John Nash, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize and who studied all the possible combinations of games of chance to create a supposedly foolproof method of winning. For this reason, and aware of the great boom that would be to have the secret to victory, mathematician Zhijian Wang had the following experiment: He took  360 players and put them to play between them. With each victory, they would receive  an incentive in the form of money, to give more excitement and competitiveness to the tournament.

Once the experiment was over, each player admitted that they wanted to play as randomly as possible. But do you know what was the worst of it? That they weren’t able to get it. That is, even though each participant knew that the best way to win was not to follow any concrete parameters, unconsciously their minds would say, for example, that if they had already played with two stones in a row,  the next choice had to be different to win.

Since you already know this, would you like to know at least one way that  increases your chances of winning in rock, paper and scissors ? So pay attention to the following tips:

* Starting with paper will increase the chances of taking the first win. Why is that? Because almost everyone starts with stone.

* Read your opponent’s moves. As we’ve said before, hardly anyone chooses the next move at random. For this reason, always read the moves and anticipate the next action.

* No one uses the same element three times in a row. That way, if you’ve already used it twice, quickly change your strategy to win.

* If possible, play blindfolded. That way you’ll be able to  be as random as possible, since you won’t imitate or read your opponent’s moves.