How to Make the Perfect Fireworks Display: Two Strategies for Hanabi
Christopher Cox, Jessica De Silva, Philip DeOrsey, Franklin Kenter, Troy Retter, Josh Tobin · Mathematics Magazine · 2015
SummaryThe game of Hanabi is a multiplayer cooperative card game that has many similarities to a mathematical “hat guessing game.” In Hanabi, a player does not see the cards in her own hand and must rely on the actions of the other players to determine information about her cards. This article presents two strategies for Hanabi. These strategies use different encoding schemes, based on ideas from network coding, to efficiently relay information. The first strategy allows players to effectively recommend moves for other players, and the second strategy allows players to determine the contents of their hands. Results from computer simulations demonstrate that both strategies perform well. In particular, the second strategy achieves a perfect score more than 75 percent of the time.