Skunk Redux
David Kong, Peter Taylor · Mathematics Magazine · 2012
SummaryIn the simple version of Skunk, a pair of dice is rolled again and again until either you choose to sit or at least one 1 comes up. If you sit, your payoff is the dice sum of all your previous rolls. If at least one 1 comes up while you are still standing, your payoff is zero. Here we look at an extension of the game in which you must also choose the number of dice to use and you can alter this from round to round. The simple game seems to have a straightforward enough optimal strategy but our analysis of the extension reveals flaws in our initial reasoning. Some additional extensions are considered.