Talk:Pig (dice)

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The intro to the article previously read:

Pig is a simple dice game often taught to, and played by, children. In South America, it is sometimes called Ambition, not to be confused with Church's card game.

I removed the phrase not to be confused with Church's card game which referes to the game invented by Mike Church, with the edit summary "remove Mike Church's self reference". Mike himself reinserted the phrase minus his name and with the confusion part, with the edit summary "restoring important info.

It currently says:

Pig is a simple dice game often taught to, and played by, children. In South America, it is sometimes called Ambition, not to be confused with the card game of the same name.

I'm not going to get into an edit war over this, but it hardly seems important to note that the South American dice game "pig" sgouldn't be confused with a card game developed in Minnesota last year.

...sgouldn't be confused with a card game developed in Minnesota last year.

Historical Note: "Pig" is also the name of a card game produced by the Woolson Spice Company some time between 1895 and 1903 as a premium to be included with their products. (Source: Game Researchers' Notes, American Game Collectors Association, Issue No. 16, February 1994)--Tneller 23:47, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

BCorr|Брайен 23:26, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)

"Pig", as far as I can tell, is the American name. Here's a source to indicate the existence of the alternate name for the game. Actually, checking again, the Brazilian game of Ambition is slightly different from Pig, but operates upon the same principle. Mike Church 23:33, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The following doesn't seem very encyclopedic: "Though in my class we worked on this problem for about 3 months. the best strategy there is, is roll until you get 20, in the long run, it's the best strategy." What should it change to? 24.67.253.203 05:00, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was unencyclopedic enough to just delete it. However perhaps besides "Optimal Play" play strategies could be mentioned. evktalo 15:13, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Details of play strategies are given in the cited article. "Hold at 20" is the optimal strategy for maximizing expected score gain per turn. However, playing to score is not the same as playing to win. One has to be willing to lose more spectacularly (with lower scores) to win more often. Also, a strategy of rolling n times per turn is a good example of the Gambler's Fallacy. --Tneller 23:47, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Bennie Noakes removed the overview bullet for one of the more popular (and older) two dice pig variants. I'm restoring the original. In the future, please discuss such changes with me, as I've done extensive published research in both the history and mathematics of this family of games. --Todd 15:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)