easy Games

Paperless Play I

A release-checked easy problem for training Expected Value/LOTUS.

Question

You play rock, paper, scissors with a friend, but they can't use paper. The winner receives $\$1$ from the loser. No payments happen if there is a tie. Under optimal strategy from both yourself and your friend, find your expected payout on one round of the game.

Practice focus

This Games problem is tagged Expected Value/LOTUS. State the random variables and conditioning information explicitly, then check the result against boundary cases before opening hints or a solution.