Honeymoon Whist

[Jonny5]

This is a card game played with two players. When you deal you show the top card to the other player, and they get to choose either that card, or take the next card blind. Then you get to look at the next card and choose it or get the next one blind. Continue until all cards are dealt out. It is then played like whist (bridge, spades etc) where you must follow suit, and if not can play either a trump suit and win the trick, or an off suit and lose the trick. Each trick is won by the highest card of the suit that is led, or by the highest trump. You get one point for every trick you take over 6.

Based on probabilities, what cards should you say yes to, what cards should you say no to. In order to eliminate too much emphasis on the cards you have seen, assume this is the first card shown to you. (example, if you already have a non-trump King, I believe you should automatically say No to an non-trump Ace.)

Question: Spades is trump, you are shown the first card. Should you

a) Say Yes or No to the Ace of Diamonds
b) Say Yes or No to the King of Hearts
c) Say Yes or No to the Two of Spades

[Siegmund]

Have not played Honeymoon Whist, but sounds like the same card-selection mechanism as in Spades for two (assuming that if you accept the first card, you look at and discard the second - that is, you always see two cards, but make your decision after seeing the first.)

My first impression is that one ought to take any of the 26 best cards in the deck - any trump and any plain A,K,Q,J makes 25.

Towards the middle of the draw, there are other considerations like discarding an otherwise-OK card if it is a suit in which you are currently void.

I disagree with ever discarding an ace. If you already have the king, now you have two winners. There is still a good chance of cashing them both.

In your particular example, I think all three are takes and not remotely close decisions. I could be persuaded to not keep queens or jacks on the first play if you had some clever argument for what you think you gain from it. (Say, you think queens and deuces are equally worthless, and want to maximize the number of trumps and aces in your hand, so you throw a plain-suit queen away.)

[bobman0330]

[ QUOTE ]
My first impression is that one ought to take any of the 26 best cards in the deck - any trump and any plain A,K,Q,J makes 25.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. And if you have a nontrump T, you should pass it (25 better cards, 2 the same, 24 worse).

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
My first impression is that one ought to take any of the 26 best cards in the deck

[/ QUOTE ]It seems unlikely to me that any optimal strategy will ignore the information you've seen already. For instance, if we continue under the assumption that the cards can be ordered, I think a better strategy than "Accept the top 26" would be "Accept any card above the current middle (median) card left in the deck."

Here's a scenario I want to consider, though. Let's say you know the deck contains {2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]}. You draw 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Although this card has an above average rank, I think you should toss it because it's so far below the expected value.

The problem with writing this into a strategy is that you need to know the value of each card. I don't think this is easy, and I don't think this is independant of you other cards. For instance, the 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] is worth a whole trick if you have all the higher spades, but less if you don't.
-Sam

[SamIAm]

[ QUOTE ]
a nontrump T, you should pass it (25 better cards, 2 the same, 24 worse).

[/ QUOTE ]I think this depends on the cards you hold. If you've drawn J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]-A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], then I think the T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] is a lot better than T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
-Sam

[bobman0330]

He was asking about drawing the first card, so you would have any info, or a current hand. Obviously those would be hugely important. The point about value v. rank is a really good one though. I now think that it's certainly correct to discard any non-trump T, and probably Js as well I still think that all trumps should be kept.