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Card game From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In mathematics and game theory, Bulgarian solitaire is a card game that was introduced by Martin Gardner.[1]
In the game, a pack of cards is divided into several piles. Then for each pile, remove one card; collect the removed cards together to form a new pile (piles of zero size are ignored).
If is a triangular number (that is, for some ), then it is known that Bulgarian solitaire will reach a stable configuration in which the sizes of the piles are . This state is reached in moves or fewer. If is not triangular, no stable configuration exists and a limit cycle is reached.
In random Bulgarian solitaire or stochastic Bulgarian solitaire a pack of cards is divided into several piles. Then for each pile, either leave it intact or, with a fixed probability , remove one card; collect the removed cards together to form a new pile (piles of zero size are ignored). This is a finite irreducible Markov chain.
Martin Gardner introduced the game in the August 1983 issue of Scientific American.[1]
In 2004, Brazilian probabilist Serguei Popov demonstrated that stochastic Bulgarian solitaire spends "most" of its time in a "roughly" triangular distribution.[2]
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