Stuart Hill
United Kingdom
GreyAbbey
Down
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Or maybe just too tired....
We played this for the first time tonight (3 players) and on two occasions none of us could make any sets. I’m not very good at working out probability, but given the number of variables should a set always be possible from 12 cards?
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Arthur
United States
California
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There is not always an available set in any given 12 cards. If every player agrees that there are no sets to be found, you add three more cards.
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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stuart_greyabbey wrote: Or maybe just too tired....
We played this for the first time tonight (3 players) and on two occasions none of us could make any sets. I’m not very good at working out probability, but given the number of variables should a set always be possible from 12 cards? Not always, but if you really can not make a set from the 12, you add 3 more.
That being said, this is not a game to play after too many beers or when you are tired.
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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Jinx
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Josh
United States
Massachusetts
GRRRRR!
GRR!
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boltongeordie wrote: That being said, this is not a game to play after too many beers or when you are tired.
Or if you are colorblind. My colorblind friend HATES THIS GAME.
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Stuart Hill
United Kingdom
GreyAbbey
Down
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"Not always, but if you really can not make a set from the 12, you add 3 more."
Yikes, given the way we were playing we could see a lot of cards on the table 12 + 3 + 3..........
"That being said, this is not a game to play after too many beers or when you are tired."
But that’s the way I play most games ( beers ‘cause games night = beers night. Tired ‘cause small child plus one on the way = lots of fun, but often tired [small price to pay though])
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Chris Ferejohn
United States
San Francisco
California
Pitying fools as hard as I can...
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The rules claim that 1 in 33 sets of 12 cards will not contain a set (I think I've got that right). It's certainly possible to miss them though. One way to go through methodically is to keep in mind that for every 2 cards, there is exactly 1 card that completes the set.
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David Mihola
Austria
Pfösing
Niederösterreich
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cferejohn wrote: The rules claim that 1 in 33 sets of 12 cards will not contain a set (I think I've got that right).
There is an article by (computer scientist) Peter Norvig about that question:
http://norvig.com/SET.html
His main point is this: While the rules are correct that there is only a 1 in 33 chance of having no set in 12 randomly drawn cards, the situation changes when you really play the game. Because then you do not draw 12 new cards randomly after each step but instead you remove a complete set and then add three random cards. Gradually this makes it more and more unlikely to have a set in the 12 displayed cards. Norvig also wrote a computer simulation to back up his argument, the (Python) code of which is also available on his site.
Some other scholarly articles about the game Set include:
http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/gregory.quenell/talks/set.pdf
http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~maclagan/papers/set.pdf
I hope this helps!
David
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Lars Wagner Hansen
Denmark
Sorø
Any time, any place!
Fingers off, that's my car!
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It is possible to have 20 cards without a set. When you have 21 cards you can be 100% sure there always will be a set among the cards.
http://www.setgame.com/set/noset.htm
Lars
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Bjarne Aagaard
Denmark
Århus
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davidmihola wrote:
Thanks for the link, very interesting. I have been wondering about the same thing.
And for the other links: I am a teacher of math, and it looks like these articles could be used in class (after some games of SET with the students, of course).
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PenumbraPenguin
Australia
Sydney
NSW
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In practice, it's not terribly unusual for there to be no sets (on the order of once every game or two, perhaps).
Once it gets to 15 cards, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that there are no sets - I've only ever seen this happen twice.
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