Originally Posted by
redietz
It seems to be the reasonable way to check "luck" is simply to see what happens first when people don't hold anything and just draw all new cards or, conversely, hold one, two, three, four, or all cards randomly and then draw. In the first case, depending on game, I think the returns range from 30 to 50%. So a monkey playing the game could approach 50% return. Then you could assign various levels of "expertise" to the "player," so that he gets more and more smart and then check the returns of these levels of expertise.
Now, unfortunately for the Singer method, what happens is that the returns for these increasingly expert players follows the path of strategy cards from beginner to expert. The more one adheres to AP play, the higher the return.
In summary, it would appear that random luck yields a return below 50%, and that increasing one's skill level boosts the return to approach the optimal return for the game. Using progression-jumping and special plays, while playing otherwise AP style, doesn't have much effect, other than to keep folks entertained who would otherwise get bored. So maybe I've discovered a use for the "Singer Strategies." They may balance their inherent losses by forcing people to pay attention. This has two good side effects -- people pay attention and make fewer mistakes (maybe), and they may get tired faster from paying so much attention, so they quit playing negative games after fewer hands.