So Long Sucker: Endgame Analysis

Abstract

So Long Sucker is a strategy board game requiring 4 players, each with c chips of their designated color, and a board made of k empty piles. With a clear set-up come intricate rules, such as: players taking turns but not in a fixed order, agreements between some players being made and broken at any time, and a player winning the game even without any chips in hand. One of the main points of interest in studying this game, is finding when a player has a winning strategy. The game begins with four players that get eliminated successively until the winner is left. To study winning strategies, it is of interest to look at endgame situations. We present the following game set-up: there are two players left in the game, Blue and Red, and only their respective chip colors. In this thesis, we characterize Blue's winning situations and strategies through inductive reasoning.