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Ladder
Introduction
If you're here wondering about a Korean social game for prizes, known as ladder of ghost leg, Sadaritagi in Korean, or Amidakuji in Japanese, I can't do any better than the Wikipedia page on Ghost Leg.
This page explains a simplified version of Ladder by Gameplay Interactive. In Gameplay's version, every game will randomly choose three elements and the player will bet on what they are.
Rules
- After the players bet, the game will have an animation of a path being traced down the legs and rungs of a ladder. The player may make the following bets on the details:
- Left or Right — Whether the path will start on the left or right side at the top.
- Three or Four — Whether there will be three or four rungs in the ladder.
- Parity — The two legs of the ladder are labeled with an O for Odd and E for Even at the bottom, in random order. Which letter the path ends in determines whether Odd or Even wins. I should stress this is not correlated to the number of rungs nor the parity of the animation in any way that I can tell.
- Wins on a single element of the game (left, right, odd, even, three, or four) pay 1.95 for 1.
- The player may parlay the parity (odd or even) with the number of rungs (three or four). Wins pay 3.88 for 1.
Analysis
The single element bets have a 50% chance of winning and pay 1.95 if they do. This results in an expected return of 0.5 × 1.95 = 97.5%, or a house edge of 2.5%.
The parlay bets have a 25% chance of winning and pay 3.88 if they do. This results in an expected return of 0.25 × 3.88 = 97.0%, or a house edge of 3.0%.
External Links
- Demo — Play for free at the Gameplay Interactive web site