Tic Tac Toe Chicken Challenge
Written March 9, 2008 by Jack Jones
Maybe you have heard the rumor of the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken Challenge that has been played at the Tropicana in Atlantic City and Trump 29 in Palm Springs. Sure enough, this is a real game that you can play at both of these fine establishments, but before you go jumping into the mix you might want to read the rest of this article by Mark Pilarski.
Ginger, the chicken extraordinaire is the name that two casinos have given the animal that I know of have used to cook the goose of many intrepids who wanted to go up against a live chicken.
The bettors lining up for this one aren’t going against some dumb, clucking bird that can’t figure out what it is doing. Ginger, along with 14 other rotating hens is well educated, reward-trained, that is, using methods popularized by psychologist B.F. Skinner, to know what works and then plays the game quite well.
Known as the “Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken Challenge,” this specific tic-tac-toe match-up has casino patrons challenging a chicken in Tic-Tac-Toe for $10,000. The object of the game remains the same as what we all learned as kids: the first player to get three marks in a row wins; but the house has a built-in advantage (they wouldn’t have it any other way, of course) since the chicken always goes first. Another understated casino edge is that the chicken is probably smarter than a lot of people we all know.
If you ever plan to join the line of daily contenders at either casino then keep in mind that the historical odds will have me betting on the chicken. Ginger has played for more than three years at the Tropicana and has lost only five times.
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