The 4-player gambler's ruin problem

This work explains how to utilize earlier results by P. Diaconis, K. Houston-Edwards and the second author to estimate probabilities related to the 4-player gambler ruin problem. For instance, we show that the probability that a very dominant player (i.e., a player starting with all but 3 chips distributed among the remaining players) is first to loose is of order $N^{-α}$ where $α$ is approximately $5.68$. In the $3$-player game, this probability is or order $N^{-3}$. We note it is futile to attempt to give heuristic/intuitive explanations for the value of $α$. This value is obtained via an explicit formula relating $α$ to the Dirichlet eigenvalue $λ$ (zero boundary condition) of the spherical Laplacian in the equilateral spherical triangle on the unit sphere $\mathbb S^2$ that corresponds to a unit simplex with one vertex placed at the origin in Euclidean $3$-space. The value of $λ$ is estimated using a finite-difference-type algorithm developed by Grady Wright.

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