 The Three Prisoners problem, published in Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in "Scientific American" in 1959 (1959a, 1959b), is equivalent to the Monty Hall problem.This problem involves three condemned prisoners, a random one of whom has been secretly chosen to be pardoned.One of the prisoners begs the warden to tell him the name of one of the others to be executed, arguing that this reveals no information about his own fate but increases his chances of being pardoned from to .