diff --git a/tests/test_othello.py b/tests/test_othello.py
index cae8981e8..61d09cf7c 100644
--- a/tests/test_othello.py
+++ b/tests/test_othello.py
@@ -8,12 +8,25 @@
 observe = jax.jit(env.observe)
 
 
+def _init_with_current_player(player: int):
+    """Return an initial state whose current_player is `player`.
+
+    The starting player is decided by an RNG coin flip in `_init`, and the exact
+    flip outcome for a given key is not stable across JAX versions. Searching keys
+    keeps these tests deterministic and version-agnostic without depending on a
+    specific `jax.random` implementation.
+    """
+    for seed in range(1000):
+        state = init(jax.random.PRNGKey(seed))
+        if int(state.current_player) == player:
+            return state
+    raise AssertionError(f"no key produced current_player={player}")
+
+
 def test_init():
-    key = jax.random.PRNGKey(0)
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    state = init(key=key)
-    assert state.current_player == 0
+    # Both starting players are reachable, and current_player is always 0 or 1.
+    players = {int(_init_with_current_player(p).current_player) for p in (0, 1)}
+    assert players == {0, 1}
 
 
 def test_step():
@@ -42,10 +55,7 @@ def test_step():
 
 def test_terminated():
     # wipe out
-    key = jax.random.PRNGKey(0)
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    state = init(key)
+    state = _init_with_current_player(0)
     for i in [37, 43, 34, 29, 52, 45, 38, 44]:
         state = step(state, i)
         assert not state.terminated
@@ -56,10 +66,7 @@ def test_terminated():
 
 def test_legal_action():
     # cannot put
-    key = jax.random.PRNGKey(0)
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    state = init(key)
+    state = _init_with_current_player(0)
     assert state.current_player == 0
     for i in [37, 29, 18, 44, 53, 46, 30, 60, 62, 38, 39]:
         state = step(state, i)
@@ -76,10 +83,7 @@ def test_legal_action():
 
 
 def test_observe():
-    key = jax.random.PRNGKey(0)
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    _, key = jax.random.split(key)  # due to API update
-    state = init(key)
+    state = _init_with_current_player(0)
     assert state.current_player == 0
 
     obs = observe(state, state.current_player)
@@ -125,6 +129,7 @@ def test_observe():
 
 def test_api():
     import pgx
+
     env = pgx.make("othello")
     pgx.api_test(env, 3, use_key=False)
     pgx.api_test(env, 3, use_key=True)