29 January 2013

What are the odds?


This was the deal for a game of Spider.  The game uses a double deck, so I think the chance of seeing 10 black cards on the layout is about 1/1650.

I waste too much time playing solitaire. 

9 comments:

  1. Ditto here, albeit with a hand-held electronic game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you choose the "four-suit" expert mode, rather than the standard two-suit mode?

      Delete
  2. I never played the game, clicked on the link and sure enough I was dealt all RED cards! I took a screenshot for verification, but uploads aren't allowed.

    I soon found out that this isn't like traditional Solitaire and ended the game!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just tried too (in "casual" mode) and received all black cards (all spade in fact, including 2x 2 and 2x 4). No idea at all how this is played but the program settings might not be that random?

      Delete
    2. I think I know why this is happening to you guys. When I played, I clicked on the "expert" (four suit) version. acumark may have chosen the "regular" (two suit) mode, and # notes he/she chose the "casual" (one suit) version.

      Delete
  3. Stan, I don't know how you have time to waste on anything! With all the hobbies you seem to have and keeping up with this blog (including the reading you must do to find material for this blog), I'm impressed you have any time to play something like Solitaire. :) More power to you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are Choose(52, 10) = 52!/(10! 42!) ways of choosing 10 black cards from among the 52 black cards in 2 decks, and Choose(104, 10) = 104!/(10! 94!) ways of choosing 10 cards from among all of the cards in the two decks. The probability of the 10 showing cards being all black is the ratio of these two quantities, which works out to 0.0006061083 -- pretty close to your guess of 1/1650 = 0.0006060606

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have to echo Timothy's comment! How could you possibly have enough time to play a computer-based ANY game, or any game of any sort, at all? You do no housework? Sleep only 2 hours a night? Vitamise all food with a blender and drink meals with a straw to save time?
    What's the trick?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Simple. He prioritizes. As do I. Solitaire is a priority.

    ReplyDelete