Math
I was watching The Pro Poker Tour on the Travel channel on Wednesday night. They asked a question and would provide the answer after the commercial. The question was, "How many hands, taking in to consideration only the value of the hand, can you have before the flop in Texas Hold'em?"
My immediate answer was, "Since you start with two cards and each card can have a value from Deuce to Ace, there are 13x13=169 possible starting hands." Then I thought about the part of the question, "value of the hand." So, is a 2 and a 3 the same as a 3 and a 2? I think they both have the same value. So, how many unique values of hands can you have? I figured that if the first card is an Ace, then the second card can be anything. That's thirteen possible opening hands with one of the cards being an Ace. If the first card is a Deuce, then the second card can be anything but an ace. That's twelve possible hands where at least one card is a deuce, but neither card is an ace. If the first card is a three, the second card can be anything but an Ace or a Deuce. etc. etc. etc. So, the answer is the summation of i as i goes from 13 to 1 = 13+12+11+...+2+1=91. There are 91 unique values for two card poker hands.
The commercial ends and they reveal their answer, 169. Bozos. I'll bet they didn't ask any of the Pro Poker Players. They're obviously a lot better at Math then Television producers.
Well, with my current job piling more work on me than it ever has and with me helping out at StarCityGames.com, LJ is going to be very hit and miss for me. I will miss my LJ time... for now.
My immediate answer was, "Since you start with two cards and each card can have a value from Deuce to Ace, there are 13x13=169 possible starting hands." Then I thought about the part of the question, "value of the hand." So, is a 2 and a 3 the same as a 3 and a 2? I think they both have the same value. So, how many unique values of hands can you have? I figured that if the first card is an Ace, then the second card can be anything. That's thirteen possible opening hands with one of the cards being an Ace. If the first card is a Deuce, then the second card can be anything but an ace. That's twelve possible hands where at least one card is a deuce, but neither card is an ace. If the first card is a three, the second card can be anything but an Ace or a Deuce. etc. etc. etc. So, the answer is the summation of i as i goes from 13 to 1 = 13+12+11+...+2+1=91. There are 91 unique values for two card poker hands.
The commercial ends and they reveal their answer, 169. Bozos. I'll bet they didn't ask any of the Pro Poker Players. They're obviously a lot better at Math then Television producers.
Well, with my current job piling more work on me than it ever has and with me helping out at StarCityGames.com, LJ is going to be very hit and miss for me. I will miss my LJ time... for now.