Monday, November 30, 2009

something new every day

I just saw a guy who was holding pocket jacks three times in a four hand span. Tell me the odds of that.

Now, tell me the odds of him flopping a set on all three.

He did. The last time was against my pocket queens.


6 comments:

OhCaptain said...

Always remember that each hand starts all the stats over. Previous action have no influence on successive actions. Best example I've ever been told is what are the odds of flipping heads if the previous 50 coin flips were all tails? Answer: 50-50. It's always 50-50 no matter what happened before.

Just sucks when you run into it though :)

Forrest Gump said...

If it was B&M and i saw a guy dealt JJ that many times...and flop a set each time...I might be looking to change dealers. :)



FG

matt tag said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
matt tag said...

OhCaptain,

you are correct, but it is a matter of how you look at things. If I said "I have had pocket jacks twice now, what are the odds of getting them again on the next hand?", the odds are 220-1.

But if you ask "what are the odds of getting pocket jacks three consecutive times in the next three hands?", the odds are like one in 10.7 million (221 cubed). (the gentleman at my table didn't get them three consecutive times, he got them 3 times in 4).

diverjoules said...

I'd like to know the odds of not hitting a set in the last 9 tournaments when having pocket pairs. It is killing me. LOL.

Sean G said...

That is pretty incredible, isn't it? The great thing about the accessibility of poker, instantly online whenever you want it, is that eventually we'll all see some incredibly unlikely events.

Still, this sounds like the equivalent of winning powerball... except without the massive payout.