In order to support the general belief that gambling is not a good idea, I have taken the trouble to run a few simulations to show you the development of traditional gambler’s careers. I have written a small programme that simulates the careers of three roulette players. These three roulette players play according to a…
This dice game is an excellent way to learn the mathematical approach to such problems, spiced up with the few small calculations required. Calculations, of course, after you understand the approach. SevenEleven is also offered in casinos. I have only played it there once. So I don’t even know the exact rules. That’s why I…
1) Bankruptcies Many players I have met over the years, including a number of good players, i.e. players with an advantage, I have seen go bankrupt. This often has a specific reason: there is a phase in their career where they are lucky. They wouldn’t need the luck, because even without luck they would have…
1) The LaPlace Experiment The LaPlace experiment is a theoretical random experiment. Mathematics often uses idealised states to cope with the chaos around us. The real occurrence of such random experiments is in fact impossible. Nevertheless, mathematics can be worked out wonderfully using idealised examples. In the so-called LaPlace experiment, it is assumed that there…
Is there anything better than the Elo system? 1) Introduction Although, as explained in more detail elsewhere, the Elo system is the best system used in practice to measure playing strength — so well suited to producing meaningful rankings — there are nevertheless a few weaknesses in this system. Some of these are well known,…
I hope you appreciate my attempts to show interesting aspects of mathematics that can also be useful. But here among the “number games” are some really funny stories. 1) The 14 Earths The story began as follows: On a whim (we, that is my partner of many years and still a good friend, Michael), we…
Rating systems are generally intended to put playing strengths into perspective according to universally accepted, fixed and comprehensible rules. This is due to the understandable desire to measure individual participants in a sport. One simply wants to see where one stands, where one’s own team stands or even who is currently number 1 in the…
The step-grandson – the probability calculus So why is probability the stepchild of mathematics? I personally became aware of this only gradually. The simplest and possibly best, immediately obvious reason is this: Those who love mathematics, who are attracted to it, actually have a very special inclination. That is the inclination towards exactness. Mathematics is…
No, not the goat problem again. Yes, the goat problem again. I can still remember the first time I encountered this problem. My highly esteemed fellow programmer Thomas Bez, greetings Thomas, brought me an article like this, in 1990, and seemed very excited. It said that there was a quiz game in America. And in…
1) The rules of the game Black Jack is a card game. Nowadays it is mainly offered in casinos. The version of Black Jack played in private circles in the past was called 17 and 4. Despite a certain relationship between the two games, I will briefly explain the rules of Black Jack here, namely…
