Card-drawing probability problem

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the probability of either of two players drawing the Ace, King, and Queen of any particular suit from a standard deck of cards, with each player drawing 26 cards. Participants explore different approaches to this probability problem, including combinatorial methods and the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant seeks to determine the probability of either team having the Ace, King, and Queen of a specific suit after drawing 26 cards each.
  • Another participant clarifies whether the inquiry pertains to a specific suit or any suit, confirming the latter.
  • A different participant suggests analyzing the problem by considering the probability that the Ace, King, and Queen of any suit are not all in the same half of the deck.
  • One participant proposes using the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion to calculate the combined probability of obtaining the A, K, and Q of any suit, providing a detailed mathematical expression for this calculation.
  • Another participant expresses uncertainty about the terms in the provided expression and acknowledges a misunderstanding regarding the simplistic probability assumption of 1/2 for card placement, suggesting that a combinatorial approach may be necessary.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best method to calculate the probability, with differing views on the appropriate approach and the implications of card placement probabilities.

Contextual Notes

Some participants note limitations in their understanding of the terms used in the mathematical expressions, and there is acknowledgment of the complexity involved in determining the probabilities based on the constraints of drawing cards.

Kavorka
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I've been trying how to figure out how to figure out the probability of different situations in card-choosing, and I am having trouble getting my head around how to approach this:

Let's say we have two people drawing 26 of the 52 cards in a deck. What is the probability that either team has the Ace, King and Queen of one particular suit?

If you were picking 3 cards it would be simple to find the numerator of the probability ratio: 12/52*1/51*1/50. If you were trying to just get any ace, king and queen it would be a simple combination in the numerator, but in this case where you have a situation constraint as well as many picks I'm not sure how to approach this.
 
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Kavorka said:
Let's say we have two people drawing 26 of the 52 cards in a deck. What is the probability that either team has the Ace, King and Queen of one particular suit?
Do you mean a particular suit, like "what's the probability that either team has the Ace, King and Queen of Spades", or do you mean just the probability that they are of any suit (but all of the same suit)?
 
Heinera said:
Do you mean a particular suit, like "what's the probability that either team has the Ace, King and Queen of Spades", or do you mean just the probability that they are of any suit (but all of the same suit)?

The second one, basically the chance of picking the ace, king and queen of any suit with 26 picks.
 
It sounds like you are asking, after each team has picked 26 cards, that for any suit, A,K & Q of that suit are not in the same half pack. Is that right?

If so (and maybe in other ways of analysing it) you can start back to front with the idea that each card has a 0.5 chance of being in either half pack.
So p(A, K & Q of spades are all in my hand) would be (1/2)3
Etc.
 
So how would you find the combined chance that in picking half the pack you end up with the A,K,Q of 1 or more suits? It seems that with 26 picks the chance would be decent, I asked on another forum and someone said they found 20.71% but didn't explain how
 
You can use the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion. Define

A = the event that you get A,K,Q of spades
B = the event that you get A,K,Q of hearts
C = the event that you get A,K,Q of diamonds
D = the event that you get A,K,Q of clubs

then

P(A \cup B \cup C \cup D) = P(A) + P(B) + P(C) + P(D) - P(A \cap B) - P(A \cap C) - P(A \cap D) - P(B \cap C) - P(B \cap D) - P(C \cap D) + P(A \cap B \cap C) + P(A \cap B \cap D) + P(A \cap C \cap D) + P(B \cap C \cap D) - P(A \cap B \cap C \cap D)

= 4 * \frac{C^{26}_3}{C^{52}_3} - 6 * \frac{C^{26}_6}{C^{52}_6} + 4 * \frac{C^{26}_9}{C^{52}_9} - \frac{C^{26}_{12}}{C^{52}_{12}}

= \frac{56058703}{138046426} \approx 0.40608587
 
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I'm not sure I can work out where all the terms of your expression come from, but it does show I am not correct with my simplistic p=1/2 for the location of each card, because you can't end up with more (or less) than 26 cards in each hand. After putting the ace of spades, say, in one hand, the chances of the king of spades ending up in the same hand is slightly less than 1/2.
So I think the combinations approach must be needed.
 

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