Playing five-card stud poker with two friends one night, one of them, Kevin, accidentaly drops one of his cards on the table, the ace of hearts. My other friend, Nick, laughs and says, "I also have at least one ace in my hand." I have no reason not to believe him. Now, I do not have any aces in my hand, but I do have a pair of kings. Which of my friends is more likely to have at least a pair of aces (that is to say, at least one more ace) in his hand?

(In reply to re: I think this is it. by Hugo)

The results stay the same regardless of when the cards are dealt, so long as I can see only my own cards and the dropped card.

As noted in my simulation, I must have not kept track correctly of eligible cards for the computation. (or else the simulation is wrong.)

But regardless of the correct computation, the time of delivery of cards does not matter--only the seeing of them (or not seeing them).

Posted by Charlie on 2005-03-01 21:19:50