Working notes on the odds behind card and table games
Entries published in August 2026.
A hand rank chart is really a frequency table read backwards: the rarer the five-card combination, the higher it sits. Once that is clear the order stops being a list to learn and becomes something you can reconstruct at the table from counting alone.
Filed under: Card games, Odds and probability — permalink
Two pair beats one pair for one reason only, and it is a counting reason rather than a traditional one. Working the arithmetic once is quicker than trusting the chart.
Filed under: Card games, Odds and probability — permalink
House edge, hold and return to player describe three different quantities that are routinely used as if they were one. Separating them makes published figures much easier to read.
Filed under: Odds and probability, Table games — permalink