Chance of a rotten hand

One of the worst hands in Texas hold 'em poker consists of two cards that are

  • at least 5 ranks apart,
  • not the same suit, and
  • neither face cards nor Aces.

If the probability of getting such a hand is a b , \frac{a}{b}, where a a and b b are coprime positive integers, then what is a + b ? a+b?


The answer is 241.

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1 solution

The set of possible denomination pairings that satisfy the 1st and 3rd conditions is

{ ( 2 , 7 ) , ( 2 , 8 ) , ( 2 , 9 ) , ( 2 , 10 ) , ( 3 , 8 ) , ( 3 , 9 ) , ( 3 , 10 ) , ( 4 , 9 ) , ( 4 , 10 ) , ( 5 , 10 ) } \{(2,7), (2,8), (2,9), (2,10), (3,8), (3,9), (3,10), (4,9), (4,10), (5,10)\} .

For each of these 10 10 pairings we can then choose the first element in 4 4 ways and the second in 3 3 ways, (in order to satisfy the 2nd condition). So there are a total of 10 × 4 × 3 = 120 10 \times 4 \times 3 = 120 "rotten" hands, leading to a probability of

120 ( 52 2 ) = 120 26 × 51 = 20 221 a + b = 20 + 221 = 241 \dfrac{120}{\dbinom{52}{2}} = \dfrac{120}{26 \times 51} = \dfrac{20}{221} \Longrightarrow a + b = 20 + 221 = \boxed{241} .

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