Finite Probability Spaces and Examples

In this first chapter probability theory is placed on a firm foundation. Then a variety of interesting and entertaining examples are introduced and investigated. These include French and American roulette; dice games such as craps, hazard, chuck-a-luck, crown and anchor, and sic-bo; and card games such as blackjack, macao, baccarat, and solitaire. Beyond the realms of card and casino games, topics ranging from the Martingale betting system and the Fibonacci betting system, setting winnings and losses bounds, the “optimum” strategy for blackjack, the gamblers’ fallacy, inherited diseases, monopoly, weather forecasting, chaos theory, horseracing odds, elections, your intuition, and paradoxes are examined. While we should expect that in each and every casino game the house has a statistical advantage, in this chapter we shed light on which games offer players a good chance.