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Old 08-01-2005, 06:10 PM
AaronBrown AaronBrown is offline
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: New York
Posts: 505
Default Re: Straight/Flush Probability Question

If we keep the rules the same as Poker, so there is an Ace that can be high or low but you cannot go around the corner, there are N - 3 possible ranks of straights. Any card but 2, 3 or 4 can be the top of the straight. Each of the N - 3 straights can be formed 5^S - S ways. So that's (N - 3)*(5^S - S) for straights.

The flushes can be formed S*(C(N,5) - N + 3) ways.

These will be near equal when N = 3*(S + 1). The only exact case I know of is the trivial one, 1 suit, 5 ranks, every hand a straight flush.

4 suits 15 ranks is pretty close, there are 12,288 straights and 12,012 flushes. Even better is 7 suits 25 ranks, with 369,754 straights and 371,910 flushes. Those numbers include straight flushes in both counts.
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