Math Odds Question

Reply #10

MADDOG10 — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:56:44 GMT

That odds of that would be: 43.68 to 1

Reply #9

lottolaughs — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:47:40 GMT

Great explanation,thanks much! I believe you un-confused me now What were the odds of that? lol

Reply #8

Stack47 — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:06:00 GMT

In listing odds there is difference between expressing them as to or for . Odds of 10 to 1 means you win $10 and keep your $1. Most lotteries express odds of 500 to 1, but keep the $1 so we actually win $499. The odds should be 500 for 1.

Race tracks express odds in to and payoff by giving back the initial bet; that's why when the odds on a horse is 4 to 1, the payoff is $10 on a $2 bet.

Reply #7

savagegoose — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:40:44 GMT

its a basic fraction reduction . 10/20 is same as 1/2. 10/4000 is same as 1/400 .

Reply #6

Stack47 — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:08:50 GMT

It gets confusing by putting it in terms of chances to win by saying there is 1 chance to win out of 437 chances.

Odds are calculated as chances to lose compared to chances to win. The actual odds against winning on a 5/39 are 575,574 to 1 because one of those combos has to win. Since 436 chances in your example will lose but one will win, the odds are 436 to 1.

Reply #5

RJOh — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:44:42 GMT

If you're playing 10 lines and there are 4368 possible outcomes then you're covering 10 of the 4368 which would be about the same as 1/437.

Reply #4

lottolaughs — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:38:59 GMT

Thank you,Stack. I was thinking more along the lines of this myself. But how is it 1/436? LoL. I'll get this right yet

Reply #3

Stack47 — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:28:14 GMT

Even though we don't know which of the 4,368 chances will win, we know 1 out of 437 people are holding the winning chance so the odds of anyone of the 437 players winning are 436 to 1.

Reply #2

lottolaughs — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:08:28 GMT

Thanks RJOH. Yes,you're right,it would be a 5/39 game. So how come it is 10/4368 instead of 1/4368 ? Only 1 line of numbers will win. Wouldn't it be 10/437? LoL. I'm confusing myself. I appreciate your answer.

Reply #1

RJOh — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:03:25 GMT

Their odds of winning would only be 10:4368 if your 16 numbers included all five winning numbers other wise if it's a 5/39 game their odds of winning would be 10:575757.

Math Odds Question

lottolaughs — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:38:11 GMT

Wheeling 16 numbers in a Pick 5 game gives me 4,368 combinations. Now if I split those 4,368 combos into 10 line sets that would give me about 437 sets of 10 lines.

Say that one of the combos was a sure fire jackpot win. If 437 people were playing their 10 lines of numbers one of them would have hit the big one.

My question is...what would their odds have been?

1/437 because of the way it was split up?

Or 1/4,368 because of the odds in the first place?

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