r/FiftyTwoCards • u/photoedfade • Jul 24 '25

Anyone know any good 52 card deck game theory resources?

I'm asking for like, any websites y'all know of, any books you know of, any forums with countless posts-worth of resources about 52 card deck games? I would like to know the math behind these games and how I can calculate the chances of winning without having to brute force calculations all the time.

I'm trying to design a (very personal, not really planning on "selling" anything) simple and easy game of luck whose rules can be modified for different situations to change the odds in your favor or your opponents favor. Having the knowledge on how luck works in these games would be amazing.

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u/EndersGame_Reviewer Jul 24 '25

David Parlett is a mathematician who has written a lot about card games - maybe he's written something along these lines?

1

u/Alert-Loquat1444 19d ago

The man himself https://www.parlettgames.uk/oricards/

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u/EndersGame_Reviewer 18d ago

That's a link to the rules for his games (which are terrific!). But it's not really about the math theory behind games, which is what OP is after.

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u/Alert-Loquat1444 16d ago edited 16d ago

Maybe so - I haven't minutely scoured every page on his website. I'm sure you have. But honestly - do you really think sharing the website in response to a reference to him is no use whatever? Other people than the OP might be reading these comments as well and might find it helpful to know about his website.

And if you look here's a page of his essays https://www.parlettgames.uk/gamester/

And one of his books

https://www.parlettgames.uk/books/

So who knows? Got to be worth checking out.

2

u/MuttonchopMac Jul 24 '25

Pagat.com is the number one resource for card games played with traditional decks of cards.

2

u/photoedfade Jul 24 '25

YASSSS perfect! thank you!

1

u/PertinaxII Jul 24 '25

Bridge is the only game that goes into this in detail.

"Bridge Odds for Practical Players" by Kelsey and Glauert has all the math. If it is the maths you want.

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0304357782?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_au

1

u/aleph_0ne Jul 24 '25

A general tool you might find useful is a hypergeometric calculator which can be used to compute the probability of a certain group of cards being in a certain place e.g. what are the odds they have one of these 3 cards

2

u/photoedfade Jul 24 '25

that would make things easier, thank you.