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80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
If a pack of 52 cards is properly shuffled there are so many possible combinations of the 52 cards that it's highly unlikely that exact same sequence of 52 has ever been used in any card game anywhere in the world before.
This is the number of different combinations you can create using 52 cards;
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
By way of comparison the worlds popluation is currently estimated to be;
6,970,000,000
Let's hope the RNG is up to the job.
This is the number of different combinations you can create using 52 cards;
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
By way of comparison the worlds popluation is currently estimated to be;
6,970,000,000
Let's hope the RNG is up to the job.
Comments
Interesting after dinner conversation though. I must try it . . .
First thing is that it's hard to understand just how big this number is. It's many times more than all the stars in the known universe which is estimated to have a figure with 23 digits. It's thousands, possibly millions, of times more than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. Quite a lot, you'll agree.
The question is - is it relevant in poker? Well no not really.
It would be relevant if we used all the cards in the deal, but we don't. In a 10 hand game of Holdem we use 25 of the 52 cards and so what order the remaining 27 cards are in is irrelevant. Often a hand will be disputed between only 2 or 3 players and this brings the number down to 9 or 11 and the order of the remaining cards is discounted.
As far as the generation of cards is concerned it has no relevance to the RNG's capabilities. No RNG on earth is capable of holding pre-loaded card sequences for every possible sequence. Think of the national lottery which I think has over 40 million possible number combinations. The machine picks out 6 balls and that is one of 40 million sequences of 6 numbers it could have picked out. The RNG doesn't need to pick out all 52 cards as a sequence just the number required for the game in question.
A human dealer does not need to know 80 kazillionkabillion sequences, they just work 52 'elements' (cards) into a random sequence - shuffling. The computer can do just the same.
A simple RNG may have a list of 52 'elements' with each one being a number between 1 and 52 inclusive, representing each card in the pack. All the RNG has to do is mix up the list and then pass it to the poker software to play with - ie, perform the deal to the players and distribute the community cards as needed - all from that list.