Permutations and

Combinations
CS 202
Epp section 6.4

1
Permutations vs. Combinations
• Both are ways to count the possibilities
• The difference between them is whether order
matters or not
• Consider a poker hand:
– A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠
• Is that the same hand as:
– K♠, 10♠, 7♣, 5♥, A♦
• Does the order the cards are handed out
matter?
– If yes, then we are dealing with permutations
– If no, then we are dealing with combinations
2
 Permutations
• A permutation is an ordered arrangement of the
elements of some set S
– Let S = {a, b, c}
– c, b, a is a permutation of S
– b, c, a is a different permutation of S
• An r-permutation is an ordered arrangement of r
elements of the set
– A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠ is a 5-permutation of the set of
cards
• The notation for the number of r-permutations:
P(n,r)
– The poker hand is one of P(52,5) permutations 3
 Permutations
• Number of poker hands (5 cards):
– P(52,5) = 52*51*50*49*48 = 311,875,200
• Number of (initial) blackjack hands (2 cards):
– P(52,2) = 52*51 = 2,652
• r-permutation notation: P(n,r)
– The poker hand is one of P(52,5) permutations

P(n, r )  n(n  1)( n  2)...( n  r  1)

n!

(n  r )!
n
 i
i  n  r 1
4
 Permutation formula proof
• There are n ways to choose the first
element
– n-1 ways to choose the second
– n-2 ways to choose the third
–…
– n-r+1 ways to choose the rth element

• By the product rule, that gives us:

P(n,r) = n(n-1)(n-2)…(n-r+1) 5
Permutations vs. r-permutations
• r-permutations: Choosing an ordered 5
card hand is P(52,5)
– When people say “permutations”, they almost
always mean r-permutations
• But the name can refer to both

• Permutations: Choosing an order for all 52

cards is P(52,52) = 52!
– Thus, P(n,n) = n!
6
 Sample question
• How many permutations of {a, b, c, d, e, f, g}
end with a?
– Note that the set has 7 elements

• The last character must be a

– The rest can be in any order
• Thus, we want a 6-permutation on the set {b, c,
d, e, f, g}
• P(6,6) = 6! = 720

• Why is it not P(7,6)? 7

 Combinations
• What if order doesn’t matter?
• In poker, the following two hands are equivalent:
– A♦, 5♥, 7♣, 10♠, K♠
– K♠, 10♠, 7♣, 5♥, A♦

• The number of r-combinations of a set with n

elements, where n is non-negative and 0≤r≤n is:

n!
C (n, r ) 
r!(n  r )!
8
 Combinations example
• How many different poker hands are there
(5 cards)?
52! 52! 52 * 51* 50 * 49 * 48 * 47!
C (52,5)     2,598,960
5!(52  5)! 5!47! 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 *1* 47!

• How many different (initial) blackjack

hands are there?
52! 52! 52 * 51
C (52,2)     1,326
2!(52  2)! 2!50! 2 *1
9
 Combination formula proof
• Let C(52,5) be the number of ways to generate
unordered poker hands
• The number of ordered poker hands is P(52,5) =
311,875,200
• The number of ways to order a single poker
hand is P(5,5) = 5! = 120
• The total number of unordered poker hands is
the total number of ordered hands divided by the
number of ways to order each hand
• Thus, C(52,5) = P(52,5)/P(5,5)
10
 Combination formula proof
• Let C(n,r) be the number of ways to generate
unordered combinations
• The number of ordered combinations (i.e. r-
permutations) is P(n,r)
• The number of ways to order a single one of
those r-permutations P(r,r)
• The total number of unordered combinations is
the total number of ordered combinations (i.e. r-
permutations) divided by the number of ways to
order each combination
• Thus, C(n,r) = P(n,r)/P(r,r)
11
Combination formula proof

P(n, r ) n! /( n  r )! n!
C (n, r )   
P(r , r ) r! /( r  r )! r!(n  r )!

12
Poker

13
 The game of poker
• You are given 5 cards (this is 5-card stud poker)
• The goal is to obtain the best hand you can
• The possible poker hands are (in increasing order):
– No pair
– One pair (two cards of the same face)
– Two pair (two sets of two cards of the same face)
– Three of a kind (three cards of the same face)
– Straight (all five cards sequentially – ace is either high or low)
– Flush (all five cards of the same suit)
– Full house (a three of a kind of one face and a pair of another
face)
– Four of a kind (four cards of the same face)
– Straight flush (both a straight and a flush)
– Royal flush (a straight flush that is 10, J, K, Q, A) 14
 Poker probability: royal flush
• What is the chance of
getting a royal flush?
– That’s the cards 10, J, Q, K,
and A of the same suit

• There are only 4 possible

royal flushes

• Possibilities for 5 cards: C(52,5) = 2,598,960

• Probability = 4/2,598,960 = 0.0000015

– Or about 1 in 650,000
15
 Poker probability: four of a kind
• What is the chance of getting 4 of a kind when
dealt 5 cards?
– Possibilities for 5 cards: C(52,5) = 2,598,960

• Possible hands that have four of a kind:

– There are 13 possible four of a kind hands
– The fifth card can be any of the remaining 48 cards
– Thus, total possibilities is 13*48 = 624

• Probability = 624/2,598,960 = 0.00024

– Or 1 in 4165
16
 Poker probability: flush
• What is the chance of
getting a flush?
– That’s all 5 cards of the same suit
• We must do ALL of the
following:
– Pick the suit for the flush: C(4,1)
– Pick the 5 cards in that suit: C(13,5)

• As we must do all of these, we multiply the values out (via the

product rule)
13  4 
• This yields     5148
 5  1 
• Possibilities for 5 cards: C(52,5) = 2,598,960
• Probability = 5148/2,598,960 = 0.00198
– Or about 1 in 505
• Note that if you don’t count straight flushes (and thus royal flushes)
17
as a “flush”, then the number is really 5108
 Poker probability: full house
• What is the chance of getting a
full house?
– That’s three cards of one face and
two of another face
• We must do ALL of the following:
– Pick the face for the three of a kind: C(13,1)
– Pick the 3 of the 4 cards to be used: C(4,3)
– Pick the face for the pair: C(12,1)
– Pick the 2 of the 4 cards of the pair: C(4,2)
• As we must do all of these, we multiply the values out (via the product rule)

13  4 12  4 
• This yields       3744
 1  3  1  2 
• Possibilities for 5 cards: C(52,5) = 2,598,960
• Probability = 3744/2,598,960 = 0.00144
– Or about 1 in 694 18
 Inclusion-exclusion principle
• The possible poker hands are (in increasing order):

– Nothing
– One pair cannot include two pair, three of a kind,
four of a kind, or full house
– Two pair cannot include three of a kind, four of a kind, or
full house
– Three of a kind cannot include four of a kind or full house
– Straight cannot include straight flush or royal flush
– Flush cannot include straight flush or royal flush
– Full house
– Four of a kind
– Straight flush cannot include royal flush
– Royal flush
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 Poker probability: three of a kind
• What is the chance of getting a three
of a kind?
– That’s three cards of one face
– Can’t include a full house or four of a
kind
• We must do ALL of the following:
– Pick the face for the three of a kind: C(13,1)
– Pick the 3 of the 4 cards to be used: C(4,3)
– Pick the two other cards’ face values: C(12,2)
• We can’t pick two cards of the same face!
– Pick the suits for the two other cards: C(4,1)*C(4,1)
• As we must do all of these, we multiply the values out (via the product rule)
13  4 12  4  4 
• This yields        54912
 1  3  2  1  1 
• Possibilities for 5 cards: C(52,5) = 2,598,960
• Probability = 54,912/2,598,960 = 0.0211
– Or about 1 in 47 20
 Poker hand odds
• The possible poker hands are (in increasing
order):
– Nothing 1,302,540 0.5012
– One pair 1,098,240 0.4226
– Two pair 123,552 0.0475
– Three of a kind 54,912 0.0211
– Straight 10,200 0.00392
– Flush 5,108 0.00197
– Full house 3,744 0.00144
– Four of a kind 624 0.000240
– Straight flush 36 0.0000139
– Royal flush 4 0.00000154 21
Back to theory again

22
 More on probabilities
• Let E be an event in a sample space S. The
probability of the complement of E is:

p E  1  p( E )

• Recall the probability for getting a royal flush is

0.0000015
– The probability of not getting a royal flush is
1-0.0000015 or 0.9999985
• Recall the probability for getting a four of a kind
is 0.00024
– The probability of not getting a four of a kind is
1-0.00024 or 0.99976
23
 When is gambling worth it?
• This is a statistical analysis, not a moral/ethical discussion

• What if you gamble $1, and have a ½ probability to win $10?

– If you play 100 times, you will win (on average) 50 of those times
• Each play costs $1, each win yields $10
• For $100 spent, you win (on average) $500
– Average win is $5 (or $10 * ½) per play for every $1 spent
• What if you gamble $1 and have a 1/100 probability to win $10?
– If you play 100 times, you will win (on average) 1 of those times
• Each play costs $1, each win yields $10
• For $100 spent, you win (on average) $10
– Average win is $0.10 (or $10 * 1/100) for every $1 spent
• One way to determine if gambling is worth it:
– probability of winning * payout ≥ amount spent
– Or p(winning) * payout ≥ investment
– Of course, this is a statistical measure 24
 When is lotto worth it?
• Many older lotto games you have to choose 6
numbers from 1 to 48
– Total possible choices is C(48,6) = 12,271,512
– Total possible winning numbers is C(6,6) = 1
– Probability of winning is 0.0000000814
• Or 1 in 12.3 million

• If you invest $1 per ticket, it is only statistically

worth it if the payout is > $12.3 million
– As, on the “average” you will only make money that
way
– Of course, “average” will require trillions of lotto
plays…
25
 Powerball lottery
• Modern powerball lottery is a bit different
– Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerball
• You pick 5 numbers from 1-55
– Total possibilities: C(55,5) = 3,478,761
• You then pick one number from 1-42 (the powerball)
– Total possibilities: C(42,1) = 42
• By the product rule, you need to do both
– So the total possibilities is 3,478,761* 42 = 146,107,962
• While there are many “sub” prizes, the probability for the
jackpot is about 1 in 146 million
– You will “break even” if the jackpot is $146M
– Thus, one should only play if the jackpot is greater than $146M
• If you count in the other prizes, then you will “break
even” if the jackpot is $121M
26
Blackjack

27
 Blackjack
• You are initially dealt two
cards
– 10, J, Q and K all count as 10
– Ace is EITHER 1 or 11
(player’s choice)
• You can opt to receive more
cards (a “hit”)
• You want to get as close to
21 as you can
– If you go over, you lose (a
“bust”)
• You play against the house
– If the house has a higher
score than you, then you lose
28
Blackjack table

29
 Blackjack probabilities
• Getting 21 on the first two cards is called a blackjack
– Or a “natural 21”
• Assume there is only 1 deck of cards
• Possible blackjack blackjack hands:
– First card is an A, second card is a 10, J, Q, or K
• 4/52 for Ace, 16/51 for the ten card
• = (4*16)/(52*51) = 0.0241 (or about 1 in 41)
– First card is a 10, J, Q, or K; second card is an A
• 16/52 for the ten card, 4/51 for Ace
• = (16*4)/(52*51) = 0.0241 (or about 1 in 41)
• Total chance of getting a blackjack is the sum of the two:
– p = 0.0483, or about 1 in 21
– How appropriate!
– More specifically, it’s 1 in 20.72 (0.048) 30
 Blackjack probabilities
• Another way to get 20.72
• There are C(52,2) = 1,326 possible initial
blackjack hands
• Possible blackjack blackjack hands:
– Pick your Ace: C(4,1)
– Pick your 10 card: C(16,1)
– Total possibilities is the product of the two (64)
• Probability is 64/1,326 = 1 in 20.72 (0.048)
31
 Blackjack probabilities
• Getting 21 on the first two cards is called a blackjack
• Assume there is an infinite deck of cards
– So many that the probably of getting a given card is not affected by any
cards on the table
• Possible blackjack blackjack hands:
– First card is an A, second card is a 10, J, Q, or K
• 4/52 for Ace, 16/52 for second part
• = (4*16)/(52*52) = 0.0236 (or about 1 in 42)
– First card is a 10, J, Q, or K; second card is an A
• 16/52 for first part, 4/52 for Ace
• = (16*4)/(52*52) = 0.0236 (or about 1 in 42)
• Total chance of getting a blackjack is the sum:
– p = 0.0473, or about 1 in 21
– More specifically, it’s 1 in 21.13 (vs. 20.72)
• In reality, most casinos use “shoes” of 6-8 decks for this reason
– It slightly lowers the player’s chances of getting a blackjack
– And prevents people from counting the cards…
32
 Counting cards and Continuous
Shuffling Machines (CSMs)
• Counting cards means keeping track of which cards
have been dealt, and how that modifies the chances
– There are “easy” ways to do this – count all aces and 10-cards
instead of all cards
• Yet another way for casinos
to get the upper hand
– It prevents people from counting
the “shoes” of 6-8 decks of cards
• After cards are discarded, they
are added to the continuous
shuffling machine
• Many blackjack players refuse to play at a casino with
one
– So they aren’t used as much as casinos would like
33
So always use a single deck, right?
• Most people think that a single-deck blackjack table is
better, as the player’s odds increase
– And you can try to count the cards
• But it’s usually not the case!
• Normal rules have a 3:2 payout for a blackjack
– If you bet $100, you get your $100 back plus 3/2 * $100, or $150
additional
• Most single-deck tables have a 6:5 payout
– You get your $100 back plus 6/5 * $100 or $120 additional
– This lowered benefit of being able to count the cards
OUTWEIGHS the benefit of the single deck!
• And thus the benefit of counting the cards
• Even with counting cards
– You cannot win money on a 6:5 blackjack table that uses 1 deck
34
– Remember, the house always wins
 Blackjack probabilities:
when to hold
• House usually holds on a 17
– What is the chance of a bust if you draw on a 17? 16? 15?
• Assume all cards have equal probability

• Bust on a draw on a 18
– 4 or above will bust: that’s 10 (of 13) cards that will bust
– 10/13 = 0.769 probability to bust
• Bust on a draw on a 17
– 5 or above will bust: 9/13 = 0.692 probability to bust
• Bust on a draw on a 16
– 6 or above will bust: 8/13 = 0.615 probability to bust
• Bust on a draw on a 15
– 7 or above will bust: 7/13 = 0.538 probability to bust
• Bust on a draw on a 14
– 8 or above will bust: 6/13 = 0.462 probability to bust

35
 Buying (blackjack) insurance
• If the dealer’s visible card is an Ace, the player can buy
insurance against the dealer having a blackjack
– There are then two bets going: the original bet and the insurance
bet
– If the dealer has blackjack, you lose your original bet, but your
insurance bet pays 2-to-1
• So you get twice what you paid in insurance back
• Note that if the player also has a blackjack, it’s a “push”
– If the dealer does not have blackjack, you lose your insurance
bet, but your original bet proceeds normal

• Is this insurance worth it?

36
 Buying (blackjack) insurance
• If the dealer shows an Ace, there is a 4/13 = 0.308 probability that
they have a blackjack
– Assuming an infinite deck of cards
– Any one of the “10” cards will cause a blackjack
• If you bought insurance 1,000 times, it would be used 308 (on
average) of those times
– Let’s say you paid $1 each time for the insurance
• The payout on each is 2-to-1, thus you get $2 back when you use
your insurance
– Thus, you get 2*308 = $616 back for your $1,000 spent
• Or, using the formula p(winning) * payout ≥ investment
– 0.308 * $2 ≥ $1
– 0.616 ≥ $1
– Thus, it’s not worth it
• Buying insurance is considered a very poor option for the player
– Hence, almost every casino offers it

37
 Blackjack
strategy

• These tables tell

you the best move
to do on each hand
• The odds are still
(slightly) in the
house’s favor
• The house always
wins…
38
 Why counting cards doesn’t work
well…
• If you make two or three mistakes an hour,
you lose any advantage
– And, in fact, cause a disadvantage!
• You lose lots of money learning to count
cards
• Then, once you can do so, you are
banned from the casinos

39
So why is Blackjack so popular?
• Although the casino has the upper hand,
the odds are much closer to 50-50 than
with other games
– Notable exceptions are games that you are
not playing against the house – i.e., poker
• You pay a fixed amount per hand

40
Roulette

41
 Roulette
• A wheel with 38 spots is spun
– Spots are numbered 1-36, 0, and 00
– European casinos don’t have the 00
• A ball drops into one of the 38 spots
• A bet is placed as
to which spot or
spots the ball will
fall into
– Money is then paid
out if the ball lands
in the spot(s) you
bet upon
42
The Roulette table

43
 The Roulette table
• Bets can be Probability:
placed on:
– A single number 1/38
– Two numbers 2/38
– Four numbers 4/38
– All even numbers 18/38
– All odd numbers 18/38
– The first 18 nums 18/38
– Red numbers 18/38
44
 The Roulette table
• Bets can be Probability: Payout:
placed on:
– A single number 1/38 36x
– Two numbers 2/38 18x
– Four numbers 4/38 9x
– All even numbers 18/38 2x
– All odd numbers 18/38 2x
– The first 18 nums 18/38 2x
– Red numbers 18/38 2x
45
 Roulette
• It has been proven that proven that no
advantageous strategies exist
• Including:
– Learning the wheel’s biases
• Casino’s regularly balance their Roulette wheels
– Using lasers (yes, lasers) to check the wheel’s
spin
• What casino will let you set up a laser inside to
beat the house?

46
 Roulette
• It has been proven that proven that no
advantageous strategies exist
• Including:
– Martingale betting strategy
• Where you double your bet each time (thus making up for all
previous losses)
• It still won’t work!
• You can’t double your money forever
– It could easily take 50 times to finally win
– If you start with $1, then you must put in $1*250 =
$1,125,899,906,842,624 to win this way!
– That’s 1 quadrillion
• See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martingale_(roulette_system)
for more info
47
 As seen in
a casino
• This wheel is
spun if:
– You place $1 on
the “spin the
wheel” square
– You get a natural
blackjack
– You lose the
dollar either way
• You win the
amount shown
on the wheel
48
Is it worth it to place $1 on the square?
• The amounts on the wheel are:
– 30, 1000, 11, 20, 16, 40, 15, 10, 50, 12, 25, 14
– Average is $103.58
• Chance of a natural blackjack:
– p = 0.0473, or 1 in 21.13
• So use the formula:
– p(winning) * payout ≥ investment
– 0.0473 * $103.58 ≥ $1
– $4.90 ≥ $1
– But the house always wins! So what happened?
49
 As seen in
a casino
• Note that not all
amounts have an
equal chance of
winning
– There are 2
spots to win $15
– There is ONE
spot to win
$1,000
– Etc.

50
 Back to the drawing board
• If you weight each “spot” by the amount it
can win, you get $1609 for 30 “spots”
– That’s an average of $53.63 per spot
$30 * 3  $1000 *1  $11* 3  $20 * 3  $16 * 2  $40 * 3  
 $53.63
30
• So use the formula:
– p(winning) * payout ≥ investment
– 0.0473 * $53.63 ≥ $1
– $2.54 ≥ $1
– Still not there yet…
51
 Bit strings
• How many bit strings of length 10 contain:
c) at least four 1’s?
There can be 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 occurrences of 1
Thus, the answer is:
• C(10,4) + C(10,5) + C(10,6) + C(10,7) + C(10,8) + C(10,9)
+ C(10,10)
• = 210+252+210+120+45+10+1
• = 848
Alternative answer: subtract from 210 the number of
strings with 0, 1, 2, or 3 occurrences of 1
d) an equal number of 1’s and 0’s?
Thus, there must be five 0’s and five 1’s
Find the positions of the five 1’s
Thus, the answer is C(10,5) = 252 52
 Corollary 1
• Let n and r be non-negative integers with
r ≤ n. Then C(n,r) = C(n,n-r)

• Proof: n!
C (n, r ) 
r!(n  r )!

n! n!
C (n, n  r )  
(n  r )!n  (n  r )! r!(n  r )!

53
 Corollary example
• There are C(52,5) ways to pick a 5-card poker
hand
• There are C(52,47) ways to pick a 47-card hand
• P(52,5) = 2,598,960 = P(52,47)

• When dealing 47 cards, you are picking 5 cards

to not deal
– As opposed to picking 5 card to deal
– Again, the order the cards are dealt in does matter

54
 Combinatorial proof
• A combinatorial proof is a proof that uses counting
arguments to prove a theorem
– Rather than some other method such as algebraic techniques

• Essentially, show that both sides of the proof manage to

count the same objects

• Most of the questions in this section are phrased as,

“find out how many possibilities there are if …”
– Instead, we could phrase each question as a theorem:
– “Prove there are x possibilities if …”
– The same answer could be modified to be a combinatorial proof
to the theorem

55
 Circular seatings
• How many ways are there to sit 6 people around a circular table,
where seatings are considered to be the same if they can be
obtained from each other by rotating the table?

• First, place the first person in the north-most chair

– Only one possibility
• Then place the other 5 people
– There are P(5,5) = 5! = 120 ways to do that
• By the product rule, we get 1*120 =120

• Alternative means to answer this:

• There are P(6,6)=720 ways to seat the 6 people around the table
• For each seating, there are 6 “rotations” of the seating
• Thus, the final answer is 720/6 = 120 56
 Horse races
• How many ways are there for 4 horses to finish if ties are allowed?
– Note that order does matter!
• Solution by cases
– No ties
• The number of permutations is P(4,4) = 4! = 24
– Two horses tie
• There are C(4,2) = 6 ways to choose the two horses that tie
• There are P(3,3) = 6 ways for the “groups” to finish
– A “group” is either a single horse or the two tying horses
• By the product rule, there are 6*6 = 36 possibilities for this case
– Two groups of two horses tie
• There are C(4,2) = 6 ways to choose the two winning horses
• The other two horses tie for second place
– Three horses tie with each other
• There are C(4,3) = 4 ways to choose the two horses that tie
• There are P(2,2) = 2 ways for the “groups” to finish
• By the product rule, there are 4*2 = 8 possibilities for this case
– All four horses tie
• There is only one combination for this 57
– By the sum rule, the total is 24+36+6+8+1 = 75