To get an idea of how each type of probability is used in a game, consider these examples. Suppose that you‘ve chosen the lotto and the numbers you want to win are the numbers you’d expect to come up. There are a thousand ways in which one could win the jackpot, but the odds are very slim. The result: the probability of winning the lotto is the odds of one person getting all the numbers right.
Another example is the case of comparing relative odds between two games. Suppose that you’ve selected the numbers that you want to play, but there’s no lotto game for that day. Then there is an equal likelihood that you win the lottery or win a second hand game, or win a second set of cards, or anything else that can help you win the jackpot. This is the relative probability of the lottery and the probability of the other outcome.
Some common types of probabilities can also be found in sports betting. Suppose that you are choosing the teams to bet on during a football game. You have two teams, which would have a much better chance at winning if they were not playing each other. So the two possibilities of winning will be: the team with the best overall record (which is the team with the best winning percentage), or the team with the second best overall record.
One more example of these common types of odds is in the case of a lottery. Suppose you’re choosing the numbers you want to win the lottery with, and there is a greater chance that you will win if you choose a certain number.
These are just a few of the many types of odds in the game of probability. There are many more, but this gives a good starting point.
A good way to understand probabilities is to think of probability as a matter of statistics and chance. For example, you are looking at a situation that is a coin toss, so long as you don’t have two sides in the coin. (ie you’re not sure which side the coin lands on), and you throw three coins. Each side has a fifty percent chance of landing heads, tails.
The probability of the first toss is five percent. The probability of the second toss is one percent. The probability of the third toss is thirty-five percent. So you’ve got a ninety percent chance of either getting one or the other. So in the three tosses you would have a sixty percent chance of having the first toss land on heads, seventy percent chance of having the second toss land on heads and fifty percent chance of having the third toss land on tails.
Now you know that there are two chances and therefore, two possibilities, so there are three chances for every coin. Now, the odds of getting three heads in a row is one in a million. It isn’t a very likely event. You see, there are so many ways to increase your chances, so you don’t need to count every coin. You can simply take your own guess and then multiply it by the odds of getting two heads and then by the odds of getting one head and one tail, and then multiply it by two.
In fact, in the real world, it really isn’t all that complicated. You can multiply any probability, whether the odds are a single-digit number or a multiple-digit number. by another single digit, or by another multiple-digit number.
So when you multiply a probability by a multiple-digits , you get a probability that is greater than the odds of getting one or two. This multiplies your odds of winning the game or increasing your chances of losing the game.
