
29th November 2013, 05:17 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jan 1970
Posts: 147
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I have posted most of this before (I don't know how to provide a link):
Often I see people ask how many losers can be expected before a win (a worst case scenario).
Let C=the prob of at least 1 win from n races, called the certainty, expressed as a decimal.
Let q=the prob of a LOSS in a race, expressed as a decimal.
Now to be 100% certain you need an infinite number of races so this theory expects you to decide on an acceptable certainty usually 90% or 95%.
Thus C=1-prob of all losing
that is C=1-q^n
If you solve this the number of expected outs is
n=log(1-C)/log q
You can use log or ln on your calculator but it has to be the same throughout the calculation.
For example, with the previous place percent example (22% win rate) and chosing C=95%,
n=log(1-0.95)/log0.78
n=log0.05/log0.78
n=12.06 so you can be 95% sure of at least one winner in about 12 races.
To be 99% sure it takes a run of about 18 or 19 races.
The above is based on the binomial theorem of probability which does have some caveats.
gunny
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