Mathematics of Games and Puzzles: From Cards to Sudoku

Series: Great Courses

4.5

(98)

Episodes

Rating

TVPG

Year

2013

Language

English

Publisher

The Great Courses

About

Whether it's chess, poker, or Sudoku, most games have this in common: Everything you need to win is rooted in mathematics. Now, using nothing more than a simple grasp of math, you can discover optimal ways to win games and solve puzzles with the speed and accuracy of professional players. These 12 lessons will teach you a rewarding set of skills you can apply to countless games and puzzles.

Related Subjects

Episodes

1. Let the Games Begin!

30m

Explore some general strategies for successfully solving simple games and puzzles. As you hone your skills at games and puzzles, including 20 Questions, Mastermind, Ghost, The Tower of Hanoi, variations of Tic Tac Toe, and Cram (a cross between checkers and dominoes), you'll start seeing how mathematical ideas and concepts are essential to increasing your chances of winning.

2. Games of Chance and Winning Wagers

30m

Turn now to games that rely heavily on chance and betting, such as roulette and craps, and learn how to evaluate the fairness (or unfairness) of games using the ever-important concept of expected value. Once you know if a game is to your advantage or not, you can use the Kelly criterion or the Gambler's Ruin formula to help you decide your best wagering strategies.

3. Optimal Blackjack and Simple Card Counting

30m

Depending on how you play it, blackjack can be the best or the worst game in a casino. Here, Professor Benjamin shows you how to get the best of blackjack before it gets the best of you. By taking you through scenarios of increasing difficulty to strengthen your skills, he reveals optimal strategies for knowing when to stand, when to hit, when to double, and when to split.

4. Mixed Strategies and the Art of Bluffing

30m

What happens when you're playing a game with an intelligent adversary whose goals are opposed to yours? You have a zero-sum game such as penny matching, rock-paper-scissors, and simplified poker. Discover how to use math to bluff, play unpredictably, and win these kinds of games through powerful strategies.

5. Practical Poker Probabilities

30m

Investigate the mathematics of Texas Hold'em, one of the most popular traditional poker games. What's the probability your hand will improve before and after more cards are revealed? How do you calculate your "pot odds" to help you determine your proper wagering decisions? You will also learn simple and effective strategies for playing video poker.

6. Expert Backgammon

30m

Mathematically trained players also have a decisive edge in backgammon, which trains you to make decisions in highly uncertain conditions. This course explains the rules of the game, the basic strategies for winning, the best ways to play your opening rolls, and how math constantly enters the picture-from figuring out the safest way to move your checkers to the all-important doubling cube.

7. Games You Can't Lose and Sneaky Puzzles

30m

The world of games is filled with scams. The trick: knowing the strategies behind how these hustles work so you can avoid being exploited. Explore the fundamentals of nontransitive properties through penny ante, Bingo, and games involving dice and cards. Then, get a lively introduction to some simple puzzles involving cups, coins, and toothpicks-and their surprisingly sneaky answers.

8. Solving "Impossible" Puzzles

30m

Try your hand at some classic puzzles that have been driving people crazy for centuries involving sliding blocks, jumping pegs, and blinking lights-each of which deals heavily with odd or even numbers. Once you've learned some handy mathematical concepts and tools for solving these puzzles, these fun and exciting games won't seem so "impossible" anymore.

9. Mastering Rubik's Cube

30m

It's one of the most famous puzzles ever invented. But Professor Benjamin has an easy-to-learn, eight-step method for solving this mind-bending puzzle quickly and accurately-every time. After examining the mathematics behind the cube, you'll follow him step-by-step through an algorithm that will have you solving any Rubik's Cube in less than three minutes.

10. Solving Sudoku

30m

What's the key to solving Sudoku problems when you're at your wits' end? Training your mind to look for patterns and to use careful logic, just like mathematicians. This episode is packed with helpful techniques and strategies for overcoming even the most difficult Sudoku grids. Among those you'll learn about: crosshatching, miniboxes, naked pairs and triples, and the unique rectangle rule.

Extended Details

SeriesGreat Courses

Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

Arthur T. BenjaminActor