Taking Chances

John Haigh is Reader in Statistics at the University of Sussex. His interest in probability was awakened by various card games, and he has made a particular study of lotteries, cards, and dice.

• 1. What is probability? ; 2. Lotteries ; 3. Football Pools, Premium Bonds ; 4. One coin, many games ; 5. Dice ; 6. Games with few choices ; 7. Waiting, waiting, waiting ; 8. Let's play best of three ; 9. TV games ; 10. Casino games ; 11. Bookies, the Tote, spread betting ; 12. This sporting life ; 13. Lucky for some-miscellenea ; 14. Probability for lawyers ; Appendix I: Counting ; Appendix II: Probability ; Appendix III: Averages and variability ; Appendix IV: Goodness-of-fit tests ; Appendix V: The Kelly strategy ; Solutions to Test Yourself quizzes ; Literature cited ; Index

Review from previous edition 'the volume is ideally suited for readers with virtually no training in mathematics, but who are curious about how actually to assess the odds of things like winning a single game at lawn tennis or on which hands in poker one should raise . . . This is a book to ponder, savour, study - and give to your mathematically illiterate friends'