[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Beach:

I only read the beginning of our Masked Man's friend post. So I don't know anything about the second set of equations. But for this problem, and original question to make any sense, you must start the expectation equation from the point where the question is asked. And, at that point the ace-queen suited had just folded by turning his hand over.

When doing math/stat type problems, and for them to make any sense, it needs to be clear that the problem, as mathematicians like to say, is well defined. In the analysis I did, that is certainly the case. But to just ask the question, which is better, a pair of jacks or ace-queen suited, without defining the parameters of the problem doesn't make any sense.

Now if El Diablo, or anyone else for that matter, wants to say that before the flop with no one else in, or with multiple players in, or perhaps something different but specific, they much prefer jacks to ace-queen suited, I have no problem with that. In fact, I suspect that in most cases they are probably right. But that was not the question poised in this problem.

Also, let me address one other issue which is coming up in some of the posts. It may be true that a typical player might not play the ace-queen suited in any manner that is remotely close to the way I described and thus will do much poorer than what my analysis indicates. But so what. That's like saying that you would prefer your small connectors not to be suited so you won't get trapped by a bigger flush.

[ QUOTE ]
another MIT grad chiming in...

[/ QUOTE ]

I went to Virginia Tech.

Best wishes,
Mason