Math drills ??

Okay folks,,, I'm getting serious about this. (Its about time, ain't it!).

Where are some good math drills ... its about time I stopped getting from 7 plus 3 by silently saying 8, 9, 10 to myself.
Or getting 8 and 7 are 15 directly rather than thinking 8 and 8 are 16, so subtract 1 from 16 to get 15.


I was playing poker variants these past few days and it was hard for me to think of anything less than a pair of jacks as being a poker hand. Any one know of a beginning poker tutorial?

whatever you do, don't read about how much harder this is to learn when you are older

as for cards, any type of game, hopefully just find free trainers at Wizard of Odds so you don't learn by losing money?

Quote: FleaStiff

Okay folks,,, I'm getting serious about this. (Its about time, ain't it!).

Where are some good math drills ... its about time I stopped getting from 7 plus 3 by silently saying 8, 9, 10 to myself.
Or getting 8 and 7 are 15 directly rather than thinking 8 and 8 are 16, so subtract 1 from 16 to get 15.


I was playing poker variants these past few days and it was hard for me to think of anything less than a pair of jacks as being a poker hand. Any one know of a beginning poker tutorial?

I don't think you're necessarily looking for math drills, but the ability to see and recognize what the value of 2 cards is. When playing blackjack, you don't look at 8,7 and think "8 + 7 is 15", you just see it and know it's 15. Just take a deck of cards and flip over 2 of them and add them up (since it appears you can't see 2 numbers and know what they add up to without actually thinking about it..). After a while you should be able to see 2 cards and know what their value is without having to think. Then you can practice with 3+ cards. You'll quickly learn combinations of cards and what they add up to. For example, 858, 939, 678, and 777 are 21. 848, 929, 767 are 20. T27, T36, T45, etc. are 19. Those are the easier ones. Then you learn 957, 966, 489, etc are 21. And it goes on. Sooner or later you'll recognize 4524 is 15. Other values help as well, knowing at which point your cards are greater than 12 or greater/less than 16. If you know your cards are less than 16 and the dealer has a 7,8,9,T,A, you're going to be hitting (unless you're card counting, in which case you aren't necessarily going to auto-hit...but if you are counting, you should damn well be able to know what your cards add up to pretty quickly without having to actually add them up).

Here's one to start. Make a 9x9 grid on a sheet of paper. Leave the upper left blank. In the top row, put the numbers 2-9 in a random order. In the left column, put some random 2 (and 3 if you want harder) digit numbers. The goal is to fill in the times table as fast as possible.

Time yourself, then do it again with different numbers. Check for accuracy with a calculator afterwards.

The trick is you get to pick the order you fill it in. As you do this more often, you will teach yourself techniques to do it faster, like doing the 4 column by doubling the 2 column.

I have more drills if you want them. My highschool math teachers were strange.

I agree with RS. At first, you are performing the addition operation. Eventually, you learn the combos from the look of the cards and don't need to mathematically go through the addition -- you just know, based on having seen the combinations of cards so many times, what your hand total is. In computer speak, it's like performing a function O(N) (it takes as many cycles as there are operations, and "addition" is an operation) versus using a hash table, which is O(1) -- a lookup table where the amount of time it takes to obtain the information is constant.

Quote: FleaStiff

Where are some good math drills ... its about time I stopped getting from 7 plus 3 by silently saying 8, 9, 10 to myself.
Or getting 8 and 7 are 15 directly rather than thinking 8 and 8 are 16, so subtract 1 from 16 to get 15.

http://arithmetic.zetamac.com/

Set it for addition only and set the range of numbers from 1 to 11.

Thanks y'all. I'll be working on my skills.

I actually enjoyed the poker more than blackjack but at first I didn't even fathom what was happening at the poker variation tables other than all my chips were marching towards the dealer.

I did a lot of math drills to learn poker math. I started with Scarne and learning to break down a 52 card deck figuring out the total combinations, then the combinations that made a royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, etc., all the way down to the no pair hands. It's basically just learning to write the equations.

Then I put myself through more drills. Nowadays, if you have video poker software you can punch a hand into the "create a hand" feature and get the number of combinations on the draw that improve the hand. So you get the answer first then see if you can write the equation and get the same answer. I would start with the easy ones first.

In 9/6 Jacks you are dealt AAA23. What are the combinations on the draw that improve the hand? You can improve to either a full house or four of a kind.

The 4K is pretty easy. There are 47 remaining cards. There is one ace left in the deck so 1 times the 46 remaining cards = 46.

The full house combinations are a little harder. There are 12 live ranks left in the deck. 10 of those ranks have all four cards left in them, 2 of those ranks only have 3 cards in them.

4X3/2X1 = 6 This is the number of combinations in a full rank that make a pair.

3X2/2X1 = 3 This is the number of combinations that make a pair in a rank that only has 3 cards left. So:

10 live ranks times 6 = 60
2 ranks with three cards left in them times 3 = 6

There are 66 combinations that make a full house. Then you compare the answers you came up with to the chart in the "create a hand" feature that shows how many combinations make what.

Start with the easy ones then move on to the harder ones.

Quote: teliot

http://arithmetic.zetamac.com/
Set it for addition only and set the range of numbers from 1 to 11.

Ah, how the fates conspire against me? Here I am doing math drills and I find I have to first learn the keypad properly. Haven't used it in decades.

And then.... it seems I must have touched some doorknob or shopping cart somewhere and I'm under the weather but big time! Gobbling Vitamin C capsules as if they were candy. Relying on Chinese mustard and Hard Cider to kill off whatever virus it might be.

And here I had dreams of constant math drills!

Quote: FleaStiff

Ah, how the fates conspire against me? Here I am doing math drills and I find I have to first learn the keypad properly. Haven't used it in decades.

And then.... it seems I must have touched some doorknob or shopping cart somewhere and I'm under the weather but big time! Gobbling Vitamin C capsules as if they were candy. Relying on Chinese mustard and Hard Cider to kill off whatever virus it might be.

And here I had dreams of constant math drills!

Sorry to hear you're not well, Flea...take care, buddy! The hard cider should help...hic.

Flea are you only interested in math drills because you want to improve your math or do you have a means to an end? You mentioned beginner poker training in your OP. Is that part of the reason?

On a recent casino adventure, I initially did very well in Blackjack and Baccarat but the dealers all realized my math was very slow and would tell me my card totals. Some dealers also pointed out to me that I was hitting on a dealer up-card of 6. Several times I'd motion for an additional card and the dealer would ignore it and continue along to the next player.

So I've decided to get this arithmetic thing down pat.

On the same recent casino adventure I was also playing several poker variant games for the first time. Having always heard that one needs Jacks or Better to open, I thought that the lowest poker hand was a pair of jacks. The dealer seemed amazed at my ignorance. I know I will be playing lots more Pai Gow Poker in the future so I want to learn the rules and the math of poker and its variants.

I'm curious. Did you think you needed to have a pair of Jacks to open in Texas Hold 'em? You only get two cards to start with! Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces are very good hands in that game!

I've not played Texas Hold 'em or Ultimate Texas Holdem. Did cruise by the UTH table on this last trip and also the Mississippi Stud table. Liked that maximum sixty grand payout legend on the felt.

The clues were several and as in many mysteries, somewhat subtle and often constituting behavior that would be well in the range of normal if not necessarily customary and usual.

First, I mislaid my ignition key somewhere in my home. Now how often does anyone do that? And of those few times, how is it that a cursory search does not reveal where the key is hiding. Normally, I check the table, the computer area, the refrigerator and the area where the cat keeps his playthings, ie. the areas of the carpet where I am most likely to be walking bare foot. It doesn't take long to find an errant car key in your own home. This time it took me two frustrating hours and I finally had to resort to a spare key I had once given to a long-ago companion who, after searching her spare key rings finally found it and was able to send her husband to deliver the key to me. (For the really curious, the answer is no. Not even once have I ever found a missing key in the refrigerator; but I still look there. After all, if you've already opened the refrigerator door, might as well grab yourself a cold one while you are looking for that errant key).

The next clue was my choice of routes. Our DJ members can cue up "Shelter from the Storm" or something just about now. It was a ferocious rain storm and I chose a long way round instead of making use of my local knowledge of short cuts. Now in a particularly blinding rainstorm that can even make sense, but it was not the "mentally sharp" thing to do.

I don't smoke but I don't have fights about or get sickened by it. Its simply that smoking is not one of my vices. Yet, some jerk with the world's foulest smelling cigar affected me almost instantly at a Blackjack table. Of course others complained and the Dealer promptly had him put it out.

I forget one blackjack dealer's exact words but he was asking me if I was "in the game". He did not mean playing, after all I was the only one at his table, he meant more in the sense of awake and mentally alert. He said he was going to "get me in the game" and kept chatting to demand my mental attention.

Now remember folks, while I dearly love all Tray Lizards and consider theirs to be a most noble profession, this was at a Seminole casino wherein I would have to pay for any booze so I was sticking with my Double Orange Juice, No Ice because that way I just have to tip a couple of bucks and never actually pay for the beverage since there is no alcohol. So don't start thinking that I'm drunk as a skunk or anything. Playing that way perhaps but "sober as a judge".

Luck had originally been with me at BJ and Mini-Bacc but my play was poor and above all very slow. Soon luck deserted me too. Dealers started telling me 'you don't want to hit, I'm showing a six' and some dealers started skipping over me. All dealers seemed to be adding my hands for me, even though I'd not asked them to do so. I was just slowing down mentally and not registering the full extent of my deteriorating performance.

Now the purpose of the trip was to extend my repertoire beyond just BJ and Mini-Bacc; I was to learn some poker variants too.
So I was wandering by the very crowded tables of Pai Gow Poker, Double Draw Poker, Mississippi Stud and a few others. I'm not a poker player, but know some of the terminology. I know when they say hand that they are not talking about the height of horse or anything. I may not play poker, but still about "ante", "raise", "fold", etc. After all, I have heard the song about know when to fold 'em and never counting money when you are sitting at the table, so I guess I consider myself of average poker knowledge.

But Geez folks, how long does it take to learn "you put down two red chips in a circle" and then you keep on doing it. And why was I confused about winning or losing the bonus bet when the pay table is printed on the felt though perhaps not quite so large enough. And why was I confused about "Jacks or Better to Open" and minimum poker hand?

Dealers were finding me moody and morose and "out of it". Tray lizards were not throwing themselves at my feet. And I kept having to ask the PGP dealer "what's trump". I was having trouble keeping Barney and Blacks separated and well as dealing with two shades of blue chips, one dollar and twenty dollar value. Of course some of those tray lizards may have been happy about that. Or maybe it was the dealer that was making all those blue twenties disappear.

Well the casino adventures did continue quite pleasantly as did my return drive home. That drive must have been an adventure for me, I can't quite remember it though. I'm sure it was adventure for all those cars and trucks that wouldn't get out my way. And then I start to feel as if I had touched the wrong doorknob or chosen the wrong shopping cart handle as I realized I was feeling a bit under the weather. Soon things got to the point where a day or two go by and I can't even manipulate a key pad properly. I decided "Oh, heck... I qualify for Medicare, I might as well use it and call The Quack. Let him hear about my inadequate keyboarding skills and general malaise that I'm self-treating with Angry Orchard hard cider.

Got to the quack's office and my vital signs showed 65 percent blood oxygenation. Alarms on the equipment go off its 55 or below and you get transported to the ER, so it was a concern to each of us. He was concerned about his billing codes and I was concerned about what was happening. My oxygen levels should not be that low, particularly in the daytime. I should be no less than 96 percent oxygen and I'm showing 65??

Well, I'm on six different meds now and showing real improvement. They don't know quite yet what "bugs" they are fighting so they are using broad spectrum antibiotics and my more chipper self seems to be returning.

The trouble is: that darned ignition key is still "gone missing" and that Purple Barney and his Black companions are gone forever!

A good drill to get card totals down is to simply take a deck of cards and add them as you quickly go through them. If you go over 21, say "Break." When you "break" or get a (hard) total 17 or greater, go back to zero.

In general, and not just for this drill, count Aces as one first, then that total plus ten. (eg. 3,2,3,A, is 9 or 9+10, which is 19)

Quote: goeagles55

A good drill to get card totals down is to simply take a deck of cards and add them as you quickly go through them. If you go over 21, say "Break." When you "break" or get a (hard) total 17 or greater, go back to zero.

In general, and not just for this drill, count Aces as one first, then that total plus ten. (eg. 3,2,3,A, is 9 or 9+10, which is 19)

Yes, the Wizard's You-tube tape library features a former "cleavage tax" dealer who set up her ironing board, turned on the tv news for distraction and then "talked down the deck".

As an example of the problem: your 3,2,3,A series counts down in my case as: three and two are five maybe, but three and three are definitely six and two makes eight and Oh, Lord.. There is a Ace (heart flutters)... so its eight and 11 ... is that Twenty One or Seventeen...and why are the other players all screaming at me about Go Fish as they walk away from the table and leave their money there muttering about putting that guy out of his misery". Okay, that is an exaggeration of what would happen if the dealer didn't step in and announce "nine or nineteen" to me.

But I'm getting better. Learning to type on the darn keypad to answer the drills and I haven't used a touch key pad for decades.

Quote: teliot

http://arithmetic.zetamac.com/
Set it for addition only and set the range of numbers from 1 to 11.

Thanks. I have not even had my morning coffee yet but I've doubled my score and had only two fingering errors on the keyboard this morning.

Just got a score of 36 on a 120 second drill of addition. Had a few keyboard errors that delayed me a bit and had two or three actual errors.

Getting better!

Quote: FleaStiff

Just got a score of 36 on a 120 second drill of addition. Had a few keyboard errors that delayed me a bit and had two or three actual errors.

Getting better!

I got a 72 on my first time trying addition, I'll probably try some more later. One actual error, six keypad errors, I keep having to look down at it.

Quote: Mission146

I got a 72 on my first time trying addition, I'll probably try some more later. One actual error, six keypad errors, I keep having to look down at it.

130 on adding number 1 - 11 twice. And 32 on the standard anything goes test it has.

119 and 38. The 1-11 addition got kindof boring, I lost focus once or twice. The anything goes test is more up my alley, had to use some of my speed tricks.

I scored 128, no keypad on my laptop.

wow.. you all put me to shame.

Quote: thecesspit

130 on adding number 1 - 11 twice. And 32 on the standard anything goes test it has.

Oh, my 72 was all addition...I didn't catch 1-11, let me try and will Edit...

Quote: FleaStiff

Gobbling Vitamin C capsules as if they were candy.

I would like to see any REAL data this helps at all. Pill form Vitamins is probably this biggest con in the world.

Quote: Mission146

Oh, my 72 was all addition...I didn't catch 1-11, let me try and will Edit...

Ha! I scored a 146!!!

EDIT: I took a screenshot and pasted it to Google Docs and will E-Mail if anyone wants proof.

Okay, all Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division...1-11:

110 points, I might try the Base Parameters for all numbers all problems later, but I'm starting to get a headache, so it might wait until tomorrow.

Edit: Couldn't help myself, two Advil after this, all numbers, base parameters...46 Points...ICK...I'll be trying that again tomorrow.

Perhaps.
Certainly if you look at the Journal of Educational Chemistry (1946) you will that aged vitamin C is very very bad and people who buy these gigantic bottles and store them for a long time are not doing themselves any good at all.

Quote: Mission146

I took a screenshot and pasted it to Google Docs and will E-Mail if anyone wants proof.

You have to "prove" a stack of chips when you are in a casino. Here we are ladies and gentlemen and take you at your word.


Note: I just took the addition test 1-11 and 1-11 again. 120 seconds. SCORE: 49.

51 on the standard test.

Quote: FleaStiff

Note: I just took the addition test 1-11 and 1-11 again. 120 seconds. SCORE: 49.

Tried again. Score 25. Dismal. Yes, a few errors were indeed keyboarding errors but quite a few were simple arithmetic errors such as 8 + 5.

I think I'm beginning to get this math stuff down:

It was the best of times it was the worst of times.
A Tale of Two Cities


The times were high variance.
Analysis of Cities [n=2]