fun with odds

I trust everyone had a happy thanksgiving! A few little odds tidbits for your pleasure:

Before this weekend's NFL action, the New England Patriots had gone 11 games in a row without winning a coin toss. Odds: 2047:1.

I recently played two games of Scrabble in a row. In Scrabble, each player draws a letter tile to start the game, the player with the letter closest to 'A' goes first. In the first game, I drew a 'B' and my opponent drew an 'A'. Odds of drawing a 'B': 49:1. Odds of then being outdrawn by an 'A': 11:1. Combined odds: 549:1. That's a fairly bad beat.

In the second game, I drew a 'Y' and my opponent drew a 'Z'. Odds of drawing a 'Y': 49:1. Odds of opponent then drawing a 'Z': 98:1. Combined odds: 4949:1. That probably makes up for the earlier bad beat.

Odds of these two events happening in back-to-back games of Scrabble: 2,722,499:1.

A poker player, a scrabble player, a fantasy football player, it's a damn shame we don't live in the same town!