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Stata Teaching Tools:  Card playing simulation

Purpose:  The purpose of this program is to simulate several card playing situations.  The user can select the number of cards drawn and can also choose to play blackjack.  This program is useful for demonstrating probability for playing card problems. 

Download:  You can download this program from within Stata by typing findit cards (see How can I used the findit command to search for programs and get additional help? for more information about using findit).

Use of program:  To use this program, type cards in the Stata command window.  This will open a dialogue window with a number of buttons, a pull-down menu that allows the user to select the number of cards, and two radio-buttons to select sampling witha and without replacement. The results of selections made in the dialogue window will be displayed in the results window the user clicks on any of the buttons.  To exit the program, click on the "Done" button. 

Examples:  The following shows the output from clicking on the "Draw" button three times with the "w/o replacement" option.

                              [click "Draw"]
        9  of Clubs                
     King  of Diamonds
     King  of Spades  
        3  of Spades  
        8  of Clubs   
                              [click "Draw"]
      ACE  of Diamonds
     King  of Hearts  
        6  of Diamonds
       10  of Clubs   
        4  of Diamonds
                              [click "Draw"]
        7  of Diamonds
        6  of Spades  
       10  of Hearts  
     Jack  of Diamonds
     Jack  of Spades  
     

Next, we will select the "w/ replacement" option and click on the "wDraw" button three more time

                              [click "Draw"]
        2  of Diamonds
        2  of Spades  
        2  of Hearts  
        2  of Spades  
        3  of Hearts  
                              [click "Draw"]
        6  of Spades  
     Jack  of Clubs   
     Jack  of Clubs   
     King  of Spades  
     Jack  of Hearts  
                              [click "Draw"]
      ACE  of Spades  
      ACE  of Clubs   
        3  of Diamonds
       10  of Diamonds
        8  of Spades  

Note that the 2 of Spades appears twice in the first hand of five cards and that the Jack of Clubs appears twice in the second hand

We can change the number of cards using the pull-down menu for "n = ". Let's try it with 13 cards.

                             [click "Blackjack"]
        2  of Clubs   
        6  of Clubs   
        3  of Hearts  
        9  of Hearts  
       10  of Hearts  
        2  of Hearts  
     Jack  of Diamonds
        6  of Clubs   
        7  of Spades  
        5  of Diamonds
        8  of Spades  
     Jack  of Diamonds
        6  of Clubs   
                             [click "Blackjack"]
        7  of Hearts  
     Jack  of Diamonds
        6  of Clubs   
    Queen  of Clubs   
        9  of Clubs   
        2  of Spades  
        8  of Clubs   
        9  of Clubs   
        2  of Hearts  
        9  of Spades  
     Jack  of Spades  
        4  of Clubs   
        6  of Clubs 

Now let's play blackjack. Click on the "Blackjack" button to deal your hand. You may then choose to receive another card by clicking the "Hit Me" button. When you are staisfied with your hand click on the "Stand" button to see what the dealer's hand is.

                             [click "Blackjack"]
Blackjack
You draw
        4  of Clubs   
        9  of Spades  
Your total is 13
                             [click "Hit Me"]
Your card is 
        3  of Clubs   
Your total is 16
                             [click "Stand"]
Dealer draws 
      ACE  of Hearts  
    Queen  of Spades  
Dealer's total is 21
Dealer wins


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