Re(1): "Hall of Fame" #139: How many different paths to victory in a superfecta game? Posted on May 7, 2025 at 02:48:49 PM by Craig G
Thanks for the inclusion. Usually my kind of topics are so obscure and theoretical as to be of little interest to most sane individuals. And rightfully so.
But hey, one of the features of Spec 7 or 9 jai-alai is that for DD, Pick-3, Jai-5 or even a Pick 6, where all you need is the winner, the simulation to calculate it would be child's play. No complicated play-off logic to worry about. Which is 95% of the battle. Or higher.
Just about any first week programmer could code it in any language. Jai-alai in Cobol, anyone?
But seriously, I don't think it's fair to classify this as a brain teaser, since there is no way to solve it without having a simulation and the skill to be able to mod it for this purpose. Even Sherlock and Marilyn vos Savant would be at a loss on this one.
That said, I challenged ChatGPT to estimate the number.
That is a great challenge — and an interesting combinatorial puzzle.
And yes, it's a deceptively complex system that really can't be reduced without a proper simulation. Jai-alai scoring logic, especially in Spectacular 9 format, is a great example of real-world game mechanics that push past textbook probability.
It then offered to construct one in Python. I declined since the main point was to demonstrate how tough (impossible) this is without a sim.
At any rate, all Chalkies are off the hook.
But it might be a brain teaser for me to remember how I did it and try to replicate it. I think it was a matter of walking the tree in assembly language and using a counter for the unique wins before playoffs.
Tiger's Jai-Alai Chalk Talk
